2024 in review

Posted: January 5, 2025

less than 1 minute read

2024 was a great year for theAstroShed, and I gathered a lot of faint light from far away. By far the image that I was happiest with was the Heart Nebula, but the Horsehead/Flame nebulas and Pleiades aren’t far behind. Click through to see bigger images.
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The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas, in RGB plus Narrowband

Posted: December 24, 2024

1 minute read

This is my late-2024 take on the Horsehead and Flame Nebulas in a fairly wide view from my 530mm f/5 refractor. This view, taken over ten different nights, is cropped but if you click through you can see a bigger view along with processing details.
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Pleiades (M45) has some dark secrets

Posted: December 5, 2024

less than 1 minute read

I was able to pull out some darker whispies as well as several galaxies hidden in the mist while imaging Pleiades, AKA M45 or “The Seven Sisters” (I count a lot more than seven!).
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Quickshot: The North America Nebula

Posted: November 29, 2024

1 minute read

A quick process of the North America Nebula. This is about eighteen hours of SHO + RGB data and I like how it turned out . See below for acquisition details.
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RGB & SHO image processing workflows, 2024 edition

Posted: November 7, 2024

8 minute read

In the past few years the tools used to process astro-images have made a generational leap. Tools built into PixInsight, like WBPP (Weighted Batch Preprocessor), have simplified calibration and integration, while other free tools, like Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS), and SetiAstro’s helpers are making processing in PI easier (once you learn them). Other, paid tools, like RC-Astro’s *XTerminator tools have amplified the leap. In this post I’ll walk through a high-level overview of how I process images. It’s repeatable, pretty streamlined, and I think that you can get pretty good results without a lot of theory or math.
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Image processing: PixInsight scripts from theAstroShed

Posted: November 6, 2024

5 minute read

I use PixInsight to process my images and I’ve gotten to a point where I feel that I have a pretty repeatable workflow (note that I didn’t say that I’m good). I’ve created a few tools along the way that make things easier for me, which I figured I’d share with the community.
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