11 steps to astrophotography editing in photoshop

[@vickiewilson6507]

Awesome teaching thanks!

[@meowterspace5129]

Epic 👍

[@Kelli.Hicks.5]

Once you get the hang of this, and get into a rhythm, about how long does this whole process take?

[@MrWilsonsChannel]

About an hour to setup the scope, 30 to 45 min to polar align, focus, start tracking, slew to target, and setup photo sequence. Usually another hour of trouble shooting nonsense. I try for at least 3 hours of actual imaging minimum. At least another 45 minutes to tear down. 20 minutes to setup and capture flat calibration frames. And at least another 2 or 3 hours to stack and process the final image minimum... Usually more if I'm feeling particularly obsessive.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Amusingly, your opening skit is a great way of demonstrating why you can't see stars in the Apollo images of the moon. Even with film camaras the Dynamic range it limited as such that when they have the exposure set right to image the moon's surface it's effectively impossible or near impossible to see any stars, and Visa versa if you try to set the exposure high enough to see stars them the moon is going to look brighter than the sun and completely wash out the image. Just a fun (conspiracy busting) fact that came to mind. And of course thanks for the tips, I will certainly try to apply these to my own (n00bish) attempts.

[@MrWilsonsChannel]

That's a great point. I love photography but didn't start getting into it until film was already on the way out, so I don't have any experience with it. But you're right, the same concept does apply to film as well. A lot of digital cameras (especially phones) are getting better with the HDR thing, but I suspect they are actually taking multiple exposures or doing some processing on the RAW data to internally process the image prior to the end user seeing the final result. The end result is an image with apparently greater dynamic range, although the software is technically cheating to get the result 😉

[@UNSCPILOT]

@@MrWilsonsChannel Cheating or not, still impressive what it can pull off sometimes. Honestly only started Photography and Astrophotography in the last couple years but somehow I'm already surrounded by a heap of cool (if lower cost) gear. And even beyond just trying to image every nebula, Galaxy, and Planet I can, while I monitor each imaging session it's cool to watch the various satalites like the Starlink Trains or the brightly glowing ISS, zoom by, even saw the "Inspiration 4" Capsule and it's Falcon 9 upper stage fly over last night which was incredibly cool after watch the launch livestream just a few hours before

[@MrWilsonsChannel]

@@UNSCPILOT the part I'm liking the most about astrophotography is my light pollution filters! I live under bortal 6 skies but remember as a kid it was probably closer to 3 or 4. I can't see the milky way at all anymore at all. The fact my camera and filter can cut through the garbage and see such detail is amazing. It's unlocking the sky for me again and showing me things I never thought possible from my own backyard! I love it!

[@UNSCPILOT]

@@MrWilsonsChannel I was lucky enough to be in a botal 3~4 area myself though I still want to get a couple proper light pollution filters, All I have currently is a cheap "sky glow" filter which is questionable at best (I'm very open to recommendations). In the next few nights though I'm excited to test out my planetary imaging camera on Jupiter and Saturn since Planetary photography has been a struggle for my DSLR