Latest articleSignal-to-noise ratio in amateur astrophotography
An introduction to the nature of noise, signal-to-noise ratio, and the capture and calibration techniques used to improve astronomical images.
Articles
Astrophotography experiences, techniques and procedures.
Latest article
Mapping active regions of the Sun with PixInsight
A procedure for accurately representing active regions of the Sun and aligning solar photographs with heliographic coordinates.
Masks in PixInsight
A practical introduction to masks in PixInsight, including methods for creating luminance, star, color and gradient masks and applying selective adjustments.
Stacking with PixInsight
A practical guide to calibrating, registering and stacking astronomical images with PixInsight's WeightedBatchPreProcessing (WBPP) script.
PixInsight: nonlinear processing
A complete nonlinear PixInsight workflow: stretching, dynamic range, sharpening, noise and star reduction, stars/starless separation, contrast, color, recombination and final annotation.
Planning an astronomical session
A practical guide to making the most of a visual or imaging session: darkness periods, weather, seeing, target selection, framing, apparent motion and reference tools.
PixInsight, the unknown: the linear phase
An introduction to the PixInsight interface and workflow, followed by a complete linear processing sequence: cropping, gradient removal, color calibration, deconvolution, noise reduction and stretching.
Calibration frames: bias, darks, flats and dark flats
An introduction to the calibration frames used in astrophotography, the noise or defect corrected by each type, and the conditions required to capture them correctly.
Introduction to astrophotography
A practical guide to preparing an astrophotography session: required equipment, mount setup and balancing, polar alignment, synchronization, guiding, focusing and capture.