Since I published my first image of the Sculptor Galaxy on Astrobin
here, I've leaned a lot about astronomy, and even more about image processing.
It's taken me a long time to realise that the camera I used to capture that image was massively under-sampled for the 80ED OTA. Thankfully, I also realised that the original data may have contained a lot more information that I was able to bring out in my first attempt. So, I thought it would be interesting to see whether I could get a better result by re-processing the original data used to create my
second image of this galaxy.
One of the biggest advances in my astrophotography was taking the 'giant leap' to try PixInsight. I actually found it much less intimidating than I expected, and the basics were pretty easy to learn after watching the video tutorials available on the PixInsight website.
The most dramatic improvement came from using Drizzle - a process for bringing out hidden detail in under-sampled images. That totally transformed my blocky, washed out stars into nice round stars with a smooth profile. Coupled with Russel Croman's excellent BlurX and NoiseX tools, it was very easy to develop the finer detail in the galaxy, and to reduce the stars to a more natural appearance.
I was particularly pleased wth the fine granularity in the galaxy's arms, the colour in the core, and the subtle glow around the circumference, which reinforces the galaxy's depth.
Thanks again to
Rowan for his endless patience and advice on getting started with PixInsight.
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