Subs and Stars, Lesson 4. | SkyNews
Subs and Stars, Lesson 4. (Image edited by Stuart Heggie, using RASC Robotic Telescope data)

Watch Subs and Stars: Lesson 4

Watch the fourth session of Subs and Stars, an eight-part instructional online series that teaches people how astrophotos are built and edited.

You’ve been working on your strategy using the Level 1 data provided in the SkyNews Astroimage Editing Contest packages, but it’s time to step it up a notch — onto Level 2.

Hosted by Canadian astrophotographer Paul Owen and SkyNews editor-in-chief Allendria Brunjes, Subs and Stars is the first stop for beginners learning how to process deep-sky images.

This go round, Paul Owen will present the Level 2 data and get into stacking. This data is already calibrated, so this is a good way to get your feet wet on using the stacking software in PixInsight.

The hosts

Paul Owen, astrophotographer | SkyNews
Paul Owen, astrophotographer

Paul Owen was introduced to astrophotography in 2013, and bought his first serious telescope not knowing then what he would need — just know what he wanted to do.

After a very steep learning curve full of victories and disappointments, he started capturing images of night sky treasures. He began shooting sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, moonsets and various Moon phases, constellations, odd cloud formations and more. Diving deeper into the full spectrum of deep-sky astrophotography, he focused on these types of images around five years.

Since then, his night-sky imaging has improved. His images now appear in newspapers, calendars, magazines and websites, and he teaches online tutorials to others wanting to start their journey into astrophotography.

Allendria Brunjes, SkyNews editor-in-chief. | SkyNews
Allendria Brunjes, SkyNews editor-in-chief (Joel Watson)

Allendria Brunjes, editor-in-chief of SkyNews, is a newbie when it comes to astrophotography. Working as a journalist for more than a decade, her background is in news photography.

She knows her way around Photoshop, and her DSLR has ridden on dirt bikes, worn cattle dung from bull auctions, felt heat from fires and almost fallen into more bodies of water than she cares to admit. 

These days, Allendria’s camera and telescope are in dry bags awaiting the next canoe ride. She enjoys sketching night sky phenomena, and her astrophotography portfolio includes pictures of the Moon, aurora and eclipses. She is excited to learn about deep-sky image editing with the viewers of Subs and Stars

This session took place on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, at 9 p.m. AST.

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