Every astrophotography setup has its flaws. Although the RASC Robotic Telescope data is fantastic, over the past few months it has being pulled from under smoky California skies, affected by climate emergency as we all are. How do you work with data that isn’t perfect?
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.
During the third session, we show you how to clean up the data provided for the November 2021 SkyNews Astroimage Editing Contest. We discuss flats, biases, darks and lights, what they’re for and their importance. We’ll also talk about how to clean up dust doughnuts and lens vignetting, and look at how to use the EZ Processing Suite in PixInsight.
The hosts
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, 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.
The session took place Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at 9 p.m. ADT.
