I spent my Christmas holiday working on learning how to use the astrophotography processing tool PixInsight.  There’s an enormous amount to learn, and I’m looking forward to learning more.  But I am happy with the results of my first project – the Andromeda Galaxy.

For comparison, here is a single 3 minute shot with only basic processing.  I think the processing is worth it!

Camera geek info:

• Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
• Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
• Williams Optics Flat 73A
• iOptron CEM40
• Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

Processing geek info:

• PixInsight
• 18 3 minute lights
• 10 3 minute darks
• 50 bias frames
• No flats 
• ImageIntegration Darks to make Master Dark
• ImageIntegration and Superbias flats to make Master Flat
• Lights processed with
  • Blink
  • Subframe Selector
  • Image Calibration
  • Cosmetic Correction
  • Debayer
  • Star Alignment
  • Image Integration
  • Automatic Background Extractor
  • Background Neutralization
  • Color Calibration
  • Histogram Transfer
  • HDR Multiscale Transform
  • Curves Transformation
  • DarkStructureEnhance
• About 20 hours of labor learning the tool. Whew!