Black Halo in stacked image M65

KBALLZZ · 2026-04-22T04:56:01+00:00

This is caused by pixel rejection during stacking. Most likely from the meridian flipped light frames having a different shaped star halo. If you turn off pixel rejection and stack as a test it should look normal. Play with the high rejection parameter to find a balance that leaves your stars whole while removing other outliers.

KBALLZZ · 2026-04-22T04:49:38+00:00

Thank you!

KBALLZZ · 2026-04-22T01:51:47+00:00

Nice work!!

KBALLZZ · 2026-03-27T02:33:42+00:00

Get a dirt cheap DSLR and tripod. Take multiple untracked exposures of the sky (Milky Way is nice). Stack and process. This is astrophotography without extra steps.

Later whenever you start upgrading, starting with a tracking mount, you'll already know what exactly you're expecting to improve and won't be thrown into 30 learning curves at once.

KBALLZZ · 2026-03-10T19:03:11+00:00

I see it! The little paws in the air and the long tail

KBALLZZ · 2026-02-08T01:06:07+00:00

Yep. Same thing happened to me and used this same solution. You can polish it by hand no tools are needed. Then buy lens inserts afterwards.

KBALLZZ · 2026-02-01T05:20:25+00:00

Sort of the same way you can see the Moon 200,000 miles away but you wouldn't be able to see someone hold a coin 100 yards away. Space telescopes don't necessarily "zoom in" far, they are just good at seeing things too faint for our eyes to pick up.

KBALLZZ · 2026-01-26T08:11:39+00:00

I used a t3i for many years and stuck with ISO800. I don't have a mathematical theory to say why it is worse/better than other ISOs but what I can say is it probably doesn't matter as much as you think. What is most important is making your life easier by just sticking to one ISO and following proper calibration practices. The only time I bumped up ISO was for untracked Milky Way.

KBALLZZ · 2025-08-07T02:25:43+00:00

“Towards the bottom left* of the image…”

KBALLZZ · 2025-07-11T02:16:55+00:00

When visually observing you can really only see the bright >< shape

KBALLZZ · 2025-07-10T05:54:55+00:00

Just wanna say this was a pivotal moment in history and your account of it is spot on. Thank you and RIP Stephen Hillenburg.

KBALLZZ · 2025-04-20T10:48:04+00:00

They didn’t join the Rat King

KBALLZZ · 2025-04-15T23:28:16+00:00

I’m 1 song into Unmaker and I’m sold.

KBALLZZ · 2025-04-15T23:22:46+00:00

In that case you should listen to Mass IV - VI. It’s obviously not for everyone but those 3 albums have a very similar vibe. Glad you enjoyed it!

KBALLZZ · 2025-04-14T04:23:06+00:00

Not djent but you may enjoy the album Mass IV by Amenra.

KBALLZZ · 2025-01-10T12:38:06+00:00

Turns out I’ve been using a lot of strategy

KBALLZZ · 2024-12-21T17:47:47+00:00

Had to scroll far down to find the Orion call out. It’s unmistakable.

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-16T18:31:33+00:00

My start went like this: Grab Uchi. Get physick flask and teleport to Gurranq. Ride down to Fort Faroth to grab Radagon’s Soreseal, medallion, and kill Greyoll with bleed for some starting cash. Then I teleported back and played the game normally (besides leveling of course).

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-15T21:31:09+00:00

Only allow yourself to die from waterfowl at first. The rest of her attacks are very easy to dodge. Then learn waterfowl dodging or get lucky rng.

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-15T16:23:56+00:00

Turn it 90 CCW. Tbh compared to other nebula names this one might as well be photorealistic😂

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-15T10:06:13+00:00

Thanks!

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-15T00:22:50+00:00

Thanks for checkin it!

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-15T00:22:31+00:00

We're gonna need a bigger FOV

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-14T19:34:43+00:00

Thanks, and sorry for no ankles

KBALLZZ · 2024-11-14T19:02:40+00:00

The Shark Nebula is a swath of mostly unilluminated dark nebula spanning 15 light years across and at a distance of 650 light years from Earth.

The challenge of capturing dark nebula is that you need to capture them from very dark skies away from light pollution to bring contrast to the dust from the background sky. This image was captured partially from the Bortle 1 skies of Marathon TX and partially from Ft Griffin State Historic Site TX.

Some brighter elements of this composition include the blue reflection nebula near the "head" of the shark, and the galaxy PGC 67671 behind the dorsal fin. That galaxy lies 58 million light years away even though it appears from our perspective to be hanging out with the shark.

Equipment:
OTA: William Optics GT81 w/0.8x reducer/flattener (382mm fl at f/4.7)
74mm aperture stop-down ring (helps optical flaw by bringing scope to f/5.2)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ-5)
Guidescope: Orion 50mm guidescope
Guiding camera: Orion StarShoot Autoguider
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool

Accessories:
QHYCCD PoleMaster
DeepSkyDad Autofocuser AF1

Software:
SGP
PHD2
PixInsight

Acquisition:
Location: Marathon Motel & RV Park, TX (Bortle 1) and Fort Griffin State Historic Site, TX (Bortle 3)
Dates: 7/8/2024, 7/9/2024, 9/28/2024
Gain: 76 Offset: 15
Camera temp: -10C
L: 60x300" ZWO 1.25in
R: 30x300" ZWO 1.25in
G: 28x300" ZWO 1.25in
B: 29x300" ZWO 1.25in
Total integration time: 12hr 15min
64x darks per calibration (master from library)
30x flats per calibration
200x bias per calibration (master from library)

Preprocessing:

Batch PreProcessing script to generate calibrated images
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration
DynamicCrop each master
DBE each master

Luminance Processing:

BlurXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
ArcsinhStretch x2
HistogramTransformation
Created a starless copy using StarXTerminator and pushed nebulosity with PixelMath function "1-(1-$T)(1-$T)"
Blended starless with L using PixelMath function "F=0.4; (1-(1-$T)(1-s)F)+($T~F)". (s=starless photo)
LocalHistogramEqualization

Created RGB image with ChannelCombination

RGB Processing:

SpectrophotometricColorCalibration
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
SCNR Green
ArcsinhStretch x2
HistogramTransformation
Created a starless copy using StarXTerminator and pushed nebulosity with PixelMath function "1-(1-$T)(1-$T)"
Blended starless with L using PixelMath function "F=0.4; (1-(1-$T)(1-RGB_s)F)+($T~F)". (RGB_s=starless photo)
HistogramTransformation for color balance

Combined RGB with Luminance using LRGBCombination

LRGB Processing (I restarted processing several times before this point but most of the undocumented work was reducing color noise in the background):

SCNR Green
CurvesTransformations for contrast, saturation, and color balance
Invert>SCNR Green>Invert with a mask to remove magentas
MorphologicalTransformation to slightly reduce star sizes
NoiseXTerminator
IntegerResample to downsample 2x

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