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8 tips for getting better astro images in heavy light pollution

Chad Leader

May 6, 20231 min read

8 tips for getting better astro images in heavy light pollution

I've uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel explaining some of the tips and techniques I've picked up over the last few years imaging...

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Galaxy Processing Bootcamp: a basic workflow for OSC galaxy processing in Pixinsight

Chad Leader

Mar 10, 20231 min read

Galaxy Processing Bootcamp: a basic workflow for OSC galaxy processing in Pixinsight

Galaxy season is here. If you're new to processing galaxies, or astrophotography in general, this video is for you! If you want to...

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Chad Leader

Jan 29, 20239 min read

Bench Collimating a GSO RC8

Collimating these GSO RC8's can be a real pain in the a**. But, if you know what you're looking at, you might just be able to easily do...

6,572 views10 comments

Taming a GSO Ritchey-Chrétien Telescope (iOptron Photron RC8)

Chad Leader

Jan 19, 20237 min read

Taming a GSO Ritchey-Chrétien Telescope (iOptron Photron RC8)

They look sexy - a cheap price tag for the aperture, light-weight for the focal length, cool rainbow-colored star spikes, awesome...

4,576 views6 comments

Linear noise reduction using TGV Denoise (Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Mar 25, 20223 min read

Linear noise reduction using TGV Denoise (Pixinsight)

Noise reduction in astrophotography is done in many ways using many different tools and techniques. I personally have experimented with...

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Bringing out the details part 2: finding hidden structures - HDR Multiscale Transform (Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Mar 5, 20223 min read

Bringing out the details part 2: finding hidden structures - HDR Multiscale Transform (Pixinsight)

This post picks up where the last one left off. I'm going start with my M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) luminance image and show you how find...

1,017 views0 comments

Bringing out the details part 1: Local Histogram Equalization (Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Feb 19, 20224 min read

Bringing out the details part 1: Local Histogram Equalization (Pixinsight)

The Local Histogram Equalization (LHE) process in Pixinsight is a great tool for bringing out the details in your image. It's a...

2,714 views0 comments

Back focus for the Edge HD 8 at f/7 and f/10 using a Celestron OAG

Chad Leader

Feb 13, 20223 min read

Back focus for the Edge HD 8 at f/7 and f/10 using a Celestron OAG

For this post, I want to share my spacing settings/diagrams for the Edge HD 8. I get a lot of questions about this. The Edge 8 can be...

11,934 views18 comments

A method for debloating and tightening up stars (using Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Feb 8, 20225 min read

A method for debloating and tightening up stars (using Pixinsight)

There are many reasons stars can become bloated: poor seeing conditions, poor guiding, overexposure, or even cheap filters. In this post,...

1,409 views0 comments

HoSS palette and how to easily "re-palette" a mono image (Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Jan 29, 20223 min read

HoSS palette and how to easily "re-palette" a mono image (Pixinsight)

Last year, during a long spell of cloudy nights, I decided to take a look at my recent mono data to reprocess it and see if I could...

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Eliminating noise around stars in separated star images (using Pixinsight)

Chad Leader

Jan 27, 20222 min read

Eliminating noise around stars in separated star images (using Pixinsight)

Programs and plugins like Starnet++ and StarXTerminator make it possible to separate stars from the nebulous regions in astro images....

692 views2 comments

Welcome: astrophotography blog description

Chad Leader

Jan 26, 20221 min read

Welcome: astrophotography blog description

Hello, and welcome to my astrophotography blog. For this first post, I just want to explain the goals and motivation for creating this....

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