How To Photograph Night Sky

HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH THE
NIGHT SKY
A BOOK OF
ANGELO PERRONE
2023 EDITION
Preface
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH THE NIGHT SKY is a photography manual written by Angelo
Perrone with the purpose of teaching the amateur and expert photographer to learn
the technique of night landscape photography, photography with Astro Tracker, Deep
Sky photography and Startrail. This manual covers the theme from A to Z regarding the
use of DSLR and mirrorless cameras in Astrophotography.
The first version of the manual was released on September 12, 2021, and has been a
great success in the last 6 months selling over three thousand digital and paper copies
in five different languages. For this reason, I wanted to show gratitude all those who
contributed to this huge and unexpected success.
Post-production shows how to stack astronomical images and the ideal workflow to
achieve excellent results with the Astro Panel Pro software (version 6).
Angelo Perrone is a Night Landscape Photographer, post-production Astro
photographer, Deep Sky and Milky Way. He organizes workshops throughout Italy
during the year and is the author of Astro Panel, one of the best plug-ins for Adobe
Photoshop Creative Cloud.
For doubts or questions, you can visit the page https://astropanel.it .
I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Roberta and my son who are my family
and who give me the strength every day to never give up.
I thank my friend Earl Mallia Duca for the support of the English translation, Jerome
Sartre for the translation into the French language and Antonio Jesús Alcaraz Vázquez
for the translation into Spanish. You will find some of their astronomical images by
leafing through the book.
I wish you a good read.
The author
Angelo Perrone
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astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
Index
1 The Photographic Technique
1.1 The Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) - Mirrorless
1.1.1 How a DLSR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) is built
1.1.2 Manual Exposure
1.1.3 Manual Mode
1.1.4 Exposure Times and Aperture
1.1.5 The ISO Value
1.1.6 White Balance
1.1.7 Exposure in Live View
1.1.8 The Focus
1.1.9 The Hyper-focal
1.1.10 Composition Techniques
1.2 Digital noise
1.2.1 What is Digital Noise
1.2.2 Techniques to eliminate it
1.3 Choosing the right optics
1.3.1 The best focal length
1.3.2 Chromatic Aberrations
1.3.3 Vignetting
1.3.4 The Coma Effect
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1.3.5 Diffraction
1.4 How to shoot in Astrophotography
1.4.1 Single Shot and the 300 Rule
1.4.2 Using the Astro Tracker
1.4.3 Calibration with Dark, Bias e Flat Frames
1.4.4 Multiple Exposure
1.4.5 HDR Astrophotography
1.4.6 Startrail
1.4.7 How to make a Panorama
1.4.8 How to take a Video Timelapse
2 Shooting Planning
2.1.1 Camera Accessories
2.1.2 Astrophotography Filters
2.1.3 Clothing and Accessories
2.1.4 Light Pollution
2.1.5 Land Maps and Software for Smartphones and PCs
2.1.6 Astronomical Seeing and Weather
3 Post-Production
3.1 Meet Astro Panel X
3.1.1 Installation
3.1.2 The Panel
3.1.3 The Landscape / Pro Section

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3.1.4 The Astro Section
3.1.5 The Retouch Section
3.1.6 Export / Masks Section
3.1.7 The Fusion Section
3.2 Stacking of images in Astro Panel
3.2.1 Tutorial Merge (Silk, Focus Stacking, HDR, Night HDR, Mean Stack)
3.2.2 Stacking Startrail
3.2.3 Stacking Astronomical Images and HDR
3.2.4 Stacking Deep Sky Channel
3.3 Workflow images in Adobe Photoshop with Astro Panel
3.3.1 Single Shot Processing
3.3.2 Dual Exposure Processing
3.3.3 Deep Sky Processing
3.3.4 Startrail Processing
3.3.5 Remove Light Pollution
3.3.6 Make Panorama Images in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom
3.4 Workflow for Video Timelapse (Coming soon)
3.4.1 Image Processing in Adobe Photoshop
3.4.2 Image Processing in Adobe Lightroom
3.4.3 Timelapse Video Sequence Processing in Adobe After Effects
3.4.4 Editing video sequences in Adobe Premiere Pro
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4 Astronomy Pills
4.1 Let’s learn to recognize the Night Sky
4.1.1 The Northern Sky
4.1.2 The Southern Sky
4.1.3 The Northern and Southern Lights
4.1.4 The eclipse of the Sun and Moon
4.1.5 The Solar System
4.1.6 Astronomical Glossary
5 Bibliography and Conclusions
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1. The Photographic Technique
In this chapter we will learn how to use our digital camera

in a completely manual way managing to manage the
focus in every situation. We will be able to manage the
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light we have in nature and how to capture it in our
photographs.
1.1 The Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) - Mirrorless
DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex) or more commonly called digital SLRs, are the most
popular choice for professional and amateur photographers. These are the
technological evolution of film SLRs, and although the operation always remains the
same, instead of 35mm films we find photographic sensors that allow us to perform
incredible work. In addition, technology has allowed the reduction of costs and the
large-scale diffusion of digital SLRs making photography accessible to all.
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1.1.1 How a DLSR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) is built
A DSLR consists of a digital sensor and a mirror system. The mechanism used to date
of film cameras has remained the same; the elements that make up the Reflex system
are:
- Pentaprism.
- Mirror.
- Viewfinder.
- Lens with lenses.
- Digital sensor.
- Shutter.
In the moment in which we aim (first of the shot), the light passes through the lens,
arrives on the mirror bouncing in the pentaprism until we see the image in the
viewfinder or in the camera display. Subsequently, pressing the shutter button will
serve to lift the mirror, open the shutter, and transform the photons that arrive on the
sensor into digital pixels.
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APSC, FULL FRAME E MIRRORLESS
The 35mm format in photography is composed of a sensitive film with a height of
24mm and a width of 36mm. Large manufacturers of SLR systems have tried to keep
this format constant, but with the advent of digital photography and technology,
smaller sensors have been created than the full format, to reduce costs and create
cameras suitable for the public.
In fact, the most expensive component of each camera is its sensor that based on its
size will raise the final price. The introduction of reduced sensors, such as the APSC
(Advanced Photo System - Classic) format, with dimensions of 25.1mm by 16.7mm is
the most popular among amateurs and semi-professionals. Later, manufacturers such
as Canon introduced another format such as APS-H (Advanced Photo System High
Definition) with dimensions of 28.7mm by 19mm.
The advent of these new formats has allowed the creation of economical sensors in a
more compact and less expensive camera body, with a high reduction in the overall
weight and smaller dimensions of all the components of the system.
However, these new sensors (Apsc, 4/3 per mirrorless system) have some
disadvantages compared to the full format and are:
- increased digital noise (digital noise).
- lower sensitivity in low light conditions.
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- variation of the angle of view that is reduced up to 2x (mirrorless 4/3), 1.6x (Canon
SLR and 1.5x (Nikon SLR).
- lower dynamic range.
- greater depth of field.
- creation of ad hoc super-wide-angle lenses often not compatible with the full format.
The mirrorless compared to the APSC and FF (Full format) systems, renounce the
mirror and the pentaprism significantly reducing the size and dimensions of the SLR.
Sony, one of the leading manufacturers of mirrorless systems and the world's leading
manufacturer of sensors, has introduced with the Ar7 Series the world's first Mirrorless
Full Frame creating a professional machine that has nothing to do with traditional DSLR
systems boasting reduced size and weight.
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1.1.2 Manual Exposure
Being able to manage manual exposure is important in digital photography because
we can capture the light, we have in front of us as we like best.
The ability to master our REFLEX will immortalize unique moments of our life and our
daily life such as a beautiful sunset, a sunrise or even the Milky Way. Let's forget about
automatisms because the photo will not be the result of the idea we have in our mind,
but of a calculation that the sensor and the processor of the SLR has processed
according to the scene.
So, let's dive into this chapter and learn what are the main tools that the camera offers
us:
- the light meter.
- the histogram.
- the "Live-View" mode.
- the aperture and exposure time.
- ISO sensitivity.
- white balance.
- focus.
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1.1.3 Manual Mode “M”
Don't be afraid to learn Manual Mode, turn your SLR's scene ring to "M" (Manual
Mode) and start playing with light.
When we activate the Manual Mode, we have numerous tools available to calculate
the amount of light that must reach the sensor. First is the light meter, which tells us
how much light is reaching the pixels of the sensor.
HOW DOES THE LIGHT METER WORK AND HOW DO I ADJUST IT?
Based on the time/aperture and digital noise settings (so-called exposure triangle) the
light meter calculates the actual light that is reaching the sensor. To interpret it at its
best, just look at the cursor that moves to the right or left of the "Zero" value. If the
cursor goes to the left the light meter indicates that the scene, we are going to capture
is underexposed (dark), vice versa if it goes to the right, the scene will be overexposed
(bright).
For a correct exposure the cursor must remain as close as close to the "Zero” so as not
to burn the lights or close the shadows too much.
There are several ways in which the light meter can work and in each SLR we can set
four of them:
- Matrix Exposure (the most used in photography) allows the camera to examine a large
area of the framed scene.
- Central Weighted Exposure: the camera performs the measurement in the central
area of the frame; it is useful in portrait photography or when using filters of intensity
greater than 1x.
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- Spot Exposure: the camera performs the measurement on about 2% of the framed
scene and coincides with the central point of the autofocus that we have set; useful
when you must photograph subjects with a very bright or very dark background.
- Weighted Exposure on Highlights: the camera assigns the measurement to the
highlights so as not to reduce the loss of detail. It is useful when photographing artists
on a stage.
The light meter is fundamental when we use the camera by resting the eye on the
optical viewfinder, but when we activate the "Live View" (p. --) how do we adjust with
the exposure? At this point another tool called "Histogram" comes into play. Let's see
what it is and how it works.
THE HISTOGRAM
The histogram is a measurement expressed in a graph that tells us how many pixels
and how they are getting on the camera sensor. To activate it in Live mode, consult the
manual of your camera.
If we look at the graph we can see how this is divided into three main sections and how
the pixels move as the brightness of the scene changes: if the histogram is pressed to
the left we will have an underexposed photo with the consequence of obtaining a loss
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of detail in the dark areas, on the contrary we will have an overexposed photo with the
lights completely burned and the information contained in them completely
irrecoverable. So, for a correct exposure of the photo, it is essential to vary the settings
(exposure time, aperture and ISO sensitivity) to contain the pixels in the center of the
histogram as in the following photo.
On this page we will explain in detail how to interpret and what to do with the
histogram.
We can activate the histogram to adjust the exposure correctly using the "Live-View"
mode by pressing a precise button on the camera that will show us all the
information collected by the sensor during the scene we are photographing. For
example, on Nikon cameras the "Up" button on the cursor will activate this function
or on Canon cameras just press the "Info" button several times. Consult your
camera's manual to find out if it has this feature and how to activate it.
So, as we saw earlier, we adjust the parameters of the SLR so that the peaks of the
histogram remain in the center of the graph to have the scene exposed correctly.
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1.1.4 Exposure Times and Aperture
The exposure time is the space of time within which the shutter (figure below) remains
open allowing light to reach the sensor. For this reason, with longer times, we can get
a greater amount of light and clearer photographs. Conversely, if we want to seize the
moment or must photograph a subject that moves quickly, we should use very fast
times.
THE MOMENT THE CAMERA SHUTTER BUTTON

IS PRESSED, THE MIRROR IS LIFTED AND THE
LIGHT ARRIVES ON THE SENSOR, AFTER THE
SHUTTER SLATS HAVE OPENED.
The aperture is the mechanism through which the necessary amount of light that must
reach the camera sensor flows into the optical system and is composed of an
adjustable bulkhead with slats. Depending on the type of optical system we can find
lenses starting from 7-8 slats up to a maximum of 15, as in the most expensive lenses.
A greater presence of these slats positively influences the quality of the blurred, called
"Bokeh", making it pleasantly "Smooth", on the contrary you get special and refined
visual effects.
The aperture is positioned in the center of the optical system, to avoid "barrel" or
"cushion" distortions typical of wide-angle lenses. It is important to know in depth how
to use the aperture to achieve a good level of image quality and sharpness; a very
closed aperture allows you to get a photo with an excellent level of general sharpness
and a good depth of field reducing chromatic aberrations. On the contrary, with a very
open aperture, we would have sharpness only on the plane of focus and reduced depth
of field, making the rest of the photo look grainy and blurred with obvious chromatic
aberrations.
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To achieve maximum sharpness of the lens you must use the intermediate stop among
those available in the lens; for example, on a lens like the Samyang 14mm, the best
stop will be f/8 because it is intermediate between f/2.8 and f/22. Do not try to
aperture too much because you will worsen the quality of the overall image as the
phenomenon of diffraction occurs. Diffracts are always present but at open apertures
their effect is less relevant. This depends on the ratio between the focal length used
and the aperture of the aperture, so called "f-number". This value identifies the
amount of light passing through the lens, giving the same exposure value regardless of
the focal length used. For example, the calculation of the relative aperture
corresponding to f/4 in a focal length of 200mm is 50mm. Finally, the stop sequence
that we use today in optical systems was introduced by the Congress of Liège in 1905,
and is composed as follows: f/1.0 - f/1.4 - f/2.0 - f/2.8 - f/4.0 - f/5.6 - f/8.0 - f/11 - f/16
- f/22 - f/32 ...
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1.1.5 The ISO Value
In digital photography, the ISO value is one of the elements that determine the amount
of light that must be captured by the sensor. The higher this value, the more sensitive
the sensor will be to light. As a result, at a predefined ISO value, with the help of the
digital light meter and automatically or manually adjusting the exposure time and the
aperture, the image taken will be correctly balanced, as in film cameras.
To adjust this parameter, the ISO-12232:2006 standard has been defined, which
attributes to the sensor the sensitivities based on the amount of light, the noise added
to the sensor and the appearance specifications of the resulting image.
In the same way as the exposure times and the aperture of the aperture, the ISO value
also proceeds to stop. In fact, the ISO parameters of the most common digital cameras
range from ISO 100 to 12800. In the figure below you can see how the digital noise
becomes evident by increasing the ISO value.
INCREASE IN DIGITAL NOISE AS ISOS CHANGE
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WHEN SHOULD THE ISO VALUE BE INCREASED?
In situations where the available light is low, we can set a high ISO value. We need to
analyze what kind of scene or subject we must shoot, because with very fast times
we must increase the ISO to reach the correct exposure; on the contrary, with long
times or with larger openings we use lower ISO values. The discourse becomes more
articulated when we talk about night photography since long times and lenses with
bright apertures are not enough, but also a high ISO value.
It must be considered that using a high ISO value amplifies the signal received by the
sensor with a consequent increase in digital noise, which manifests itself in the images
with the appearance of colored dots and a decrease in sharpness.
What I recommend is to use this parameter in a thoughtful way to get a file with
acceptable digital noise. In night photography, on cameras with a reduced sensor, it is
recommended not to exceed 3200 ISO, while on Full Frame sensors we can also
touch 12800 ISO. We can reduce the digital noise of photos by using specific
photography techniques that we will explain in the following paragraphs and in post-
production, such as Stacking images using Dark Frame, Bias Frame and Flat Frame.
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1.1.6 The White Balance
White balance is a function present in modern cameras that allows us to obtain natural
colors in our photographs even though there are color dominants. During the day the
sunlight changes intensity and color, passing from a cold and blue light of dawn to a
warm and red light of sunset. This variation is measured in degrees Kelvin, and for each
situation you can set a different temperature to eliminate color dominants. In fact, at
noon, on a sunny day, the recommended temperature to set the camera is 5000
kelvins, while under a cloudy sky we can reach 6500-7000 kelvin. Instead in an
artificially lit closed environment, we must set a temperature of 3000 kelvin to
eliminate the yellow dominant. Look at the figure below to get an idea on how to set
the temperature of our camera based on the type of light available in the scene:
Modern cameras have automatic white balance and presets for every type of scene,
but with frequent changes of light they cannot interpret colors correctly. For this
reason, a right white balance is important and facilitates the work in post-production;
I remind you that to correct it you need to set the format of the images in Raw to keep
the quality of the file unchanged.
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CUSTOM "WHITE BALANCE"
How do we set the white balance for each type of scene? There is in every digital
camera the function "custom WB" and now we will explain how to set it to get a correct
photo. First, we need to take a sample photo (without overexposing or underexposing)
to a white sheet or 18% gray cardboard (which you can find on sale in any photography
store).
Open your camera menu and select “Custom WB" or "Manual Pre-Measurement".
From the options choose the command "choose a sample photo" and select the one
we have just taken. Carry out various tests to ascertain if you have identified the
correct white balance, otherwise repeat the procedure just described.
You can set the white balance even in post-production, resulting in waste of time,
paying attention to the color cast and not burning the white levels in the histogram.
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1.1.7 Live View Exposure
When we deal with the adjustment of the light meter on modern SLRs and mirrorless
we find a fantastic tool that is called "Live View". This mode is activated through a
dedicated button on the camera called in most models “LV” or “Start / Stop” and has
the function of showing us directly on the camera screen what happens in real time in
front of your camera according to the parameters you have set (Exposure time, ISO
and aperture). Through the Live View we can make a precise focus through the zoom
in and out keys and this is one of the ways not to miss the focus in night photos. I
remind you that if you get the focus wrong in astrophotography you can trash your
photo.
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1.1.8 The Focus
First, we specify what "Focus" means. It consists of adjusting the right distance of the
lens lenses from the sensor or film to project a sharp image. When the image is not
sharp it is said that it is out of focus or blurry.
We can set the focus through the Autofocus of the digital camera by pressing the
shutter button halfway through the stroke or by acting on the focus ring of the lens
manually.
Manual focus is used to take creative photos or to have a greater blurry effect. Each
individual lens has a minimum focusing distance, under which a sharp photograph
cannot be achieved.
Generally, a focal length of 50mm is equivalent to about 45cm. If the subject to be

photographed is very far away, the Infinity mode is directly set, which corresponds to
the symbol of an inverted "eight" number.
The distance from the optical center of the lens to the focal plane is called the focal
distance. Focal distance is an absolute measure that is used in photography to catalog
optical systems. The focus also affects the depth of the framed field, you can find the
in-depth analysis on the DOF (acronym for Depth of Field) at “1.1.9 The Hyper-focal
chapter”.
LIVE VIEW MODE
Now we will learn how to set the focus in night/day photography which is the most
important thing when taking a photograph. In fact, if you get the focus wrong, you will
have to trash your photo.
First, set the manual focus from the dial or activate it from one of the buttons on the
lens body. In this case we are helped by the Live View mode that allows you to see the
scene in real time on the LCD screen of the camera making it easier to capture images
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from uncomfortable positions or from the tripod. The view in the camera's LCD display
can be magnified up to ten times with the camera's "Zoom+” button for easy manual
focusing. In this way, I can also control the exposure and depth of field.
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1.1.9 The Hyper-focal
The depth of field, also called DOF, is that area of the focal plane where the framed
objects appear sharp and in focus. In macro photography the DOF is reduced to a
couple of millimeters as opposed to the landscape one in which we have a few
kilometers available. The depth of field is influenced by these factors:
- the focusing distance.

- the focal length of the lens.
- the opening of the aperture.
- the diameter of the Circle of Confusion.
The figure below explains how focus works and the limits of depth of field when we
must photograph a subject.
The depth of field becomes reduced by using focal lengths with a greater focal range
(300-400mm). In fact, using a focal length of 500mm with a full frame sensor with F/8
aperture, to shoot an object at 10 meters, the depth of field will turn out to be 29
centimeters. Conversely, with a focal length of 50mm always with an f/8 aperture, the
depth of field extends to 218 cm. Setting the right depth of field in landscape
photography is important to have everything in focus.
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In addition, the aperture of the aperture coincides with the depth of field in focus. In
fact, if we want to increase it, we must necessarily close the aperture, on the contrary
if we open the aperture the depth of field decreases and the blur around the subject
to be focused increases. Remember, however, that when you close the aperture the
exposure time increases (especially in low light conditions).
CALCULATE DEPTH OF FIELD AND HYPER-FOCAL
To calculate the DOF and reach the Hyper-focal point, we must know the diameter of
the Circle of Confusion, which varies according to the size of the SLR sensor, the
aperture used and the focal length. The formula for calculating the hyper-focal is:
Focal^2
I (hyper-focal) = ------------------
Aperture * Circle of Confusion
So, on a 14mm lens set with aperture at f/8 the hyper-focal corresponds to:
14mm*14 (F^2)
--------------------- = 980mm (Hyper-focal)
8 (F) *0.025 (Circle of Confusion)
Found the point of Hyper-focal we set the manual focus on the lens following the scale
of focusing distances. Remember that the Circle of Confusion, on APS-C sensors
(reduced format) corresponds to about 0.015 meters, while in Full Frame sensors (full
format) 0.025 meters. You can also calculate the correct Hyper-focal on smartphones
and tablets by searching the App Store or Play Store for specific apps with the keywords
"Depth of Field".
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1.1.10 Composition
Composition has the task of influencing the viewer of the photograph and knowing
how to guide the viewer's eye on the subject or on another focal point of the image.
In this chapter you will find a list of some of the most used photographic composition
techniques. These techniques are also useful if you have become a professional
photographer.
SIMPLIFY
The technique for having a clear and strong composition is based on simple things.
Instead of having too many objects in the frame, keep the focus on a single subject by
using a shallow depth of field and eliminating unnecessary elements that could disturb
the main subject's view. The sooner your viewers can determine the focal point of your
image, the more time they can spend appreciating and deciphering the message
contained in the image itself.
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FILL THE FRAME
To use this technique, you will have to approach the subject to fill in the framed field.
In this way, the focus falls on the subject, such as the inside of a flower and on details
that may be invisible to the naked eye.
This technique will help you get rid of the elements of disturb placed in the background
with interesting abstract patterns. Cropping during post-production works to make
your photo look like a close-up but keep in mind that you run the risk of significantly
reducing the resolution of the image. This type of technique is often used in
portraiture and Macro photography.
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RULE OF THIRDS
This composition technique at the base of any basic photography course is founded on
the idea that placing subjects off-center produces a stronger, more natural-looking
composition allowing you to make creative use of negative space. Following the rule
of thirds can be the perfect opportunity to shoot your subjects from different angles
creating unique images.
While you're taking a photo, imagine a 3×3 grid that divides your framing into nine
equal sections (from two vertical and two horizontal lines).
It positions the horizon, trees, and other focal points such as the eyes and lips along
intersections and lines. This way you can produce better images and guide the viewer
on what you want to focus. Most cameras come with a grid to help you compose
images in this way.
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FRAME
This technique, also known sub-framing, involves the use or addition of frame
elements to emphasize and guide the viewer's eye towards the subject and add
interest to your image. It can be anything from natural frames like rock formations or
artificial ones like windows and tunnels. Whatever the shape, this technique will help
to focus on the intended subject, creating an aesthetically more pleasing image.
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COLOR
Another technique of photographic composition is the use of color to create
spectacular photographs and reinforce the message behind the images. You can
choose to include one or more bold and striking colors to make your subjects stand
out. Or you can opt for pastel shades for bright and pretty images.
Complementary colors (such as blue and orange sunsets) also have the perfect
combination to create a beautiful and well-balanced image. You can also change the
color temperature to produce interesting results in post-production. Or you can use
color tones to evoke various emotions, such as happiness with yellow or a gloomy
scene with darker shades.
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CONTRAST
Contrast works similarly to colors to improve composition especially for monochrome
images. It can also be used to make the subject stand out: surround it and fill the frame
with lighter and softer colors. Monochrome images such as sepia and black and white
also rely on contrast to reveal details and textures.
When looking for tonal contrast, it is important to note that darker areas tend to be
"heavier" on the eyes. Then balance them by adding larger and clearer areas. This
technique is often used in landscape photography.
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MAIN LINES AND SHAPES
Other significant elements of art are the lines and shapes that we can use to our
advantage. The lines have a natural way of guiding the viewer's eyes, making the
perfect element to draw attention to the desired focal points. Roads, bridges, and
corridors are great for showing a linear perspective. They have lines that narrow
toward the end, potentially bringing your eyes to where your main subjects might be.
As you practice this technique of photographic composition, you will find that shapes
are also all around you. You will often find conventional and defined forms in houses
(windows and doors) and other architectural structures. Triangles and rhombuses tend
to add a pleasant touch to your shots.
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SYMMETRICAL EQUILIBRIUM
Symmetry is a compositional technique widely used to create visual balance in
photographic images. We ourselves involuntarily find symmetry in all things. A
photograph with almost perfectly balanced elements usually creates a very fascinating
image.
Just look at the photo below. It may have been incredibly easy for the photographer
to position himself and the camera to capture the distinct profile, the spectacular
sunset, and the corresponding image at the bottom of the frame. But a viewer would
take longer to observe the many details of this photo, thus making it even more
engaging.
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ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE
If done correctly, even a visually unbalanced image can be an interesting photo. As
much as it satisfies us to look at a symmetrical image, there is also something co-
involving in an image that does not seem to "follow the rules". This technique is very
difficult to acquire, but it improves with a lot of practice.
To achieve asymmetry, try to shoot two different and contrasting subjects or elements,
placing them off-center following the rule of thirds. They can be anything: two different
objects, two of the same objects that differ in size or color, irregular but balanced
amounts of light and dark tones or two different ideas.
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FOREGROUND, DEPTH AND STRATIFICATION
Introducing layering into the composition involves including other elements at varying
distances from the camera to add depth to an image. This technique allows the viewer
to be guided through the image and to jump from one element to another. The result
becomes visually more engaging when there are three predominant levels in the
image: foreground, center, and background. The subject can be placed in the
foreground, in the center or in the background, depending on where you focus. In case
the elements are fixed, as in the photo, a simple change of perspective can alter the
size of your foreground compared to the layers in the background. You can perform
layering during post-production by editing the foreground as naturally as possible. Be
careful to keep the overall image balanced and make sure you have a recognizable
subject that your viewers can easily identify.
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THE GOLDEN SECTION
The golden section is an aesthetic concept usually discussed in photography. This term
refers to a spiral, similar in shape to a Nautilus shell, superimposed on an image. The
parts of the frame crossed by the spiral provide a greater visual impact than the other
portions of the same image.
The golden section exists in many places in the natural world. It ranges from artistic
activities in photography to architectural design to music. It is based on the
mathematical concept called "The Fibonacci Sequence", so you may also feel it
described as the "Fibonacci Spiral".
While photographing, try to imagine a spiral flowing through the frame. To further
enhance your compositions, try using grid overlays in the viewfinder to help you
consider these ratios as you shoot.
36
WHAT ARE THE 7 ELEMENTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY?
Each of these seven elements of photography is used in the visual arts to help make
compositions more compelling and accessible. These include:
• Line: Create a visual scroll for the viewer through both literal and implicit
guidelines.
• Color: use a collection of colors, or an absence of color, to create impact and

atmosphere.
• Profile: Highlight objects in a two-dimensional way, for example using the

silhouette.
• Shape: give depth to an image by implying three-dimensionality through light

and le ombre.
• Texture: depicts the way in which a surface can be perceived through shadow
and light.
• Tone: Suggests a general feeling through brightness or darkness in an image.
• Space: Selectively fill the frame or leave blank areas for impact.
37
1.2 Digital Noise
Digital Noise in modern photography is the Achilles' heel of all SLRs and mirrorless
cameras. Although some of them have modern and well-proven sensors to reduce
digital and chromatic noise, some techniques that we will describe in this chapter will
be able to eliminate it permanently.
We will illustrate the techniques to be used in photographic practice and methods to

be used in post-production to eliminate digital noise.
In the image below an example of digital noise contained in the image of the Milky Way
taken in Chile. In this image you can clearly see the noise generated by high ISO and
some hot pixels.
EXAMPLE OF LUMINANCE AND CHROMINANCE NOISE
38
1.2.1 What is Digital Noise
If you photograph using high ISO, the biggest problem is digital noise. When we talk
about noise in digital photography, we refer to the grain that appears on the images
when using high ISOs.
The larger the camera's sensor, the less noise it produces. In addition, the noise also
varies depending on the type of camera you are using. Compacts have a small sensor
(so they generate more noise, while SLRs have a large sensor and generate less noise).
You can reduce noise by using low ISO, increasing exposure times, and using a tripod
or in astrophotography by using an astronomical tracker mount.
Below, you can distinguish the different types of noise, often confused with each other.
LUMINANCE: typical noise generated by high sensitivity (high ISO)

CHROMINANCE: noise generated by long exposures.
THERMAL: noise generated by overheating of the sensor.
LUMINANCE CHROMINANCE THERMAL
39
1.2.2 Techniques to eliminate it
When we talk about eliminating digital noise in photography there are some methods
to be able to do it. These must be compulsorily applied during the photo session and
not only in post-production.
The first method is the "Mean Stack" technique. To be able to carry out this technique
it will be enough to take three to seven consecutive shots equal for the subject we
want to photograph. In this way each individual photo will have different information
for each pixel and if in one of them there is noise of luminance or chrominance this will
be replaced with another pixel without digital noise of one of the photos of the
sequence we have taken. The result in post-production will be a sum of the sequence
without digital noise.
The second method that we can use is the function "Noise reduction in long
exposures". This feature, present in all cameras, automatically performs a double shot
by setting the automatic subtraction of noisy pixels from the original shot. It is a useful
function in some situations where we photograph the landscape but that I recommend
deactivating in astrophotography. This method does not require post-production
because the camera directly produces a RAW to be processed.
The third method used in astrophotography is the “Calibration with dark, flat and bias".
Each of them serves to correct defects and imperfections of the individual shots, the
light frames, which will then be added together in a final image. Bias, dark and flat
frames must be acquired following precise settings, in particular the determining
factors to shoot them correctly are ISO / gain, temperature and time.
40
1.3 Choosing the right optics
Due to the technical complexity of this photographic genre, the equipment plays a
fundamental role if we want to achieve good results. It is not necessary to invest large
sums of money to buy expensive lenses or digital cameras (SLR or mirrorless).
The modern cameras, especially APSC, have a satisfactory photographic yield and you
will find in the next pages advice on which lenses to buy based on your budget and the
experience I have gained over the years. But what matters after the equipment is to
know the techniques both in the shooting phase and in post-production. In fact, the
technique before post-production is essential to make photos of excellent quality. We
could take a perfect photo even with the kit lens that is sold with our camera, such as,
for example, the classic 18-55mm.
TIPS TO FOLLOW
Here are some technical tricks that I recommend photographing the night sky and get
good results.
For wide-field photography, you need a bright wide-angle lens. There are so many but
those that I recommend are among the best on the market and have a good quality /
price ratio.
The best features for this type of goals are:
- a focal length ranging from 8mm (on APSC) up to a maximum of 35mm.
- The minimum aperture of the aperture at f/4 or maximum f/1.4.
- Good sharpness at maximum aperture, low presence of chromatic aberrations, coma,
and vignetting.
Considering these fundamental features here are some of the lenses and digital
cameras that I can recommend for every type of budget.
41
1.3.1 The Best Focal Length
In this chapter I will recommend the best optics that you can buy according to your
budget.
LENS UNDER 1000€
SAMYANG 14MM F/2.8 TOKINA AT-X 11-20MM F/2.8 AF PRO DX

THE BEST WIDE ANGLE FOR FULL FRAME FOR ON APSC, BRIGHT AND INCISIVE, VIGNETTING
QUALITY / PRICE RATIO. SHARP, BRIGHT AT F/2.8 NONEXISTENT. PRECISE AUTOFOCUS.
AND WITH GOOD COLOR RENDERING.
SAMYANG 10MM F/2.8 ED AS NCS CS SIGMA 20MM F/1.4

ONE OF THE BEST WIDE ANGLES FOR APSC, SHARP AT F/1.4 AND VERY SLIGHT CHROMATIC ABERRATION.
AT F/2.0, LIGHTWEIGHT AND GREAT FOR CONSTRUCTION AT THE TOP. LIGHTNING FAST
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY THANKS TO ITS BRIGHTNESS AUTOFOCUS.
42
SAMYANG XP 14MM F/2.4 IRIX 15MM F/2.4 BLACKSTONE
BEST LENS FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY ON CANON AN EXCELLENT WIDE ANGLE, SHARP IN THE CENTER OF
AND NIKON DSLR. THE FRAME BUT NOT VERY INCISIVE AT THE EDGES. IT
SUFFERS FROM A STRONG VIGNETTING.
SIGMA 24MM F/1.4 DG HSM ART ZEISS BATIS 18MM F/2.8

THE FOCAL LENGTH OF 24 MM ADAPTS EXACTLY TO SHARPNESS AT F/2.8. CONSTRUCTION AT THE TOP.
THE NEEDS OF MANY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHERS, LIGHTNING FAST AUTOFOCUS. AFFORDABLE
ESPECIALLY WHEN USED AS A COMPLEMENT TO THE QUALITY/PRICE RATIO
SIGMA 14 MM F/1.8 ART
43
LENS ABOVE 1000€
OLYMPUS 7-14MM F/2.8 PRO MICRO 4/3 FUJI XF 8-16MM F/2.8 R LM WR

FLEXIBLE LENS SUITABLE FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY, BEST ULTRA WIDE ANGLE ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY LENS
THE OLYMPUS M. ZUIKO 7-14MM F/2.8 PRO IS A FOR FUJIFILM CAMERA. TROPICALISED AND TOP
GREAT OPTION. CONSTRUCTION.
SIGMA 14MM F/1.8 DG HSM ART SIGMA 14-24MM F/2.8 DG HSM ART
IT IS LARGE AND HEAVY, BUT A CLASSY ULTRA WIDE BEST ZOOM LENS. FOCAL LENGTH FLEXIBILITY, SUPERB
ANGLE WITH A VERY WIDE MAXIMUM APERTURE. IT 360° IMAGE QUALITY, TOP CONSTRUCTION,
SUFFERS A BIT OF A COMA EFFECT AT THE EDGES TROPICALISED.
44
TAMRON SP 15-30MM F/2.8 DI VC USD G2 CANON EF 16-35MM F/2.8L USM III
IT IS THE BEST STABILISED LENS FOR CANON AND HIGH-QUALITY WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM, ALTHOUGH QUITE
NIKON DSLRS. F/2.8 APERTURE ON ALL FOCAL EXPENSIVE, FOR CANON DSLRS.
LENGTHS AND LIGHTNING FAST AUTOFOCUS.
SONY FE 12-24MM F/2.8 G MASTER

AN EXTRAORDINARY GOAL FOR
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY, BUT AT A HIGH PRICE. THE
BEST WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM FOR SONY
WHY AN ULTRA WIDE ANGLE?
45
Because it is a very short focal length (from 14mm on full frame and to 8mm on
reduced format), it includes a very wide scene and, the shorter the focal length, the
more it increases the exposure time avoiding recording the movement of the Earth's
rotation during shooting. If you shoot above 35mm the results can be disappointing,
because the "depth of field” will be reduced, finding you with light trails due to the
Earth's rotation. To solve the problem and if you want to increase the exposure times,
I recommend the purchase of astronomical tracking mount.
FOCAL LENGTH 14MM POINT STARS AND FOCAL LENGTH 35MM STARS SWIPED FOR
CORRECT EXPOSURE TIME INCORRECT EXPOSURE TIME CALCULATION
HOW TO CHOOSE THE LENS?
Photographic lenses are not perfect and can suffer from optical troubles noticeably. In
the previous pages I have shown you some tips for purchases, but in the next chapters
I will explain what are the main optical disorders that afflict photographic lenses.
46
1.3.2 Chromatic Aberrations
Aberration is a defect in optics that occurs when we obtain an image different from
the real one, because the optical system moves away from the conditions of the
paraxial optics. Aberrant optical defects can be scaled using better materials for the
construction of optical groups and manifest themselves as a loss of sharpness at the
edges of the image (diffraction), colors that do not correspond to reality
(polychromatic aberrations), non-uniformity of brightness (vignetting), barrel-shaped
or pillow-shaped image (distortion) and many others.
Polychromatic aberrations occur in refractive systems and are recognizable as a
blurred outline around photographed objects of red, blue, and green color. To reduce
chromatic aberration, some optical systems have apochromatic lenses, which greatly
reduce this disturbance as they can focus on the same point three different
wavelengths. Below the chromatic aberration has been corrected in post-production
using the "Remove Chromatic Aberration" command of Adobe Camera Raw.
47
1.3.3 Vignetting
When we talk about Vignetting, we mean the decrease in brightness at the edges of
the image compared to the center.
This defect affects most photographic lenses and is classified into:
- Physical vignetting, when it is caused using special filters or objects placed in front of
the photographic lens.
- Optical vignetting, caused by the design of the lens and is more accentuated in wide-
angle lenses than those with longer focal lengths. It can be corrected by adjusting the
aperture or in post-production, where artistic effects can be created.
In Astrophotography the vignetting can be corrected using the calibration of light
frames with the use of flat frames.
THE OPTICAL VIGNETTING IS DIFFERENT IN EACH OPTICAL SYSTEM, AND IS EASILY CORRECTABLE IN
POSTPRODUCTION OR APERTURE OF 1-2 STOPS
48
1.3.4 The Coma Effect
Another optical aberration is coma which occurs when the optical system fails to
transform objects far from the optical axis into point images, taking on a "comet"
shape. This aberration can be corrected by aperture by 2-3 stops depending on the
lens that is used. Here is an example of coma aberration in astrophotography in the
figure below.
IN NIGHT SHOTS, YOU CAN SEE HOW AT THE EDGES OF

THE IMAGES THE STARS LOOK LIKE A COMET INSTEAD
OF BEING POINT-LIKE.
It is possible to reduce the coma effect by closing the aperture, to the detriment of the
luminosity.
49
1.3.5 Diffraction
In the previous chapters we talked about the aperture, mentioning the theme of
Diffraction. Diffraction is a phenomenon that occurs when the propagation trajectories
of waves (such as those of sound, radio waves, light ...) encounter an obstacle in their
path. In the case of light, in photography, the only obstacle is represented by the
aperture of the lenses. As can be seen from the figures, in the first the diffraction is
low because the light passes through a wider hole (open aperture); on the contrary, in
the second figure the diffraction is high because the hole is smaller (closed aperture).
Remember that with open apertures, the depth of field is reduced to a few
centimeters, vice versa at closed apertures it is extended from several meters up to
infinity. A practical example of how diffraction negatively affects image quality is
represented by the figures below, where between the first image at f/8 (intermediate
aperture of many optical systems) and the second image at F/22 there is a noticeable
difference in sharpness.
50
We specify that the diffraction affects only the optical system, where the general
quality of the photo depends on the construction materials of the aperture and lenses.
Then adjust the amount of light passing through the lens appropriately and work close
to the intermediate stop so that you can make the most of the resolution capacity of
the digital camera sensor.
51
1.4 How to shoot in Astrophotography
In the previous chapters I explained how to use manual mode with your digital camera
and how to choose the best digital lenses and camera according to your budget. In this
chapter we analyze what are the types of shots to be used in Astrophotography with
our digital camera:
• Single Shot.
• Shooting Phase using the Astro Tracker.
• Calibration with Dark, Bias e Flat.
• Multiple exposure.
• HDR Astrophotography.
• Startrail.
Before moving on to analyze one by one all types of shots there are rules to follow
fundamental for the success of night photographs. We install our digital camera on the
photo tripod and make sure that it is well stabilized on the ground. Make sure that the
ground on which the tripod rests with the camera is stable and you are close to the sea
avoid leaving the equipment too close to the water. The first operation to be carried
out is the “Focus” of the lens, fundamental to not make a mistake and the focus
otherwise the image will be to be trashed.
We rotate the mode selection ring of the camera and set the mode "M" (manual) or
Bulb (long exposures) trying to follow these simple steps:
- the image quality must be set absolutely on RAW (Raw data), to be able to intervene
without loss of quality in post-production.
- the white balance is advisable to set it at a temperature from 3200K to 3800K, or in
entry-level machines on the "Tungsten" function. We avoid leaving the balance on
Automatic to prevent it from changing between one shot and another in case we want
to make a Stacking (average of the shots).
52
- to prevent external lights from reaching the sensor it is recommended to have the
viewfinder closed.
- we avoid small movements of the camera by blocking the lifting of the mirror from
the camera settings or by setting the shooting mode to "M-up"(in this mode you must
press the shutter button twice).
- make sure that the remote control is well fixed to the tripod avoiding vibrations or
oscillations.
- we reduce battery consumption by turning off the display when we are not using it
(especially in Live View mode).
- during single shooting, a Startrail or if you can use shooting techniques with Astro
tracker, deactivate all the settings concerning the reduction of digital noise.
- Check the battery status often, especially if you are starting out or time lapsing.
53
1.4.1 Single Shot and the Rule of 300
To perform a perfect single shot we must follow all the technical precautions described
in the previous paragraph and learn the photographic technique of the 300. To
calculate the exposure time necessary not to record on the sensor the Earth's rotation
(light trails), we must make a simple division. Divide 300 by the focal length of your
camera lens (14mm, 16mm).
RULE OF 300 / F (focal length) = T (exposure time)
Sensor Equivalent focal length Exposure Time Focal ratio
FULL FRAME 14mm 22” 1.0x
APSC CANON 21mm 15” 1.5x
ASPC NIKON 22mm 14” 1.6x
MICRO 4/3 28mm 11” 2.0x
This calculation is valid if we use a full-frame camera (Full Frame), but if we have a
reduced sensor (APSC)or a micro 4/3 sensor (Four/Thirds) we must divide the result
respectively by 1.5x (on Nikon DX), 1.6x (on Canon APSC) or 2.0x (Micro 4/3) as in the
table above.
Considering this type of calculation to be carried out before the shooting session, the
shooting settings that we can use to capture the Milky Way, or the starry sky are in
general these:
Exposure Time Aperture ISO
30” f/1.8 800
30” f/2.0 1600
30” f/2.8 3200
30” f/4.0 6400
54
Using one of these settings you should get a file that contains enough information for
post-production processing. Try not to mistake the exposure time, based on your lens
and digital camera sensor, so as not to have the stars crawled in your night
photographs.
The parameters described on the previous page can be used for shooting and with a
focal length of 10mm on a Full-frame camera. Obviously, you should do your
homework to understand what the precise times are to use with your photographic
lenses. For shooting on a camera with a reduced sensor you must multiply the focal
length by 1.5x on a Nikon sensor, 1.6x on a Canon sensor and 2x on a 4/3 micro sensor
as we explained earlier.
On the following page a shot taken on the Island of Crete in Greece in the summer of
2016. The Starry Sky was shot with a Nikon D750 camera with modified sensor and
without Infrared filter, Exposure Time 15 seconds, Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G lens, f/2.8
aperture and ISO 3200 sensibility. You can see that the stars are point-like because the
exposure time has been set correctly according to the type of sensor and lens used. In
fact, a 20mm on full-frame sensor is equivalent as exposure time to exactly 15 seconds.
The color temperature was set to 3200K and the format of the RAW image.
Postproduction has been redone in Adobe Photoshop 2021 with the help of Astro
Panel Pro.
Finally, do not overdo it in using THE ISO sensitivity and set it to have a good ratio
between image quality and digital noise. If your files are difficult to process and with
obvious loss of sharpness, try applying the image stacking technique described in the
following pages to your work.
55
Nikon D750
Nikon 20mm F/1.8 G ED
Exposure Time 15”
ISO 3200
56
astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it Aperture f/2.8
Nikon D750
Samyang 14mm F/2.8 If Ed UMC
Exposure Time 25”
ISO 3200
57
1.4.2 Using the Astro Tracker
If we want to elevate the quality of our photos and have clean files with a greater starry
sky signal to be extracted in post-production, it is mandatory to use the Astro Tracker.
The Astro Tracker is now a fundamental tool for the night sky Astro photographers and
for the Astro photographer because it allows us to chase the celestial arch by
increasing exposure times and lowering the ISO. From my experience I learned that to
work with the Astro Tracker you must think differently than the photos taken with the
classic method (the single shot and the 300 rule).
TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING

Once arrived on the spot, the photos that we are going to take at the celestial arch
using the Astro-tracker must be and affected by a position free of disturbing objects,
raising the frame as much as possible to have a greater portion of the sky or moving
physically if there are trees, branches, buildings etc. in the scene. So once on the spot,
I suggest photographing or memorize the position of the Milky Way with respect to
the scene you want to photograph (the subject of the photo).
The parameters to make the shots change depending on the tracker star we use. In
fact, some are so precise that we can go up to 5 minutes of exposure per single shot
while others allow us to make a maximum of 120 seconds of exposure. Other factors
to consider are the weight of our equipment that we are going to place on the
motorized head of the frame. The weight that portable Astro trackers can withstand
ranges from 3 kg to a maximum of 5kg and we must be careful not to overdo it as the
exposure time can decrease to compensate for the weight of the camera and lens.
Here are some Astro trackers on the market and that you can buy according to your
budget and equipment.
58
Model Load in Kg Price Range
Minitrack LX3 3KG 189€-229€
Move Shoot Move Rotator 3KG 199€-249€
Vixen Polarie 3KG 349-399€
SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 5KG 349€-449€
Ioptron Sky Guider Pro 5KG 499€-599€
Among the star pursuers listed in the table, I currently use both the Skywatcher Star
Adventurer and the Move Shoot Move Rotator. The first allows me to chase the starry
sky with ultra-wide-angle lenses up to a maximum of 3-4 minutes per shot and with
focal lengths (no more than 300mm) up to 90 seconds. The second, on the other hand,
works very well with ultra-wide-angle and standard lenses for a couple of minutes and
with focal lengths up to 135mm up to 90 seconds. The choice of your Astro Tracker
falls on the type of astronomical photography you want to do. If you have the idea of
mounting a telescope, these instruments are not for you.
To make an Astro Tracker work perfectly we must align the polar telescope of the
frame towards the North Star.
On the next page we can find out how to learn to recognize it.
59
HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE NORTH STAR
With the help of the Big Dipper, in the constellation of Ursa Major starting from the
two stars located on the opposite side of the rudder, we draw an imaginary line passing
through them, reporting about five times the distance that separates them: this line
will intercept the North Star.
It is difficult to fall into error because in this part of the sky Polaris is the star of greater
apparent brightness, although it is not in itself very bright. These two stars of the Big
Dipper have the Arabic names of Merak and Dubhe and for this geometric reason they
are called pointers. The Polaris is very important, indeed it would be better to say
fundamental if you think of the service it has produced, for millennia, to men on the
road.
The Polar Star, in fact, is the only star that does not appear to move during the night.
It is precisely about 1 ° from the pole of the sky: the point around which the whole sky
60
will appear to rotate, counterclockwise, during the night. This point is called the North
Celestial Pole, projecting from which the perpendicular to the horizon, you will get the
cardinal point North.
If instead we are lazy, we can use one of the many apps for smartphones (StarWalk2,
PhotoPills, Stellarium Mobile, SkyMap etc.) and pointing to the sky, thanks to the GPS
and accelerometer of the smartphone or tablet, we will know in real time how to find
not only the North Star, but also all the other constellations together with the Milky
Way.
SCREENSHOT DELL’APP DI STAR WALK 2 PER INDIVIDUARE LA VIA LATTEA
61
POLAR STAR ALIGNMENT
The alignment to the Polar Star of the Astro tracker can be facilitated by directly
mounting the Astro-tracker on the photographic head (preferably rack); this will allow
you to easily orient and bubble the Astro-tracker. We can align the Polar Star according
to the classic method by guiding with our own eyes the alignment in the position of
the diagram signs printed in the polar telescope and that we can discover through the
help of many smartphone apps such as "SynscanInit" or "Polar Finder".
I can facilitate the detection of the Polar Star also thanks to the use of a common
astronomical laser (Model 303), placing it near the polar telescope. To do this, there
are 3D printed accessories on the market that keep the laser stationary and turned on
inside the eyepiece of the polar telescope.
After the pointing towards the North Star, I can begin to test the alignment by taking
some photos with the parameters described on the following page.
62
RECOMMENDED PARAMETERS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING
Having made this premise, let's move on to illustrate which settings to use to shoot the
starry sky. Respecting the instructions written in chapter 1.4, in my astronomical
photographs I always use the following parameters:
• Two minutes as exposure time.

• ISO value set to 1600.
• Aperture f/4.0.
These parameters are a study carried out on thousands of shots based on my

photographic equipment, the place where I shoot and the lens I use. Over two minutes
of exposure with a wide angle is useless because most of the time we always find the
light pollution present in the photo, so increasing the exposure time will only have
more artificial light to manage in post-production.
The ISO value set to 1600 is not only ideal for my digital camera, a Nikon D750 full
frame, but also for most digital cameras out there.
The F/4 aperture is a MUST because it is the middle ground to have greater sharpness
up to the edges and little vignetting in the image. In addition, we can reduce chromatic
aberrations and "file" the Coma effect that could occur with very bright lenses.
Take at least a dozen shots to check that the alignment is correct, that the stars are
point-like and not crawled. These shots will have to be added up in post-production
and for this reason I will introduce a very important topic: Calibration through Dark,
Bias and Flat.
63
Nikon D750
10 Light Frames
5 Dark Frames
25 Bias Frames
Exposure Time 120”
ISO 1600
Aperture f/4.0
64
astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it Sky Watcher Star Adventurer
1.4.3 Calibration with Dark, Bias e Flat
To obtain quality images in the astronomical field, it is important to shoot in addition
to the light frames (the classic photo called light frame) other types of files for image
calibration: dark, flat and bias. These files will be processed and added together with
the help of Astro Panel 5 in the Sky Stack section. Thanks to the calibration and
recovery of these files we can reduce or eliminate the defects of the light frames such
as chromatic, luminance and thermal noise, vignetting and lens disturbances.
Dark, Flat and Bias must be taken
following precise and closely
related parameters based on ISO
/ gain, temperature, and
exposure time. The image on the
page is a light frame taken with
the settings recommended in the
previous paragraph:
• Nikon D750.
• Nikon 20mm f/1.8 g
ED;
• Aperture f/4.0.
• ISO 1600 sensitivity.
• 120" of exposure.
• Temperature colors
3400K.
65
WHAT ARE DARK, BIAS AND FLAT FRAMES FOR?
A Dark Frame is a frame obtained with the same settings as the light frame, therefore
with the same exposure time, ISO sensitivity, aperture, and ambient temperature.
Unlike the light frame, the dark frame is a file where there is no light coming on the
sensor. In fact, looking at it we can see that there are many white dots (hot pixels) and
blacks (dead pixels), which represent the thermal noise and defective pixels of the SLR
sensor.
To shoot the dark frame we must make sure that no light source arrives on the sensor,
so we insert the cap on the lens or telescope and cover the camera viewfinder with the
appropriate cover. It is very important to shoot many dark frames (minimum five per
session) to obtain quality images and
it is necessary to have the same
ambient temperature as the light
frame. Try to make an odd number of
dark frames, to obtain a correct
median during calibration with Astro
Panel 5. In the case of the photo that
is on the previous page, next to it you
will find the dark that has the same
parameters as the light frame of the
previous page. By subtracting the
dark, the software will eliminate
thermal noise (hot pixel) and "dead
pixels" (dead pixels) from your
photo.
66
Bias Frames are used to correct the electronic noise of the camera sensor, the noise
that is generated when it is activated to read the charge values of the photo resistors.
The amount of noise quests varies from sensor to sensor and modern CMOS cameras
have a very low value compared to those of past years.
Biases are acquired by taking a quantity of poses multiplied by five times the shots of
the dark, setting the same ISO sensitivity, but with a zero-exposure time according to
your camera (1/4000s - 1/8000s). If you have shot five Dark, you will have to acquire
twenty-five Bias Frames.
Biases are useful even if during the night there is a change in ambient temperature.
Flat Fields are essential to eliminate the dust deposited on the sensor and on the
lenses/telescope and the vignetting of the lens. Indeed, this type of file is required
if we are doing Deep Sky, or we are using specific filters to attenuate light pollution
and if we are photographing in areas with high light pollution.
These contain information about the amount of light that arrives on the sensor and
is carried out after the subtraction of the dark. For shooting, the lens or telescope
must be pointed at a surface with a uniform light source; for this reason, there are
various shooting techniques such as the use of a white panel, the monitor of an LCD
panel, a white wall or even a white shirt but optimal results are not always achieved.
In fact, for a constant brightness it is better to use or self-build a luminescent panel
or a Flat field box, which we will place on the lens or telescope (you can find some
tutorials on the internet on how to build a flat field box very easily). We must be
particularly careful when shooting because we must try to record a correct
exposure, setting the camera so that the histogram of the image has the peak in the
middle of the graph. Unlike the dark frame, the only parameters that we do not
have to vary are the focus and the aperture, having the possibility of changing the
exposure times and ISO sensitivity. For the resumption you need to resume several
67
Flat Fields equal to or greater than fifteen. In the image below you can see a flat field
of a Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens using an Optolong L-PRO filter.
68
HOW TO MAKE THE SHOOTING SESSION FOR DARK, BIAS AND FLAT?
DARK FRAMES
• Place the cap on the lens or telescope.
• Set the same shutter speed as your light frames.
• Use the same temperature as the light frames. If you have a reflex or
mirrorless, I recommend you always take them at the end of the session.
• Use the same ISO/gain as light frames. Noise varies depending on the
ISO/gain used, so don't change it!
• Take them according to the number of your lights. The minimum number
of dark frames that I would recommend is five. However, if you have taken
a lot of light frames, it would be good to shoot at least 10-15, but not
beyond.
BIAS FRAMES
• Put the cap on the lens or telescope.
• Set the fastest shutter speed for your camera. If you have an SLR select
the fastest time that your camera supports (1/4000, 1/8000), with a
dedicated CMOS refer to the camera documentation. This is because we
want the sensor to be active as little time as possible as we are measuring
the activation noise.
• Use the same temperature as light frames
• Use the same ISO/gain as light frames.
• Shoot several Bias 5 times that of Dark Frames. Beyond that it would not
make sense by creating only expenditure of RAM being processed.
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FLAT FRAMES
• Place a uniform light source on top of your lens or telescope. It could also
be fine a LED tablet to draw, the screen of a monitor or a dedicated flat
field (more expensive option!) which is the best way to achieve uniform
illumination of the sensor.
• Do not touch or modify your equipment in any way. Do not change the
focus and do not touch anything that can alter the optical flow. Flat frames
are the first thing you want to do at the end of the session, otherwise they
will correct your light frames incorrectly.
• Choose the right shutter speed. If you have an SLR select program A
(aperture priority) and let the camera, choose the time. The aperture
must be the same used during the phase of the light frames. If you have a
dedicated room play with time until the peak of the histogram is 45% of
the chart. It is an uncomfortable and frustrating job at first, but once you
become familiar with the method you will take very little time.
• Fifteen is the ideal number of flat frames, regardless of the number of
light frames taken.
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1.4.4 Multiple Exposure
Multiple Exposure means a composition of two shooting sessions made on the same
evening but with different parameters.
When we talk about multiple exposure, I shoot the landscape in two different ways
depending on the weather conditions or the light pollution that is present in the scene
in which I am photographing:
1. I shoot the landscape immediately after sunset during the blue hour to have a
bright subject but without sunlight.
2. I shoot the landscape at night using the same shooting settings as the light
frame. This type of shot allows me to have a digital noise very similar to the
shooting session of the starry sky and the final image will be homogeneous.
As for photographing the night sky I always perform the shooting session with the help
of the Astro Tracker, or I take a dozen shots and stack them all together in Astro Panel.
The shooting session without Astro Tracker can be performed up to a maximum of ten
shots and depending on the focal length we are using. In fact, the more the focal length
increases, the less shots we can add up because the camera mounted on the tripod
cannot compensate for the Earth's rotation.
If we add up a lot of untracked images the result will be a final image in which the stars
will be point-like and aligned to the center, but at the edges stars crawled as if they
were small Startrail. I summarize in a table the limit to be respected for shooting
without Astro Tracker on Full Frame cameras.
Focal Length Exposure Time Number of shots

10mm 30” 11
20mm 15” 7
35mm 9” 5
50mm 6” 3
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Nikon D750
15 Light Frames Sky
5 Dark Frames Sky
25 Bias Frames Sky
Sky Watcher Star Adventurer
Optolong filter L-Pro
1 Frame Landscape
ISO 1600
Aperture
72 f/4.0
Nikon D750
10 Light Frames Sky
5 Dark Frames Sky
25 Bias Frames Sky
ISO 1600
Aperture f/4.0
3 Frames Landscape
ISO 1600
Aperture f/4.0
1 Frame Flash
Exposure Time 30”
ISO 1600
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Aperture f/4.0
1.4.5 HDR Astrophotography
In this chapter we explain how to make high quality images with a perfect dynamic
range using the HDR technique in Astrophotography. When we talk about HDR in night
photography we refer to the use of shooting that vary according to different ISO values
or different exposure times. These shots are used to stack the Milky Way and large
nebulae with a wide dynamic range without burning the stars and cores.
How to set up the camera for these shots? With the shooting of the Milky Way, I prefer
to use three sets of shots with different ISO (800 – 1600 – 3200 ISO) while in Deep Sky
photography with long focal lengths I prefer different Exposure Times (30" – 60" - 120"
of Exposure).
To photograph the Milky Way in HDR, I always make, with the use of the Astro Tracker,
three sets of ten shots each:
• 10 Light Frames at ISO 800 – 1600 - 3200, Exposure 120", Aperture f/4.0.
• 5 Dark Frames at ISO 800 – 1600 - 3200, Exposure 120", Aperture f/4.0.
• 25 Bias Frames at ISO 800 – 1600 - 3200, Exposure 120", Aperture f/4.0.
These settings allow me to have an incredible dynamic range of the night Sky and make
it very easy for me to post-production in Adobe Photoshop. In fact, the cover of the
book is made using this shooting technique.
Regarding Deep Sky photography, it all depends on the object we must photograph.
Nebulae such as M42 (The Great Orion Nebula) and M8 (Lagoon Nebula) force the
photographer to use different times to capture all the details of the cores that would
otherwise be burned in the highlights.
To make the sum of the images in HDR we can use Astro Panel 5 and the Sky Stack HDR
card that will join the images taking for each of them the pixel with the best possible
dynamic range.
Read the in-depth analysis “3.2.3 Stacking Astronomical Images and HDR".
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Nikon D750
30 Light Frames Sky
5 Dark Frames Sky
25 Bias Frames Sky
Exposure time 120”
ISO 800-1600-3200
Aperture f/4.0
1 Frame Landscape and Tent

Exposure time 30”
ISO 1600
75 f/8.0
Aperture
Nebulose M8 e M20
Nikon D750
Nikon 200-500mm F/5.6 G
180 Light Frames Sky
25 Dark Frames Sky
125 Bias Frames Sky
15 Flat Frames Sky
ISO 800-1600-3200
Aperture f/5.6
Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 76
Optolong filter L-Pro astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
Nebulosa M42
"The Great Orion Nebula"
Nikon D5300
Nikon 200-500mm F/5.6 G
25 Light Frames Cielo
5 Dark Frames Cielo
25 Bias Frames Cielo
15 Flat Frames Cielo
Exposure Time 90"
ISO 800-1600-3200
Aperture f/5.6
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astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it Optolong filter L-Pro
1.4.6 Startrail
The Startrail is a type of photography in which the movement of the Earth’s rotation is
captured by the camera. The camera stopped on earth will record this movement
through the so-called "crawl" of the stars. It immediately comes to mind looking at
these or types of photographs, which are the stars to move, but these are fixed and it
is the earth that moves with its rotational movement around its axis.
The stars leave a circular point around a point that is always fixed: The North Star. In
fact, the Earth's axis passes right at this star and in our shots, this will always be firm
and immobile unlike the other stars. So, one of the rules to make a circular Startrail is
to look for the Polar Star. Read the paragraph "How to Recognize the North Star".
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HOW TO MAKE A STARTRAIL
To make a Startrail we need some accessory such as the remote control with wire or
the intervalometer, which allows you to program an automatic sequence of exposures
spaced from each other by a time interval.
All the settings that we have described for the single shot in the previous chapters are
valid. We can also expose the exposure by 2 stops so as not to overheat the sensor
much and close the aperture (f / 3.5 - f / 4) for greater sharpness. They can also auction
two hours of consecutive shots (240 shots of 30 seconds each) to have a good result.
You need to turn off the "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" feature of your camera,
activate M and RAW mode as the format for your photos. This is the technique to
achieve good results, but the work of the Startrail can be the result of your imagination.
There are different types of Startrail, the classic circular ones and those made by
pointing at the Milky Way. In the classic Startrail, there are those with colorful lines
and those with dense and soft trails. In fact, in post-production you can recreate the
soft and dense trails, but to achieve this you must set the stars slightly out of focus
when shooting. Before making all the shots of the Startrail I suggest you take some
photos of the subject you want to use, so after sunset at the blue hour, we orient
ourselves to the Milky Way or to the North Star and make a long exposure to have a
file at low ISO and clean from digital noise that we will subsequently use in post-
production as subject. For the realization of an excellent Startrail it is recommended to
go far from inhabited centers and in areas without artificial lighting.
The ideal would be to go to the mountains where the air is less humid with the
possibility of photographing a greater number of stars than in areas where humidity
creates an annoying haze, such as near the sea or lakes and streams.
Sky must be completely free from clouds, even scattered ones.
Once at home we will submerge our shots with the help of Astro Panel 5 in Adobe
Photoshop.
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Nikon D750
480 Light Frames
Exposure Time 30"
ISO 800
80
Nikon D750
480 Light Frames
Exposure Time 30"
81ISO 800
Nikon D750
300 Light Frames
Exposure Time 30”
ISO 800 82
Aperture f/4.0 astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
1.4.7 How make a Panoramic Images
The panoramic images are distinguished by being very wide and shooting a much larger
portion of the shot. They convey a sense of space and breadth by including many more
elements than a "normal" photo. Panoramic photos are about natural and urban
landscapes, but they can also be used to compose more creative solutions, as you can
see in the image below. Making compositions like this, thanks to the progress of the
software available on the market, is not at all complex. In fact, it is possible to do it
without buying equipment in addition to those that we have available. Panoramic
images are obtained by combining a series of photos taken in sequence (technique
called stitching). To ensure a good result and facilitate the work at the computer that
will combine the photos, you need to take them following certain rules. In this chapter
we see the rules to follow to get perfect panoramic images.
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THE METHOD TO TAKE PANORAMIC PHOTOS
First, let's see what the steps are to follow to make the photos to be combined into a
panoramic image:
1. Let's place ourselves in a point from where we can photograph the entire
panorama.
2. We frame in the camera display the right or left end of the panorama and take
a photo.
3. We identify a central point in the photo just taken.
4. We act on us by changing the frame until we overlap the right or left edge of
the frame to the central point that we had identified in the previous photo.
5. I'll take another photo.
6. We start from point three.
This is the main procedure, let's see now how to set up the camera, how to compose
the various shots and what special attention to have.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR CAMERA

Since we must combine several photos to create the panoramic composition, we want
these photos to have no flaws. Before the shooting phase it is essential to set the
manual focus so that it does not change during the sequence. In daytime photographs,
panoramic photos are taken with rather high aperture values, so the high depth of field
will make focusing less problematic. In night photographs, we use bright apertures
and focusing can be very difficult. I recommend the use of a torch to be able to focus
or the use of the Hyperfocal technique described on page 25. The second aspect to
pay attention to is the white balance. If we shoot in RAW, we can always correct the
white balance in post-production. To save time, we can set a custom white balance,
using the dedicated function on our camera, as described on page 21.
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Extremely important is exposure. Using an automatic or semi-automatic shooting
mode, we would leave the exposure calculation to the camera. This, depending on the
shot we are photographing, could change between one shot and another. Then we set
the camera to manual mode (M) and adjust the correct exposure before taking the
first photo in our sequence. We keep the same exposure until we have finished taking
all the photos that make up our panorama.
Finally, the focal length. Usually, panoramas and landscapes are associated with the
shortest focal lengths. These, however, have the problem of introducing a spherical
distortion at the edges of the image, more evident at the edges. To correct this defect,
we can close the aperture of the lens by a few stops by decreasing the vignetting at
the edges, the chromatic aberrations, and any coma effect on the stars. We can also
use longer focal lengths, but they would also increase the number of files we have to
take to create the composition.
THE COMPOSITION OF THE INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS

The stitching software is very sophisticated in the alignment of the images and to
facilitate the rendering work of the composition you must follow some technical
precautions. The most important thing to do is to try to take pictures with the horizon
straight and as much as possible at the same height. To do this, you can take advantage
of the grid or gyroscope sensor found in most cameras and superimpose the horizon
on the frame inside the viewfinder or on the screen when using Live-View. Another
aspect to consider is the orientation of the camera.
A great solution is to orient the camera vertically to photograph a much larger area.
The only disadvantage in this case is that we will have to take a greater number of
vertical shots to cover the entire area to be photographed.
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USEFUL ACCESSORIES
It is always required to use a tripod to create panoramic images especially if, by
increasing the value of the aperture, we get too long shutter speeds. In this case, we
can achieve better results by using the self-timer or a remote control to avoid vibrating
the camera at the time of shooting.
If the landscape contains moving objects, such as clouds, it is better to shoot quickly,
because the changes could be very difficult to match in post-production. Finally, you
can also get beautiful panoramas by covering only a quarter of each photo with the
next instead of starting from the central point.
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1.4.8 How to Make Video Timelapse
The timelapse technique is a photographic technique that consists in creating a video
from a sequence of photographs taken at regular intervals over time. This technique is
used to capture the movement of time and show the evolution of a phenomenon that
takes place slowly, such as a sunset, the passage of the seasons or the movement of
clouds. To make a timelapse with an SLR or mirrorless camera, it is important to follow
some specific steps and settings for best results.
Choice of subject and shooting point
First, it is important to choose the subject you want to photograph and identify the
ideal shooting point. The choice of subject and shooting point can greatly influence the
quality of the timelapse. For example, to capture a sunset or sunrise, it is important to
choose a place that offers a wide view of the sky, while to capture the passage of
clouds, you can place the camera in an elevated vantage point.
Mounting the camera on a tripod
Once you have chosen the shooting point, you must mount the camera on a tripod to
prevent images from being blurred due to any camera movements during shooting. It
is important to use a solid and stable tripod, to avoid unwanted vibrations and
movements.
Camera settings
Once the camera is in place, you need to set the correct settings. You must set the
manual mode to have complete control over the exposure and focus settings. In
addition, it is important to use a wide-angle lens to capture a large portion of the sky
or landscape. The ideal camera settings for a timelapse depend on the shooting
conditions, but in general you can use the following settings:
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Manual mode
1. ISO: The ISO value depends on the light conditions, but it is recommended to
use a low value (for example, ISO 100 or 200) to reduce image noise.
2. Aperture: The aperture depends on the desired depth of field and light
conditions, but it is generally recommended to use a medium aperture (such as
f/8 or f/11) to sharpen the image.
3. Shutter speed: The shutter speed depends on the lighting conditions and the
desired effect, but it is generally recommended to use a slow shutter speed (e.g.,
1/4 second or 1/8 second) to capture the movement of time smoothly.
To set the time interval between shots, you can use the time interval feature found in
many cameras. Alternatively, you can use an external timer or a time interval
controller. In any case, it is important to choose a time interval that is appropriate to
the subject you are photographing and the total duration of the shot.
For example, to capture the movement of clouds in a timelapse, you can use a time
interval of 10-15 seconds between shots, while to capture a sunset or sunrise, you can
use a time interval of 30 seconds or more.
When shooting, it is important to check the camera regularly to avoid any problems,
such as low battery or full memory. In addition, it is important to avoid moving the
camera while shooting and to protect it from the elements in case of adverse weather
conditions.
Once the shooting is complete, you can process the photographs using photo editing
software, such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. You have to import the images in
sequence, adjust the brightness, saturation and sharpness and, finally, export the
timelapse video.
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In conclusion, the timelapse technique is a fascinating photographic technique that
allows you to capture the movement of time and show the evolution of a phenomenon
over time. With a reflex or mirrorless camera and the correct settings, you can make
high-quality timelapse videos, which can be used for artistic, documentary, or
educational purposes.
TIMELAPSE VIDEO FOR SHOOTING THE MILKY WAY
To make a timelapse video of images of the Milky Way and the night sky, you need to
follow some specific steps and settings for best results.
Choose the shooting point!
The first step in creating a timelapse of images of the Milky Way and the night sky is to
choose the right location for the shot. It is important to select a place with good
visibility of the night sky, away from the artificial light of cities. In addition, choosing a
place with an interesting landscape can enrich the composition of the scene. I refer
you to chapter 2.1.4 "Light pollution" to learn the best method for choosing the place
where we would like to shoot the Milky Way.
Camera settings
Once you have chosen the location of our shooting, you must set the camera with the
following settings:
1. Set manual mode to have complete control over focus, exposure, and ISO
sensitivity.
2. Set the ISO sensitivity based on the brightness conditions of the night sky,
typically between ISO 1600 and 6400. It is important to remember that
increasing ISO sensitivity can cause image noise to increase.
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3. Set the aperture to a low value (e.g., f/ 2.0 - f/ 2.8) to allow as much light as
possible to enter the lens. This allows you to capture the brightness of the stars
and the Milky Way.
4. Set the shutter speed based on ISO sensitivity and aperture. It is recommended
to use a speed between 15 and 30 seconds following the "300 Rule" according
to the focal length of your lens. Read Chapter 1.4.1 "Single Shot and the 300
Rule."
5. Manually set the same color temperature for all timelapse video photos from
the camera settings.
Time interval and number of shots
To create a timelapse, you need to decide the time interval between shots and the
total number of shots. The number of shots depends on the desired duration of the
timelapse video, while the time interval depends on the speed of movement of the
night sky. Typically, you use a time interval of 5-15 seconds between shots.
In addition, you can use an interval, an external device that controls the camera to
automatically take pictures with the desired time interval.
Scene composition
For the composition of the scene, you can include natural elements such as trees,
mountains, or water, to enrich the scene and create an interesting contrast with the
night sky. In addition, you can use the rule of thirds to create a balanced composition.
Read Chapter 1.1.10 "The Composition."
Image processing
After taking the photos, you can process the images using a photo editing software
such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. You can adjust the brightness, saturation, and
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sharpness of images, as well as correct any lens distortion. It is important to maintain
consistency between all photos, to create a smooth and smooth timelapse.
In addition, you can use the image noise reduction feature to improve image quality.
Image noise reduction can result in the loss of some image details, so it is important to
use this feature with caution.
Timelapse video creation
Finally, to create the timelapse video, you must use video editing software such as
Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. Insert photos in sequence, adjust the duration of
each photo, add music, or sound effects, and save the video in a compatible format.
It is important to note that creating a timelapse of images of the Milky Way and the
night sky requires patience and dedication. You should check the camera regularly and
make sure that the time interval between shots is correct. In addition, it is important
to avoid moving the camera while shooting and to protect it from unexpected weather
conditions.
In conclusion, creating a timelapse video of images of the Milky Way and the night sky
requires good planning and specific camera settings. With the right equipment and
patience, you can create a spectacular timelapse that captures the beauty of the night
sky and the Milky Way.
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Nikon D750
10 Light Frames Sky
5 Dark Frames Sky
25 Bias Frames Sky
Exposure time 120”
ISO 1600
Aperture f/4.0
3 Frame Landscape
Exposure time 30”
ISO 1600
Aperture f/8.0
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2. Shooting Planning
In this chapter we will explain how to plan the Shot to

increase the level of our photographs, organize the
photographic output avoiding light pollution and 93
controlling the Weather. astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
2 Shooting Planning
An important part of the shot is the planning of the photo. This kind of photography,
whether it is landscape with the Milky Way, Star-Trail, or Deep Sky, is very influenced
by atmospheric conditions, the moon phase, light pollution, the place and the time of
year in which we want to photograph.
A common mistake is to photograph a Nightscape, or a Milky Way shot without a
Strong subject, planning is the key for breathtaking images and compositions. To do
this I recommend going during the day and finding some close-ups to exalt, evaluating
risks and dangers regarding the place and get a map or a GPS device (a common
smartphone) to record the coordinates of the point we have chosen. We must refer to
the position of the Milky Way or the celestial body (in the case of deep sky
photography) in Sky at the time we are going to photograph and during the night. As
for the identification of the Milky Way, the observation of the cardinal points and the
constellations of the summer and winter Sky go to the chapter "4.1 – Let's learn to
recognize the Sky".
The weather conditions and the artificial / natural light pollution are two aspects that
should not be underestimated when organizing a night photo outing. The weather
plays a fundamental role, and you must always check it to avoid a cloudy Sky or fog.
Other factors that affect the photographic yield of stars are humidity, which results in
a reduction in the sharpness of stars and artificial light pollution. This is caused by the
lights of the towns and the streets that are reflected in the Sky, making it difficult to
capture with the right contrast, the stars and the Milky Way. To be avoided absolutely
is the Natural Light Pollution, caused by the Moon. In fact, when the Moon is above
1/8 or 1/6 it reflects an amount of light that prevents the visibility of the stars, because
as the sensitivity of the sensor increases, it captures only reflected moonlight. So, we
will risk having only a nocturnal landscape with the moon as the protagonist and some
stars in Sky.
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2.1.1 Camera Accessories
A necessary and mandatory tool is the photo tripod. The advice is to get a solid and
robust one, so that your photos are perfectly sharp, and the stars point. Unfortunately,
atmospheric agents such as wind can cause oscillations during shooting with
consequent recordings of micro-moving photos.
Let's get a spare battery given the intensive use of the Live-View and for long exposures
that drastically reduce battery life and during cold nights even less.
Another fundamental tool for every Astro photographer is the front torch, which is
essential for moving during the night and for being able to adjust the parameters of
the lens, camera, and focus.
Another mandatory accessory is the remote control with wire to minimize every single
vibration during shooting.
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2.1.2 Filters for Astrophotography
Astrophotography Filters are becoming increasingly popular and recommended to
photograph the Milky Way and deep Sky objects. These filters are used to prevent the
camera sensor from photographing the light pollution present in the areas where we
live, giving us more contrasted images and with exposure times that we could not make
before. On the market there are many manufacturers who have many different filters
for type and precise targets.
These filters have very different costs, but which filter is right for you? I personally use
Optolong's L-PRO filter for my Nikon D750, and this below is an image obtained thanks
to this filter with only 60 minutes of exposure. It is a region of the constellation Cygnus
near the star Sadr.
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NARROWBAND FILTERS AND BROADBAND FILTERS
There are two categories of filters for astrophotography and depending on the object
we must photograph we can use one or the other. Narrowband filters only let through
the light output of the object we are shooting and all the rest of the visible light is
blocked. These filters are mainly used to photograph deep Sky nebulae and let through
individual emissions of:
• Ionized hydrogen (H-Alpha).
• Ionized oxygen (OIII).
• Ionized sulfur (SII).
Thanks to the use of these filters, you will get monochromatic images that you will add
up to obtain a trichrome (an R-G-B color image) that is the basis of the material present
in the nebula taken.
These filters do not work for all deep Sky objects such as galaxies and are also not
recommended for filming the Milky Way.
The image you see on the next page is an elaboration of a trichrome of the Crescent
Nebula (NGC 6888) photographed using narrowband filters (H-Alpha, SII, OIII) and
processed using Astro Panel 5 in Adobe Photoshop 2021. The result obtained by these
filters and with monochromatic chambers is far superior to that obtained using only
broadband filters and color chambers.
97
Broadband filters let much of the spectrum pass through, eliminating precise
frequencies on the spectrum. In fact, the most widespread are those that reduce the
light pollution present in the Sky by cutting the frequencies of artificial lights and
blocking the light
that reaches our
camera in the
spectrum of sodium
lamps and mercury
arc lamps, from
about 580nm to
610nm.
98
You can use various filters against light pollution:
• Clip filters that fit into the camera bayonet.

• Circular screw filters.
• Plate filters with adapter.
The most popular clip filters are those of the Optolong including the L-PRO filter that
drastically reduces the light pollution contained in the scene and you can use it with
any lens because it fits before the lens. These filters are much more expensive than
the standard ones but specific for astrophotography. I always advise you to make
accurate flat frames to remove the vignetting that these filters leave in your images.
99
The circular screw and plate filters, on the other hand, fit directly in front of the lens
and you will have to choose the suitable diameter of your lens before purchasing.
These filters sometimes leave in the image a dominant magenta or blue easily
corrected in post-production. These filters are on sale with the most famous brands of
filters, and I can recommend without problems those of Nisi and Haida having tried
them. Below is an example with and without a 77mm "Haida Clear Night" screw filter
with the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G ED lens and the Nikon D750 Full Spectrum camera. As
you can see in the image on the left there are much more details of the core of the
Milky Way and the image is much more contrasted.
100
Here is a list of the best filters you can buy in Astrophotography:
• Filter Haida Slim Nano Pro MC Clear Night - https://amzn.to/3hdhrvp

• NiSi Filter Natural Night Circular - https://amzn.to/3zSt5mR
• K&F Concept Natural Night Filter - https://amzn.to/3kZc0S4
• Clear Sky 77mm Optolong Filter - http://www.optolong.it/prodotto/filtro-clear-
sky-77mm-optolong/
• L-PRO EOS CLIP Optolong APSC Filter - http://www.optolong.it/prodotto/filtro-
l-pro-eos-clip-optolong/
• Nikon CLIP Optolong APSC L-PRO Filter -
http://www.optolong.it/prodotto/filtro-l-pro-nikon-clip-optolong/
• Nikon APSC Optolong L-PRO Filter - http://www.optolong.it/prodotto/filtro-l-
pro-nikon-aps-optolong/
• L-PRO EOS FF Optolong Filter - http://www.optolong.it/prodotto/filtro-l-pro-
eos-ff-optolong/
• L-Enhance EOS CLIP Optolong Filter -
http://www.optolong.it/2019/03/28/filtro-l-enhance-optolong/
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Nikon D750
10 Light Frames
ISO 1600
Aperture f/4.0
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Nikon D750
Carl Zeiss 135mm f/2.0
10 Light Frames
ISO 1600
Aperture
103 f/4.0
astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it Optolong filter L-Pro
2.1.3 Clothing and accessories
In night photography clothing is very important. Most of the time we are in cold places
or periods where suitable clothing is mandatory because night photography requires
to stay a long time outdoors, and above all to wear adequate footwear so as not to
cool the feet, gloves, hats, neck warmers and jackets.
The items of clothing that no landscape photographer can overlook are:
• hat.
• gloves.
• socks and shoes.
• jacket.
• fleece or shirt.
• k-way.
• multi-tasked jacket.
• trousers (also of different types)
• sunglasses.
• anything else to help you ensure great comfort.
Do not forget to buy comfortable shoes that adapt to the type of excursion you will do.
When you are in contact with nature, the choice is between:
• Climbing shoes if you go to the high mountains.
• Trekking shoes if the photographic excursion takes place in the middle of the
mountains.
• Trail shoes if the trail is simpler but still outdoors.
• Sandals, in case we should often be in contact with water.
Finally, the backpack, the most important accessory for the photographer because in
addition to storing all our equipment without creating damage and without the objects
inside being damaged to each other, it must be ergonomic and comfortable for our
physical characteristics. Some photographers will prefer to choose a light, small
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backpack, perhaps for trekking trips, mountain walks or around the city, others will be
more aimed at a camera backpack that contains as much equipment as possible for
professional outings.
In any case, before buying the photo backpack, consider all the features and needs for
your needs, to choose the most suitable during the purchase phase. The feature that I
recommend putting in the first place is the build quality, since the backpack will contain
expensive equipment and that you will surely want to protect.
There are also different levels of protection. If you must use the camera in even wet
environments, there are waterproof photo backpacks, but if your purpose is simply to
go around the city to take photos and make videos, a backpack with basic level of
protection will be enough.
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2.1.4 Light pollution
Light pollution is an alteration of the light levels naturally present in the nocturnal
environment. This alteration, high depending on the location, causes damage of
different nature: environmental, cultural, and economic.
The most widely used legislative definition qualifies it as "any irradiation of direct light
outside the areas to which it is functionally dedicated, and in particular towards the
celestial arch". Light pollution should be regulated by regional laws that have come
into force to cope with this waste and excess of brightness in the Sky. But as we see
every time, we go to photograph these are not respected.
In the image below we have a strong light pollution caused by a light source on the
right and the city lights on the left.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND AVOID IT

To evaluate a place that we would like to photograph, it is necessary to first read up
on the amount of (artificial) light pollution present in the area due to the presence of
lighting from nearby cities or towns. Thanks to the Internet we can consult the site
"Light Pollution Map", that is a map that shows through the overlapping of some colors
based on the Bortle scale, the degree of darkness of the night Sky.
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The Bortle Dark Sky Scale is a nine-level scale that measures the brightness of the night
Sky and the limiting magnitude of the objects visible from a certain vantage point. Let's
list them all:
1. Class 1: site with excellent dark Sky

1. Class 2: site with dark Sky
2. Class 3: Rural Sky
3. Class 4: Rural/suburban Sky
4. Class 5: Suburban Sky
5. Class 6: Light suburban Sky
6. Class 7: Luminous suburban/urban sky
7. Class 8: Sky citizen
8. Class 9: Sky of city center
For the Milky Way, a good reference class is 4, considering that the galactic center is
in the direction of an area of the same class or darker (pointing for example in the open
sea). In fact, it makes little sense to photograph from a very dark area and then find
yourself the Milky Way in the direction of a very illuminated city center.
MAP OF EUROPE ON THE SITE HTTPS://WWW.LIGHTPOLLUTIONMAP.INFO/
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There is also another light pollution to consider, and it is natural. This is caused by the
presence of the Moon in Sky which tends to hinder the observation and shooting
phase of the Milky Way and celestial bodies.
So before going to photograph check the phases of the moon so that the Moon does
not bother during the photo session or in its presence, we could exploit and to our
advantage to have a subject, a foreground, and an illuminated landscape without
having to raise EXCESSIVELY ISO, lengthen the exposure time or resort to artificial
lighting. In this case I recommend taking shots of the Milky Way, either before the
rise or after the setting of the Moon.
ARC OF THE MILKY WAY WITH THE PRESENCE OF THE MOON AT 70% OF ITS BRIGHTNESS
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2.1.5 Terrestrial Maps and Software for Smartphones and
PCs
The best and easiest way to check in real time the position of the Milky Way and
interesting places to photograph is to consult Google Maps or Google Earth both on
PC and smartphone. Then I recommend going to the place during the daytime hours
to try to photograph something interesting to be included in our night photographs.
Once on site, you can check in real time and with virtual reality where the Milky Way
will be located with coordinates and precise time to be able to photograph it. This
method is very useful if you do not know well the summer and winter Sky, the main
constellations to locate the Milky Way and other deep Sky objects. You can use some
apps like PhotoPills, StarWalk2, Sky Map, Stellarium Mobile and Planit! Pros that are
available for both Android and Apple iOS.
Thanks to technology and computer programming, on desktops and notebook PCs we
can have available different software for the identification of the celestial arch.
Some software that I recommend are Stellarium, a free Open-Source planetarium, very
complete and easy to use and Google Sky can also be consulted online.
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To complete the software park, we recommend some programs for the phases of the
moon, to check when it will be a new moon and have a dark Sky.
Don’t forget the weather programs that we will explain in the next chapter.
A SCREENSHOT OF THE “STARWALK2” APP WITH REAL-TIME VIRTUAL REALITY.
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2.1.6 Astronomical Seeing and Weather
In astronomy, the term "seeing” refers to various phenomena mainly due to the Earth's
atmosphere that worsen the image of astronomical objects such as humidity, excessive
heat, cloudiness, and wind. To these are added other much more complex factors. A
complication is given by the fact that in the PSF (called point spreading function) the
effects of instrumental disturbance that degrade the image must also be considered,
such as, for example, aberrations of the optics and tracking errors.
THERE IS A METHOD TO CALCULATE THE SEEING

Meteoblue's Astronomy seeing offers a service for astronomers, meteorologists, Astro
photographers as well as other users who depend on a good forecast of air visibility
and atmospheric conditions of the following days.
On the site meteoblue.com we can set the location and in the option on the left called
“Outdoor & Sports“, we select "Astronomical seeing".
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In this way we will see a window with all the useful information about astronomical
observation including clouds, visible planets, humidity and astronomical visibility.
Reading the numbers, you can see that at night there will be no clouds while as regards
the astronomical Seeing the value will not be the best and you must hope for a value
that approaches 5. As written in the legend of the site estimated visibility indices (1
and 2) range from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) visibility conditions (Astronomical Seeing).
These values are calculated based on the integration of turbulent layers into the
atmosphere. Always consult the site for very useful information before leaving home.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE STARS

Visual magnitude (or limiting magnitude) is the estimate that is made to assess the
quality of observational conditions. It shows us the magnitude of the faintest star that
the eye can distinguish without help, so it describes quite well the state of Sky at that
time: transparency, fog, humidity.
This can also be estimated for Special devices for Deep-Sky observations, meteors and
roughly for the estimation of light pollution.
The simplest method to evaluate the limiting magnitude is to look for stars of
magnitude marked by an atlas and check which of these are visible. Another method
is to count visible stars delimited by simple geometric figures such as triangles and
quadrilaterals formed by known and clearly visible stars. This system was originally
invented by meteor seekers.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
Another important factor for the success of our night images is the weather conditions.
It is useless to go to the place if the weather warns you that it will be cloudy or even
there will be the presence of rain. The advice is to always check the weather through
online meteorology sites and check hour by hour the trend of cloudiness. We list some
useful websites to plan the shooting session.
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Sat 24: A Map of Europe that shows you the movement of clouds in "timelapse" every
15 minutes, and not only. The site also shows rain, thunderstorms and winds. With a
little logic you will understand if the clouds move towards our position.
If we do not have the possibility to open the previous websites a foolproof trick to see
if the clouds come towards us is this:
• We point our reflex on the tripod towards the clouds.
• We focus.
• We take about ten photos with an interval of at least ten seconds between
one shot and another.
• We put the first photo back in the preview and scroll through the photos
quickly, so you can see in which direction the clouds move.
Another factor is the humidity, amount of water or water vapor contained in the
atmosphere. The main reasons why you should not photograph in his presence are:
- as already mentioned before, it degrades the “Astronomical Seeing” returning poor
results.
- fogging the lens of our reflex preventing the shooting session.
The last factor not to be underestimated is the fog. Everyone has happened at least
once to find themselves in the fog during the night. If our eye did not see anything, the
camera sensor would only return clouded photographs.
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3. Postproduction
In this chapter we will explain step-by-step how to edit the

images obtained with our cameras in Adobe Photoshop 114
with the help of Astro Panel 5. astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
3.1 Meet Astro Panel X
Astro Panel X has advanced features to drastically reduce the workflow of the amateur
photographer, the professional photographer, and the video maker in a matter of
minutes. The workflow illustrated in this guide together with the description of the
functions will help you to reach high quality digital processing. The functions integrated
inside the panel will guide the user during the digital processing process because they
are arranged in chronological order to instruct him in a correct digital post-production
method. Astro Panel now integrates the advanced features of Fusion.
"Astro Panel X" is entirely in HTML5 and was created in collaboration with qualified
expert personnel to maximize the experience of use and make the integrated functions
fantastic.
"Astro Panel X" is not compatible with the versions of Photoshop CS, but only from the
CC 2017 version up to the current CC 2023. The compatibility with the CC version of
Photoshop is used to guarantee
excellent performance and
continuous updates.
To take full advantage of the plug-

in's features, I recommend you
always update Adobe Photoshop
CC to the latest version available.
Let's move on to installing the

plug-in in our PC / MAC.
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3.1.1 Installation
To install Astro Panel on your PC you can use Anastasiy Extension Manager.
Download from the site https://install.anastasiy.com the program Anastasiy Extension

Manager and perform these simple steps:
- Select your operating system from the page.
- download in .exe format or .dmg of the Extension.

- install the package on your PC or Mac.
- run the Extension Manager program.
- from the list of Adobe applications select Photoshop CC and then INSTALL.
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- extract the panel files in a folder on your PC, select
“it.angeloperrone.astropanelx.zxp”
Once you have installed the package on your PC, from Adobe Photoshop open the
menu "Window" -> "Extensions" and click on "Astro Panel X".
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If you are upgrading from an old version to 6.0, you will have to uninstall the old version
and install the new one always with the use of Anastasiy extension manager through
the "Remove" command.
Here is the video installation tutorial:
https://astropanel.it/pages/english-video-tutorial
If you have problems installing Astro Panel Pro, try to make a manual installation.
Open the file you downloaded from the Astro Panel website and copy only the folder
named it.angeloperrone.astropanelx contained in the "Manual Installation" folder in
one of these folders, depending on the operating system:
Win: C: Program Files (x86) Common Files CEP extensions
Mac: / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CEP / extensions
After this, open Adobe Photoshop CC and verify that the panel is present on the
Window -> Extensions.
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If you're using a Mac with an M1 processor to see all CEP extensions like Astro Panel,
you need to open Adobe Photoshop in Rosetta mode.
You will find Astro Panel X in the Adobe Photoshop CC menu from Window – Extensions
(legacy).
The release of the UXP version compatible with Mac M1-M2 is scheduled for this
summer.
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3.1.2 The Panel
With the latest update, many new features have been introduced regarding the
experience of using Astro Panel X. Once started we will find four main sections with
their dedicated functions:
- The "LANDSCAPE" section dedicated to the post-production of images has been

completely renewed. Now the functions integrated in this tab adapt to any type of
photography. You will be able to process white balance and color tone with one click,
remove digital noise and annoying hot pixels, increase image sharpness, recover
shadows and highlights, and handle many effects like Orton and Glow.
- The "ASTRO” section is dedicated to the post-production of astronomical images. The

Astro section has been redesigned with the addition of new features and simplified to
speed up the workflow of astronomical images (Milky Way, Startrail and Deep Sky).
- The "RETOUCH” section is dedicated to the post-production of portrait and wedding

images. The Retouch section was created to facilitate the work of selecting facial parts
with the addition of artificial intelligence and advanced functions for portrait
photography.
- The "EXPORT" section integrates image resizing for the web, for saving files and for
printing.
- The "FUSION" section has integrated with the latest update a new "Deep Sky" tab
with which you can add file sessions by channel and color.
The brightness, color, and hue masks have been moved down to be available whenever
you need them during the workflow. This section also integrates advanced selection of
brightness masks in real time via the eyedropper located on the right. Sliders for
controlling Adobe Photoshop layer masks are also available.
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3.1.3 The Landscape Section
The LANDSCAPE section has been revisited to contain all the new functions of Astro
Panel dedicated to landscaping. From this section we can edit any type of photography,
from astrophotography to landscape.
We describe one by one the

commands in this section.
COLOR CORRECTION, are
commands for color correction,
white balance, and color
saturation, precisely:
- WHITE BALANCE finds the

neutral average color of an image
and adjusts the gamma values
(half tones) according to that
neutral color.
- COLOR adjusts automatic

color corrections of the image.
- TONE adjusts automatic

corrections of image tones.
IMAGE CORRECTION, are

commands for the correction of
artifacts and defects that afflict all
digital images:
- HAZE performs the "

subtraction" of the haze in the
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photo and can be adjusted at will through the opacity of the level.
- ABERRATION is a function that analyzes chromatic aberrations. With the brush

the user can remove the aberrations present in the image.
- BANDING or scaling is the phenomenon whereby the shades of colors in an

image show themselves as bands of colors. This feature easily removes these
defects.
- NOISE CORRECTION, are commands for the elimination and reduction of digital
noise in digital images:
- REDUCE NOISE are adjustments that help the user to reduce the digital noise
present in the photo without losing important details.
- SHADOWS eliminates the digital noise contained in the shadows of the image.
- CHROMINANCE eliminates the chromatic noise contained in the image.
HOT PIXEL, quest or function set also automatically removes the "Hot Pixel", those
annoying white or colored pixels that typically appear when taking pictures with low
light and with long exposure times. Click on one of the colored buttons to increase the
intensity of the function.
SHARPNESS & CONTRAST is a group of semi-automatic functions that increase

sharpness in the image. Let's analyze the commands:
- LAB PRO, increases the sharpness of the image on the "Brightness"

channel by working in Color LAB.
- BOOST, this very useful function in daytime images increases sharpness
by exploiting the brightness masks (highlights and shadows).
- HIGH PASS, the " Accentuate Passage" filter works on the contrast of the
edges of objects, and you can adjust the ideal radius yourself during post-
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production. I advise you to use with caution so as not to exaggerate with
the sharpness.
- CLARITY increases the clarity of our images.
CONTRAST is the section dedicated to contrast divided into:
- DYNAMIC: dynamically increases the contrast in the photo.
- CONTRAST selectively increases micro-contrasts in the photo.
- HRLA: A very "violent" contrast ideal for shots that do not present contrast.
- EMPHASIZE: Contrast generated on shadows.
RECOVERY is a set of automatic functions that are used to recover lights and shadows
in a single click.
ORTON contains four adjustments to create the final Orton effect to your photo. You
can choose between:
- BASIC to create a lightweight Orton effect.
- LIGHT to create an Orton effect based on highlights.
- COLOR creates a professional Orton effect based on the color cast in the image.
- SHARP creates a sharp Orton effect.
GLOW contains four adjustments to create the final G-low effect to your photo. You
can choose between:
- SOFT to create a light low G-effect.
- PRO creates a professional and adjustable Glow effect as desired with the
channel mixer.
- NIGHT to create a low G effect suitable for night images.
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D&B, Dodge and Burn, also known as fencing and burning, is a technique dedicated
entirely to the management of light in photography. Through these functions you can
adjust the "dodge and burn":
- SIMPLE, gives us the possibility to intervene on the dodge and burn through a
black / white brush to obtain the desired effect;
- PRO, automatically creates an aggressive dodge and brun by working on the

lumonosity masks and can be adjusted at the end;
- LIGHT-SHADOW: The dynamic is the most professional of the orton present in

Astro Panel X because it emphasizes the areas of lights and contrasts those in
shadow.
- MAGIC: An orton effect to be used when there are many lights;
FINALIZE, contains the last commands to improve the final rendering of our image. Are:
- VIGNETTE adds adjustable vignetting as desired.
- EXPOSURE adjusts the final exposure of the useful photo before publication on
the Web or printing.
- MIDTONES increases contrast in midtones.
PANO APPEARANCE, is a group entirely dedicated to panoramas and 360 ° photos:
- 2/1->1/1: change the format from 2/1 to 1/1.
- 1/1->2/1: Change the format from 1/1 to 2/1.
Polar coordinates: Dedicated to 360° photos these two functions create the shortcut
for polar coordinates.
Note: to have this effect you must have a panoramic photo already joined.
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Equirectangular Fisheye: Section dedicated to the Little Planet and Fisheye effect, just
click on the buttons to get the effect you want, from angular fisheye to Little Planet.
Note: to have this effect you must have a panoramic photo already joined.
From Fisheye to Equirectangular: Function dedicated to the most practical of

panoramas, just click on the button to have the effect immediately visible.
Note: to have this effect you need to have a panoramic photo already joined
Functions to move and edit the image can be found in Move Pano. Once we have
applied the polar coordinates or fisheye effects, we can use the arrows to move the
image according to our work:
- ROTATE: Rotate the image by 90,180 or 270 degrees.
- REFLECT: Reflects the shot horizontally or vertically.
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3.1.4 The Astro Section
The Astro section has been revised again and now contains more features than the
previous version. We specifically list all functions.
AUTOMATIC PROCESS, this group contains

two automatic functions that transform
your astronomical photo in just one click.
Two functions are available:
- UNDEREXPOSURE - Automatic
process Dark Images, (for underexposed
or dark images).
- OVEREXPOSURE - Automatic
process Bright Images, (for images with
correct exposure).
The second group called FIRST STEP

contains some functions to be used at the
beginning of the workflow:
- 32 - Convert from 32 to 16 bit

image (DSS), sets the channel from 32 bit
to 16 bit of the Autosave file.tif generated
directly by the Deep Sky Stacker/Pixinsight
software after the sum of the chased files.
- RC - Reset colors Astrophotography, reset the tones and colors of the photo
making them automated;
- FALSE FLAT (REMOVE GRADIENT), is used to remove in two steps automatically,

the "unpleasant" gradient that we find in our astronomical photos. There are 3
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commands that differ from each other based on the amount of gradient we
want to remove. We don't need external software to do this because it's all
integrated into "Astro Panel".
STRECTH IMAGE, is a group composed of three commands that serves to extrapolate

the hidden signal of the Milky Way / Deep Sky contained in the photo; there are two
extrapolation modes based on the exposure of the photo (bright or dark image) UNDER
and OVER and another mode called DYNAMIC (Dynamic Strecth), amplifies the signal
of the Milky Way or deep sky objects;
NOISE REDUCTION, are commands for eliminating and reducing digital noise in digital
images:
- BG (BACKGROUND) are adjustments that help the user to reduce the digital
noise present in the sky background without losing important details.
- ALL eliminates the digital noise contained throughout the image.
- LUMINANCE eliminates the luminance noise contained in the image.
HOT PIXEL STARS, this set of functions also automatically removes the "Hot Pixels",
those annoying white or colored pixels that typically appear when taking photos with
low light and with long exposure times. Click on one of the colored buttons to increase
the intensity of the function.
With the introduction of Astro Panel X we have created and divided the new functions
by image categories:
- MILKYWAY, functions designed specifically for the Milky Way;
- STARTRAIL, special functions for the post-production of Startrails;
- DEEP-SKY, specific functions for the post-production of Deep Sky images.
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In MILKYWAY we find functions dedicated to the stars, the management of the sky
background, sharpness and dominants, management of light pollution and dodge and
burn.
In STARS, we find
- FILTER – Star Filter, filters the stars contained in the image and in a small
percentage turns them off in order to emphasize the nebulae. Click
several times on the button to filter as many stars as possible;
- REDUCE – Reduce Stars Diameter, used to reduce the diameter and make
the stars in the image point-like;
With the DARK SKY functions, we can make the sky background darker with the white
brush.
SHARPNESS, is a set of commands divided into:
- BOOST – Precision Boost, allows you to increase the sharpness of the

photo in a controlled way. It is advisable to use the white brush on the
black level mask to increase the effect of the chosen command;
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- AUTO – Automatic Precision Boost, increase the sharpness of the photo
automatically;
- EXTREME – Deconvulation, is a technique used in astrophotography that

serves to give a hypersharpness to our photos. Adjust the opacity of the
layer to your liking.
With CAST we can manage the dominant present in the sky and based on the present
one we click on one of the four colors to eliminate it. On the contrary, with
SATURATION we can increase the saturation of one or all the colors of the image.
LIGHT KILL are two functions that help us to totally or partially eliminate the light
pollution lights present in our photos.
D&B, Dodge and Burn, also known as fencing and burning, is a technique dedicated
entirely to the management of light in photography. Through these functions you can
adjust the "dodge and burn" manually or automatically on the whole image.
The second section concerns functions designed specifically for images with
STARTRAIL. In this section you can remove moiré from images, make your star trails
fluid (LIQUIFY) or saturate the color of images.
In the COLOR CAST section you can adjust or delete the cast present inyour image.
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In the last section DEEP SKY we find functions dedicated to images of the deep sky
and is the most complete of functions.
With the SELECT STARS group we can select stars according to their size.
With STARS we can make some special changes such as:
- NEBULA – Enhance NEBULOSITY, amplifies the nebulosity of the Milky

Way or deep
sky objects by reducing the diameter of the stars;
- FILTER – Star Filter, filters the stars contained in the image and in a small
percentage turns them off in order to emphasize the nebulae. Click
several times on the button to filter as many stars as possible;
- EXTRACT: extracts details from nebulosity without overexposing the stars;
- ENHANCE: extrapolates and emphasizes the whole part that does not
concern the stars.
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- VIVID – Saturate Color Stars, serves to increase the vividness and
saturation of the stars;
- REDUCE – Reduce Stars Diameter, used to reduce the diameter and make
the stars in the image point-like;
COLOR is a set of color management tools. We can adjust the color temperature on
the fly and correct chromatic aberrations around the stars:
- LAB, saturates the image using the LAB color mode;
- RED – Selective Color Red, extract the red color contained in the image
with a brush;
- GREEN – Selective Color Green, extract with a brush the green color
contained in the image;
- BLUE – Selective Color Blue, extract the blue color contained in the image
with a brush;
- FALSE HA, simulates the HA process of astronomical cameras in an

artificial way.
GRADIENT is composed of functions that help us to totally or partially eliminate the

colored gradient and light pollution lights present in our photos.
In GREEN we have two functions for managing the green channel, a well-known
problem in deep sky photography:
- CH. CHANGE: Varies the color of green;
- REDUCE: remove green from the photo (not recommended if the photo
has parts of green nebulosity).
BLUE HALOS: reduces the blue halos around the stars, is divided into "1" and "2" where
"1" is a light effect and "2" very heavy.
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BANDING, rdeduces the banding effect from photos, very frequent in stacking:
- NOISE, eliminates banding generated by noise;
- VERTICAL, eliminates vertical banding.
With the SPIKE group we can create the tips to the stars in an artificial way, this
function automatically selects the brightest stars generating the "spike". It is divided
into numbers from 1 to 4 where "1" are few stars and "4" are all stars.
With the BLACK SKY functions, we can make the sky background darker with the white
brush.
SHARPNESS, is a set of commands divided into:
- EDGES increase the sharpness of the photo on the edges of the image;
- CONTRAST selectively increases the micro-contrasts in the photo.
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3.1.5 La Sezione Retouch
This section contains all the essential functions for the intelligent selection of facial
parts and for the post-production of beauty and portrait photo images.
We describe the functions:
- SKIN, this group of functions

integrates useful controls to shape and
reduce skin imperfections.
- MOUTH contains commands to
highlight the lips and whiten the teeth.
- DEFECTS, here we find other
commands to reduce or increase
imperfections, reduce redness, and
plasticize the skin.
- EYES, in this section there are useful
commands for the post-production of
the eyes, to increase sharpness and
contrast.
- MAKE-UP contains commands to
highlight the makeup of the face.
- RETOUCH EFFECTS, in retouching
effects we find visual effects that we
can give to the image.
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3.1.6 The Section Export / Masks
The Export section has been redesigned compared to the previous version and is
divided into groups. We specifically list all functions. We have the possibility to resize
images at will either for saving locally, for printing or for web. In addition we also find
a convenient function to add the watermark
to our image before publication on social
media.
Other convenient functions that immediately

catch the eye are quick adjustments. In fact,
we would no longer need to adjust the
opacity of the layer, the gradient and the
density of the mask because we could do it
directly from the panel below. Under these
adjustments, quick tools such as Forward
and backward, White Quick Mask, Curve
Level and Levels, White Brush and Black
Brush, Hue/Saturation and Color Balance
have been optimized compared to the
previous version.
Regarding the management of masks At the

bottom we have luminosity masks, color
masks and Tonality masks divided by
Highlights, Midtones and Shadows.
On the right we have the eyedropper that

allows us to query any area of the image and
in real time understand which brightness mask to use. In fact, one of the masks will
light up in light blue.
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Above the masks you will find some commands that will help you finish the masks:
- FINE, to finish the mask with the curve level;
- DESELECT, to deselect the selection (CTRL+D);
- INVERT, to reverse the selection;
- APPLY, to confirm and paste the mask selection into our Photoshop layer;
- SUM, to add all the layers into a new one;
- DUPLICATE, to duplicate the underlying layer;
- GROUP, to create a group from the selected layers;
- CAMERA-RAW, to open the Camera-Raw filter.
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3.1.6 The Section Fusion
This section is a concentrate of technology in Astro Panel. In fact, it integrates all the
features of Fusion revised and updated with new features. The Fusion tab is divided
into five tabs with their dedicated functions:
- The "MERGE" section contains the most common types of image fusion developed
from scratch and with proprietary code to speed up the operations of summing up the
images.
- The "STARTRAIL" section adds hundreds of images to obtain beautiful linear Startrail
with effects on the stars.
- The "SKY STACK" section allows you to add images of the Milky Way and deep Sky
very quickly. You can insert light frames, dark, bias, and flat.
- The "SKY HDR" section is one of the most advanced features of Fusion and blends up
to three different exposures into one to achieve an unparalleled night dynamic range.
- The "DEEP SKY" section allows you to add up multiple channels to get the final colour
image we want.
Let's move on to illustrate the various functions of the "Fusion Section" section by
section.
MERGE
The Merge section allows us to add up many images to create a beautiful "SILK" effect
that can be obtained even without the aid of ND filters. Not only that, but you can also
merge images to get focus stacking, merge beautiful images in classic HDR and night
HDR (night multi-exposure).
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Here is the list of the tooltip:
LOAD FILES: This button allows you to select the files to be merged to obtain the silk
effect.
GENERIC ALIGNMENT: This switch activates the automatic alignment of layers, the one
accessible to everyone in the Edit section > Automatic alignment of layers, and
automatically finds the alignment method. [Tip: When using this alignment method,
possibly also enable lens correction for better result]
TRIPOD ALIGNMENT: This switch does the exact same thing as the generic alignment
switch, but as an alignment method it uses ''Reposition'' instead of ''Automatic''.
LENS CORRECTION: This function allows you to open files by applying the distortion
and vignetting correction available within the Camera Raw plug-in.
CHROMATIC ABERRATION: With this function we can also activate the removal of
chromatic aberrations, also available in the Camera Raw plug-in.
SILK: Clicking this button starts the fusion to create the desired silk effect.
FOCUS STACKING: Clicking this button starts the fusion to create focus stacking. Focus
Stacking is a digital photographic technique that involves the execution of a series of
shots of the same frame each on a different focus plane in sequence, to obtain a final
image with a depth of field greater than that obtainable with traditional techniques.
HDR and NIGHT HDR: HDR photos are used to capture scenes with a wide dynamic
range. Click the HDR button to add daytime images or NIGHT HDR for night images.
MEAN STACK to add images of the same subject and obtain a single "clean" final image
of the chromatic and digital noise.
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THE STARTRAIL
LOAD FILES: This button allows you to select the files to be merged to obtain the
startrail effect.
TRIPOD ALIGNMENT: This switch activates the automatic alignment of layers, the one
accessible to everyone in the Edit section > Automatic alignment of layers, and
automatically finds the alignment method. [Tip: When using this alignment method,
possibly also enable lens correction for better result]
COMET STAR EFFECT: This switch allows you to activate fusion with the shooting star
effect.
ROTATION DIRECTION: This switch allows you to activate the fusion with the shooting
star effect.
and vignetting correction available within the Camera Raw plugin.
chromatic aberrations, also available in the Camera Raw plugin.
BLEND: Clicking this button starts the fusion, and at the end of it a message will appear
that will report the time taken for the process of merging the shots.
SKY STACK E SKY HDR

LIGHT: This button allows you to select the light files to be merged.
DARK: This button allows you to select the dark files to be merged.
BIAS: This button allows you to select the bias files to be merged.
FLAT: This button allows you to select the flat files to be merged.
You can select or not the files, except for the lights that must always be selected.
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ALIGNMENT: With this switch you can activate the alignment of layers, and it is the one
available on Photoshop in File > Automate > Photo merge. Its accuracy is good but
approximate. If the photos are not aligned correctly, they are discarded.
DUAL PASS ALIGNMENT: With this switch you can activate the second alignment step.
By activating this function, in fact, the photos will be aligned in an approximate way
through the automatic alignment of Photoshop, and then be aligned to maximum
precision in a second step (with the maximum tolerance set in the slider "ALIGNMENT
PRECISION"). This alignment algorithm is proprietary and is not present in any other
Photoshop feature.
ALIGNMENT PRECISION: With this slider you can change the accuracy of the alignment.
The recommended value is 3 pixels, as it is the ideal compromise between precision
and alignment speed. The lower the value in pixels, the greater the accuracy but also
the time required for alignment.
MAX ALIGN RADIUS: With this slider you can change the maximum radius in which you
can align two images. For example, if the value is set to 15 pixels, the maximum
possible alignment distance will be 15 pixels. If the photos are not aligned correctly,
they are discarded.
WIDTH AREA: With this slider you can change the width of the selection area. This
command should be used keeping in mind that the larger the size of the area, the
greater the calculation time required for each iteration of the DUAL PASS ALIGNMENT,
but in favor of precision. For a normal 24MPX photo, the recommended indicative size
is 150/250px, but, if possible, it is always better to prefer an area larger than necessary
rather than too small.
and vignetting correction available within the Camera Raw plugin.
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chromatic aberrations, also available in the Camera Raw plugin.
ALIGNMENT HELPER: In some cases, it may happen that the alignment of Photoshop
fails to correctly process the alignment of the images due to light conditions. With this
switch it is possible to facilitate alignment by performing 7 maximum attempts by
varying some parameters. In this way, if without the help of the Alignment Helper a
good part of the photos was discarded at the end of the processing, it is possible to
repeat the fusion by activating this function, allowing with good probability to align
even the images that had otherwise been discarded.
THRESHOLD: This slider allows you to act on the threshold parameter of the DUAL
PASS ALIGNMENT. If you do not know its impact thoroughly, it is always better to keep
it at 128. It is an advanced command that allows the user to set the threshold to extract
the stars from the Sky. For underexposed photos you may need to bring this value to
the left, while for overexposed photos to the right.
It should be used sparingly, with the aim of making the stars more evident at alignment.
To set the optimal value, just click the "PLACE" key under the heading
"ALIGNMENTZONE", click on the selection with the right mouse button and select
"Deselect" (or for the more experienced click the keyboard shortcut CTRL + D for
Windows users or COMMAND + D for Mac users), then go to Image > Adjustments >
Threshold, and move the slider making sure that you see the stars in a defined way,
but avoiding artifacts such as stars that should be round that become deformed white
spots etc. Perfection would be a big star that you can make as round as possible. Then
found the best value for you keep it in mind, and after clicking Cancel (or possibly even
OK, it is not influential), you can correctly set that value on the slider "THRESHOLD".
If you have not previously selected the alignment area you will have to click the
"PLACE" button again and then when you are done, click on "CONFIRM", or if you have
already previously selected the area, you can trivially close the document.
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PLACE: This button allows you to upload the first photo selected in the Light item and
then position the alignment area in the most appropriate way.
The positioning of the alignment zone must be done with a precise criterion, that is, it
must be centered on a star as large as possible. In addition to selecting the Dual Pass
alignment area, it can be used to immediately upload one of our photos, to find the
most appropriate value of the threshold according to any specific needs.
CONFIRM: At the end of the placement, just click this button so that the position of
the area is recorded and applied during processing.
START: Through this button you can start the Stacking process.
RESET: This button has the function of resetting the values of all sliders to the default
values.
DEEP SKY SECTION

In this section you can add several files per channel and get the final color image
automatically. In fact, Astro Panel can determine based on the files you enter what
sum to make.
We can add files R G B, L RGB, L R G B, HA (R) OIII (G) SII (B), HA RGB.
ALIGNMENT: With this switch you can activate channel alignment.
ALIGNMENT TYPE: With this switch you can activate the alignment of the channels to
automatic or reposition.
ALIGNMENT CYCLES: With this slider you can change the accuracy of the alignment.
The recommended value is 3 pixels, as it is the ideal compromise between precision
and alignment speed. The lower the value in pixels, the greater the accuracy but also
the time required for alignment.
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3.2 Stacking images in Astro Panel
In this chapter we will explain howto carry out all types of Stacking with Astro Panel 5
in Adobe Photoshop. In particular, we will deepen:
• Merge tab tutorial to add images to have the silk effect, focus Stacking, HDR
and HDR Night, Mean Stack.
• Tutorial to add hundreds of shots to have fantastic Startrail.
• Tutorial to stack classic astronomical images and HDR.
• Tutorial to make the Sum per channel of Deep Sky Images.
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3.2.1 Tutorial Merge (Silk, Focus Stacking, HDR, Night HDR,
Mean Stack)
In this tutorial we will explain
how to best use the MERGE
section to achieve a beautiful
Silk Effect, Focus Stacking,
HDR or Night HDR. The
operation is the same for all
four casting methods.
For this tutorial, we use a

series of night files to upload
as "HDR".
The first button to press is

"LOAD FILES" to upload our
photos. Once selected we
must choose the type of
alignment we want between
"GENERIC" or "TRIPOD". We
refer you to page 28 to
discover the differences
between the two commands.
We choose "TRIPOD" (repositioning method) and active "LENS CORRECTION" to
correct lens distortion and "CHROMATIC ABERRATION" to correct chromatic
aberrations.
Once all the parameters have been set, I press the "HDR" key and wait for the final
processing.
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This procedure is the same for the other types of fusion of the shots and the result
obtained by the fusion can be enhanced and modified with the features present in the
LANDSCAPE section.
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3.2.2 Stacking Startrail
Now let's illustrate how to merge images to create a Startrail. The procedure is like that
of the MERGE form. The first button to press is "LIGHT" to load the Startrail light
frames. If available we can also load Dark, Bias, and Flat frames. Once you have
selected the photos to upload,
we must activate the “TRIPOD
ALIGNMENT” alignment. This
switch activates the automatic
alignment of the levels, the one
accessible to all in the section
Edit> Automatic level
alignment, and automatically
finds the alignment method.
In the Startrail tab we can also

apply the "COMET STAR
EFFECT" effect to give an effect
to the stars streaked with
shooting stars or to reverse the
direction of the Startrail using
the "ROTATION DIRECTION"
switch.
We activate "LENS CORRECTION" to correct lens distortion and "CHROMATIC

ABERRATION" to correct chromatic aberrations.
Click on BLEND to start the image fusion and wait for our Startrail.
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3.2.3 Stacking Astronomical Images and HDR
In this tutorial we will explain how to stack images of the Milky Way or the deep sky
using the Sky Stack and Sky Stack HDR section.
The difference between the two types of merges is in the file upload. In the first type
we will only add files that have a single exposure while in the second we can add more
files with different exposures
(different times or ISO). We can
also load dark, bias and flat to
increase the final quality of the file.
Before starting the fusion of the
images, we can edit all our files in
Adobe Camera Raw without
opening them in Photoshop CC (just
click on the CLOSE button of Adobe
Camera Raw) to generate the XMP
files that will be read by Fusion. In
this way we could for example
correct the colour or white balance
of our images to have a correct
result.
After this introduction and after
closing Adobe Camera Raw, the
first button to press is "LIGHT" to
load the light frames, then we
move on to loading the dark, the bias and the flat field frames. If we don't have all the
required file types it doesn't matter, Fusion will still process the merging of the images.
To make the best use of the alignment tools, it is essential to understand how they
work and when and how to use each slider.
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Normal alignment, by itself, is capable of aligning photos with precision and speed, but
sometimes, when this alignment is not effective, you can resort to activating the
alignment helper. As already mentioned, this function, by varying some parameters,
tries to make some types of photos less "indigestible", making them better aligned by
automatic alignment, but paying a price in terms of processing time.
If absolute precision is required, simply activate the dualpass alignment. This tool is
extremely accurate, but also slower, based on the amount of misalignment of each
frame.
In summary, in order we have:
1) Alignment - Fast and fairly accurate, but sometimes it fails to align some photos
2) Alignment + Dualpass Alignment - Even less fast but extremely precise
According to the needs it is therefore possible to set one of the two configurations to
have the desired result in the desired time. I refer you to page 29 for technical details.
In this tutorial, we chose 5 images of the Milky Way chased with star tracker
Skywatcher Star Adventurer for a total of 120 seconds at ISO 1600. We can activate all
3 types of alignment or decide to activate only the first two. Next parameters to be set
will be "ALIGNMENT PRECISION" and "MAX ALIGN RADIUS" which I set to 2 pixels to
have a higher precision of alignment and 20 pixels the maximum radius in which it is
possible to align two images and to avoid that some light frame.
If you have also activated the "DUAL PASS ALIGNMENT" we have to make a small
introduction. The "DUAL PASS ALIGNMENT" is a type of customized alignment with
which we can decide the accuracy of the alignment. This type of alignment is activated
by setting the maximum threshold of the stars to have a maximum alignment accuracy,
that is by setting the slider "THRESHOLD".
To set the threshold, proceed as follows:
- Set the sample area of the image, without exaggerating, for "AREA WIDTH";
- I press the PLACE key and go to look for an area of the sample image. In my case
I used the planet Jupiter as a sample star for alignment;
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- Go to Image> Adjustments> Threshold, and move the slider so that you see the
stars in a defined way (see the following image);
o
- Once the best value is found, click on Cancel or OK (it is not influential), you can
correctly set that value on the slider "THRESHOLD".
- Press "CONFIRM" to confirm these parameters.
- You can also correct lens distortion using the "LENS CORRECTION" switch and
chromatic aberrations with the "CHROMATIC ABERRATION" switch.
- To start image stacking press "START".
If the images do not perfectly align, we click on the "RESET" button to reset all the
original parameters and modify them so that the fusion is successful.
Tip: If you are using light frames photographed with ultra-wide-angle lenses and not
starred, do not use the "LENS CORRECTION" function.
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3.2.4 Stacking Deep Sky Channel
In this tutorial we will explain how to stack images of the Milky Way or deep sky using
the DEEP SKY tab.
In our example, we'll upload three R

G B files, and Astro Panel will
automatically upload files to the
appropriate channels to create the
final RGB image.
We upload files and select AUTO

ALIGNMENT to ON and ALIGNMENT
TYPE on SHIFT as our files are not
taken in the same way.
ALIGNMENT CYCLES let's leave it on 3

to have a balanced alignment
between speed and performance.
At this point we click on PROCESS and wait for it to be processed. Once the alignment
is complete we cut out the
excess edges and go to the
chapter "3.3.4 Deep Sky
Processing" to learn how
to post produce this Deep
Sky Image.
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3.3 Workflow in Adobe Photoshop with Astro Panel X
In this chapter I will explain the ideal workflow to use with Astro Panel 5 in Adobe
Photoshop CC with astronomical images. In the previous chapters I explained the steps
to be performed for the Stacking of Images of the Milky Way, the Deep Sky and
Startrail. Before starting with Post Production, I advise you to keep the Adobe
Photoshop version up to date in order to fully exploit the potential of the plug-in.
To perform step-by-step all the steps of post-production set your workspace

to"Photography" from the Photoshop menu "Window-> Workspace".
Move Astro Panel X as in the image below and the "History" window under the plug-in
or if there is not enough space in an area near the panel. This helps you remember the
steps to take for post-production and go back when you do something wrong.
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3.3.1 Single Shot Processing
In this chapter we will perform the Stacking and Post-Production of an image of the
Milky Way composed of:
- 10 Light Frames, 120" Exposure, F/4.0 Aperture, ISO 1600;
- 3 Dark Frames, 120" Exposure, F/4.0 Aperture, ISO 1600;
- 15 Bias Frames, 1/4000s Exposure, F/4.0 Aperture, ISO 1600.
- Nikon D750, Nikon 20mm F/1.8 G ED;
- Optolong L-PRO filter to reduce light pollution;
- Equatorial mount Skywatcher Star Adventurer.
We use our Astro Panel X and set the parameters for this photo. I remind you that the
settings of the Sky Stack card vary according to your equipment, exposure times and if
you have used the Astro-Tracker.
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Before setting the ideal parameters for stacking I press the PLACE button and find an
ideal area of the photo to be able to set the sample point for alignment and find the
best threshold value. For this procedure I have set in Astro Panel:
- Alignment and Alignment Helper;
- THRESHOLD at 131 pixel;
- LENS CORRECTION set ON;
- CHROMATIC ABERRATION set ON;
- The rest set on the Default parameters;
Parameterized everything, I press CONFIRM and START and wait for the sum of the
images in Astro Panel.
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After stacking the Milky Way with the advanced functions of Fusion we move on to the
post production of our file. In case you need to work with a single RAW file, you can
skip the introduction about Image stacking.
POST-PRODUCTION IS IDENTICAL EVEN FOR A SINGLE RAW FILE.
We rotate the image if it is upside down and the first step to and ffettuare is to reset
the colors of the image and decrease, if present, the dominant green in the image. The
commands to be used are "RESET COLORS" in the Automatic – First Step group and
“GREEN” in the “CAST" subgroup of the "MILKY WAY" tab.
If you have already corrected colors before stacking images in Adobe Camera Raw, just
try to remove (if present) the green cast. When we click on the "CAST" command the
background is duplicated and we can use the white brush to eliminate the green cast
in the image.
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We adjust the opacity of the brush if the effect of removing the dominant is very
strong.
Now we have to analyze our image by looking at the histogram at the top right. Analysis
is key to moving on to the other set of commands and figuring out which function to
use.
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We are talking about the "STRECH IMAGE" group that serves to extract the hidden
signal of the Milky Way from RAW and contrast the image. Then, click on the "UNDER”
button that is used for the images below (in this case the image is slightly
underexposed).
Use the "OVER" button when your image is overexposed and the pixels of the
histogram are facing right as opposed to what happens in the image.
The result will be a slightly bright image that we will correct with the tool "Levels" or
"Curves". Using Curves and the "Hand" tool, we slightly lower the brightness at the
brightest point of the image by contrasting the Milky Way. Do not try to darken the
image too much otherwise the shadows will be too dark. If the image is still bright, try
"Levels" to close the shadows slightly by moving the left slider towards the center.
During graphic processing it can happen that our image has very different shades from
the reality we have photographed. Then, with the SUM command in Astro Panel X we
make a copy of the underlying layers in a new layer and opening the "Adobe Camera
RAW" filter, we will manage our image with the use of the HSL panel.
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Try to move the sliders of the various shades to get a sky as neutral or blue as possible
and the shades of the tail of the Milky Way warmer. The core of the Milky Way must
have a yellow/red dominant. If present, the green or red airglow in the air above the
horizon, we can eliminate or increase it with the
use of a graduated filter in Adobe Camera Raw.
Airglow or night luminescence is a faint light
emission of the Earth's atmosphere and as a result,
the night sky is never completely dark. It is
important in the Saturation tab to increase the
reds and yellows to + 30/40% to make the color of
the core intense.
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Next step is the reduction of chromatic noise and digital noise present in
our image. To do this we can use the dedicated function group "NOISE REDUCTION".
We use the functions present in the BG (Background) and LUMINANCE group to clean
the image from any defect.
We can adjust the opacity of duplicate layers to preserve detail.
Even if we have other tools available for now we will not use them. We will give a softer
look to our post-production by using the "MILKY WAY" group controls in the "STARS”
subgroup of the "ASTRO" board. With the "FILTER” command we can blur the stars in
the image to enhance the gaseous areas and make the post-production of theMilky
Way softer as if it were a cloud.
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There are other commands available to work on the stars and you can use them
according to your preferences.
The next step will allow us to extract even more signal from the Milky Way and increase
the contrast of the gaseous parts of our galaxy.
We are talking about the commands in the "SHARPNESS" subgroup. The “BOOST"
command will highlight the filaments of the Milky Way through a black brush or
"AUTOBOOST" that will automatically do it for us. The difference between the two
functions is that with the first you can work manually while with the other in automatic
but not very precise mode. We can decide to work step by step to achieve a fine result
without producing artifacts and destroying the image. In fact, using the white brush I
can accentuate the areas of the image affected by this increase in sharpness and leave
the rest of the image that is composed of stars.
Then we set a gradient of 350/400 pixels on the mask to reduce the sharpness gap
between the two areas of the image. We can set this value in Astro Panel on the slider
at the bottom called FEATHER.
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There is another way to do this job and that is to use brightness masks to select the
filaments of the Milky Way. This procedure is more complex than brush selection and
you will have to return to the "BOOST" starting point without using the brush.
To start we use the dropper at the bottom right of Astro Panel and query with the
mouse the area of the image that interests us. Once we have identified the preferred
area, one of the brightness masks becomes light blue and click on it with the mouse to
preview the mask.
If the selection made satisfies us, press the "APPLY" command to paste the selection
into the black active mask of the "BOOST" layer. If we want to make a change in the
mask click on "REFINE" to increase or decrease the selection through the CURVE layer
that has opened as
new window. If the preview of the brightness mask selection satisfies us, press "OK"
on the Curves layer and again the "APPLY" command on the Astro Panel.
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In this way we selected those filaments that we wanted to highlight with the “BOOST”
command in a perfect way, without artifacts and without touching the stars.
At this point we will work on the color balance by helping us with the Photoshop
command "Selective color correction" from the Image -> Adjustments menu, to adjust
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the colors of the Milky Way. Thanks to this tool we can selectively adjust the amount
of a process color in any primary color, without altering the other primary colors.
With the “SUM” command in Astro Panel X we make a copy of the underlying layers in
a new layer and open the "Selective Color Correction" function.
The adjustments I will make will serve to increase the yellow in the core of the Milky
Way and make the color of the sky even more neutral. First I adjust the sliders in this
way:
Red Yellow Green
- Cyan – 50% - Cyan – 100% - Cyan +100%

- Magenta -25% - Magenta 0% - Magenta 0%
- Yellow +50% - Yellow +100% - Yellow -100%
- Black 0% - Black +100% - Black 0%
Cyan Blue Magenta
- Cyan -30% - Cyan +30% - Cyan -50%

- Magenta 0% - Magenta 0% - Magenta -20%
- Yellow 30% - Yellow -30% - Yellow +50%
- Black 0% - Black 0% - Black +50%
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If the vividness of the colors is not satisfactory, in the subgroup "SATURATION” we can
click on "ALL" that livens up the colors by applying a layer mask. We can apply a white
brush on the mask to saturate part of the Milky Way.
But what happens if the colors become very saturated or we want to correct a
particular shade? In this case we can reduce the saturation of the blue color and to do
this we can always use the Astro Panel eyedropper to identify if the satarized area of
the image belongs to shadows, midtones or highlights.
Now open Adobe Camera Raw and try to reduce with a few clicks the light pollution
that is on the right of the image. Through the graduated filter we can select the area
where we are going to reduce light pollution and set these parameters.
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Once the correction of light pollution is finished, I recommend managing and
experimenting with the brightness masks in real time. Through real-time brightness
masks and the combination of functions with active masks, we can pull out other
details from the image that are hidden in the Milky Way's core or tail.
Let’s take the "Eyedropper" of Astro Panel X and try to find out which brightness mask
to use. We reuse the "BOOST" command and paste the selection of the “LIGHT3"
brightness mask into the active mask, automatically obtaining new details in the core
of the Milky Way.
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We increase the contrast of the image with the "CONTRAST" function in the
"SHARPNESS - CONTRAST" group in the “LANDSCAPE” tab. Also, here I can apply the
combination of the "CONTRAST" function with the brightness masks, precisely with the
Half tones 2. In fact, the combination of these two elements gives a more precise and
contrasting imprint to the final image.
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We remain in the “LANDSCAPE” tab to give a magical touch to our photo. I always
finalize my photos with a touch of "Dodge and Burn" combined with brightness masks.
In the “DODGE AND BURN” function group, clicking “SIMPLE” creates two layers,
Dodge and Burn. At the Dodge level I always apply a brightness mask in the highlights,
while at Burn one of the shadows. In this way the procedure becomes precise and with
the right impact on the image.
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In a few minutes and with the right controls we arrived at a satisfactory result without
creating artifacts, maintaining remarkable detail and correct colors.
On the following page you can view the before and after of the newly processed image.
In the next chapter I will illustrate how to manage double exposure with a landscape
taken at night or at blue time by inserting the elaborate sky in this chapter.
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167
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3.3.2 Dual Exposure processing
In the previous chapter we saw what are the steps to be performed for the
development of a chased image or single pose that has the Milky Way as its subject. In
this chapter we will explain how to elaborate a double exposure in which we have two
rows:
- The starry sky (elaborated in the previous chapter);
- The landscape or other subject that we photographed at the blue hour or

overnight with a long exposure.
The image we will analyze now has as its subject a landscape photographed during the
night with these settings:
- Nikon D750;
- Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G ED;
- 3 Light frame da 120”, Apertura F/4.0, ISO 1600;
- Nikon D750, Nikon 20mm F/1.8 G ED;

- Equatorial mount Skywatcher Star Adventurer.
The purpose of this post-production will be to elaborate the landscape in order to place
the Milky Way in the same position as it was at the time this photo was taken. There
are multiple procedures to do this processing and we will explain some of them during
this workflow.
One of these techniques that I have experimented with in the last year is the "Mean
Stack". To carry out this technique, it will be enough to take three to seven consecutive
shots equal to the subject we want to photograph. In this way every single photo will
have different information for each pixel and in case in one of them there is luminance
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or chrominance noise this will be replaced with another pixel without digital noise of
one of the photos of the sequence we have taken.
The result in post-production will be a sum of the sequence without digital noise. To
begin with, open Astro Panel X and the "FUSION" tab with the "MERGE" group. We
upload our landscape RAW files, set an alignment with "TRIPOD ALIGNMENT” and start
the sum of the images by clicking on "MEAN STACK".
Once the sum of the shots is finished, adjust the parameters in Adobe Camera Raw to
increase the exposure, correct the color temperature and tint. In my case the Nikon
D750 is Full Spectrum (without infrared filter) and I will also have to fix the white
balance as well as vary parameters such as exposure, lights, shadows, blacks and
whites as in the image you see on the next page.
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Once I have adjusted these parameters I open the image in Photoshop by clicking on
the OPEN button of Camera RAW. As you can see from the image, the long exposure
of the photo has registered a bit of Earth's rotation.
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We zoom to 100% of the photo to check if there are hot pixels or color noise. In this
case I eliminated the hot pixels with the command "SOFT (2)” (LIGHT) and then I
applied noise reduction using the commands "REDUCE" present in the group "NOISE
CORRECTION" (last image).
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We apply a slight sharpness to the image from the "SHARPNESS-CONTRAST" group
with the "HI-PASS" command, leaving everything by default (Radius = 4 Pixels). In this
way we have recovered some detail through the "Accentua Passaggia" filter modified
in Astro Panel, which we cannot record through the sensor during the night.
At this point, we use the Dodge and Burn as explained in the previous chapter to give
some contrast to the photo and make it three-dimensional. From the "DODGE AND
BURN" group, clicking on “SIMPLE" creates two layers, Dodge and Burn: at the Dodge
level I always apply a brightness mask in
the highlights, while at Burn one of the
shadows. In this way the procedure
becomes precise and with the right three-
dimensionality on the landscape. For
Dodge I apply the mask "LIGHT1" (LIGHTS-
1) while for Burn I select "SHADOWS3" (SHADOWS-3). With the white brush I lighten
the bright areas with an opacity of 20-30%, instead with the black brush at 30-40%
opacity, I darken the shadow areas.
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After the post-production of the landscape, click on "SINGLE LEVEL" to join all the levels
and move on to double exposure. Now we have to select the sky and insert the photo
of the Milky Way that we elaborated in the previous chapter. To do this we open the
previous image that we have saved in TIFF and paste it into this photo as a new layer
inserting it below the landscape level. If you have the new 2022 version of Photoshop
you can select the sky from the Photoshop menu "Selection -> Sky".
In a few seconds Photoshop will select the sky
of the image. Before deleting the area of the
photo that does not interest us, expand the
selection by 5-8 pixels ("Selection -> Edit ->
Expand") to have a softer selection. Now with
the "Eraser" tool accurately delete the part of
the photo to be deleted. Alternatively, if you do not have the latest version of PS, with
the "Quick Selection Tool" you have to manually make the sky selection. Try to gently
match the sky area with the terrestrial area and help yourself with a black brush to
darken the illuminated areas near the sky.
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Compared to the past, this procedure is easy to carry out especially if we have many
photos to do using this workflow. To match the sky to the color temperature of the
landscape we can make changes, if necessary, with the color balance from Photoshop
adjustments ("Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance"). Or we can increase light
pollution and heat the image to the brightest point to give a particular light effect to
our photo. You can do this with the graduated or radial filter in Adobe Camera Raw
(see image below) for both the Milky Way image and the landscape.
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To finish our photo, we join the layers and increase the vignetting to darken the edges
giving that magical touch of night photography. To do this we go to the "FINALIZE"
group of the "LANDSCAPE" tab and click on "VIGNETTE" to increase the vignetting. We
can also add a touch of Orton effect, but personally I prefer to leave the photo as it is.
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On the following page you can see the before and after of the image we have just
processed in post-production.
To some it might seem a bit too simple this workflow, but if you have a good technique
in post-production you will not have to work miracles. For this reason I invite you to
study all the astrophotography techniques described in this book to simplify your
workflow, save time in Photoshop and increase the quality of your shots.
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3.3.3 Deep Sky Processing
In the previous chapters we explained the workflow for the post-production of the
Milky Way with Astro Panel. The procedure for post production is very similar and
differs only in the use of some groups of commands presemti in the new group "DEEP
SKY” such as "FALSE FLAT" and "NEBULA". What makes the difference is the technique
of shooting images and how much exposure time we dedicate to Deep Sky
photography. It is important to carry out at least two hours of light frames, a dozen
dark frames, bias frames and above all it is mandatory to make the flat to correct the
vignetting of the lens or telescope we use.
In this chapter we will elaborate a shooting session consisting of:
- 16 Light Frames, 120" Exposure, F/2.8 Aperture, ISO 800;

- 5 Dark Frames, 120" Exposure, F/2.8 Aperture, ISO 800;
- 25 Bias Frames, 1/4000s Exposure, F/2.8 Aperture, ISO 800;
- 17 Flat Frames, 1/13s Exposure, F/2.8 Aperture, ISO 800;
- Nikon D750 Modified, Sigma 300mm F/2.8 EX DG HSM;
- Skywatcher EQM35 PRO.
The Stacking was carried out using
Astro Panel X in Adobe Photoshop
2023 and the image on the side
represents the starting file. To see
how to stack astronomical images
with Astro Panel go to read the
chapter "Stacking Astronomical
Images and HDR".
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If you used another software to stack, such as Deep Sky Stacker, directly open the
Autosave.tif 32-bit output file in Adobe Photoshop. Using the 32bit -> 16bit function
of Astro Panel contained in the "AUTOMATIC – FIRST STEP" group, the working method
from 32 BIT to 16 BIT can be converted completely automatically.
Having said that, the first function to be used is the one for resetting the colors called
"RESET COLORS" in the "AUTOMATIC – FIRST STEP" group. This feature automatically
resets the tone and color to give us an initial imprint for post-production. If you don't
like the result, open Adobe Camera RAW (for images taken with edited or astronomical
cameras) and adjust the temperature and color tint to merge the RGB levels of the
histogram. In my case I made the adjustment in Camera RAW to join the RGB levels
and make the photo with a neutral tone.
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If there is a slight light gradient in our image, we can eliminate it using the "FALSE FLAT"
functions in the "FIRST STEP" group. The first command to use is “START" to generate
the artificial flat that we should then subtract from our starting image. Next we will
click on “25" or "50” or “75" according to the percentage of gradient that we want to
remove from the image. If the result does not satisfy us we can go back with the
dedicated down button and repeat the two operations.
As you can see from the image above, the photo is clean from that gradient and ready
for the next step. Analyzing the histogram at the top right we must extract the hidden
signal of the nebulae and to do so we go to the "STRECH IMAGE" group. As explained
in the previous chapters, the "UNDER" button is used for underexposed images and
the "OVER" command for overexposed images . In this case we will use the first
command to proceed with the workflow.
It is recommended to use the "UNDER” command several times when your photo is
still underexposed after the first click. This procedure if used several times tends to
increase the chromatic noise, so arm yourself with many dark frames during shooting
if your camera suffers from this disorder.
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In the image on the next page you can see the result of the "UNDER" command
combined with the Tonal or Curve Values function. The combination of these two
functions helps to extract gaseous zones and hidden details and at the same time
darkens the image by eliminating the gradient. With Levels, all you have to do is move
the shadow slider to the right to darken the image and delete the gradient. Repeat the
procedure several times until the nebulae come out.
In my workflow I used only once the combination (UNDER and LEVELS) and the result
is quite satisfactory. Now we have managed to pull out the signal of the nebula that
was previously practically hidden.
At this point we will try to extract even more signal and give depth to the nebula with
the "NEBULA" command of the "STARS” subgroup in "DEEP SKY" to reduce the
diameter of the stars and increase the nebulosity of the image. This step can be skipped
if you have executed the "FILTER" command on the stars (it is always in the "STARS"
subgroup).
182
In addition, the "NEBULA" command takes a long time to complete and a powerful
PC/MAC. Before launching the "NEBULA" command, with the SUM command we make
a copy of the underlying layers in a new layer.
The result of the "NEBULA" function is always gratifying to the eyes and gives us a taste
of what our final image will be.
From this point on we will work on the nebulae to extract the detail and red color of
the nebulae that is dominant. With the SUM command of Astro Panel X we make a
copy of the underlying layers in a new layer and open the "Selective Color Correction"
function, from the Photoshop menu "Image -> Adjustments".
The adjustments I will make will serve to emphasize the red color of the nebulae and
make the color of the sky even more neutral. First I adjust the sliders like this:
Red Yellow Green
- Cyan – 50% - Cyan 0% - Cyan 0%

- Magenta 0% - Magenta 0% - Magenta 0%
- Yellow 0% - Yellow 0% - Yellow 0%
- Black 0% - Black 0% - Black 0%
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Cyan Blue Magenta
- Cyan +50% - Cyan +50% - Cyan 0%

- Magenta 0% - Magenta 0% - Magenta 0%
- Yellow 0% - Yellow 0% - Yellow 0%
- Black 0% - Black 0% - Black 0%
-
These parameters are ideal for the image I am processing but may vary for your images
as they are not absolute.
Now we have to work on the fine detail with the "BOOST" command in the "MILKY
WAY" group with the help of a white brush. Or we can combine the BOOST function
with a brightness mask as we explained in previous chapters. With the Astro Panel
dropper (At the bottom right of the plug-in) we query one of the dark areas of the
image that will give a strong contrast to the photo. We never highlight bright and
gaseous areas so as not to burn the highlights and decrease the soft effect of the
image.
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Once we have identified the preferred area,
one of the brightness masks becomes light
blue and click on it with the mouse to preview
the mask.
If the selection made satisfies us, press the "APPLY" command to paste the selection
into the black active mask of the "BOOST" layer. If we want to make a change in the
mask click on "REFINE" to increase or decrease the selection through the CURVES layer
that has opened as a new window.
If the preview of the brightness mask selection is correct, press "OK" on the Curves
layer and again the "APPLY" command on the Astro Panel.
In this way we selected those dark details of the nebula that we wanted to highlight
with the BOOST command perfectly, without artifacts and without touching the stars.
Also, as you can see in the immigine on the next page, the nebula begins to acquire
that three-dimensionality that was hidden.
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With the "EXTREME" (Deconvolution) command we have the possibility to adjust the
right compromise with advanced sharpness. This technique is used a lot in
astrophotography and is useful to reduce even the shake of astronomical images. It's
a feature we won't use with this nebula, but it can be useful in other contexts such as
planetary, galaxial, or landscape images.
If in our image there is still a bit of vignetting at the edges, we can reduce it with the
help of midtones in the brightness masks. With the "HAZE" command, which you find
in the "IMAGE CORRECTION” group of the LANDSCAPE tab and the combination of the
"MIDTONES2" brightness mask, we can reduce the "vignetting" that is present in the
photo.
Simply click on the "HAZE" command, on the "MIDTONES2" mask and do "APPLY".
186
The heavy graphic processing andfectuata so far can generate a percentage of digital
and chromatic noise. To correct this problem I used the “NOISE REDUCTION"
command of the ASTRO board. When we use noise reduction, the base level is
duplicated and we can adjust the opacity of the effect by controlling the result in real
time with 100% zoom. Apply all the functions in the "NOISE" group.
187
Corrected the "defects" of graphic processing we move on to manage the color. We
have a lot of color management features in Astro Panel, but color masks allow us to
get the most out of our images.
During our elaboration it may happen that one of the dominant color that are in our
image does not go away. To overcome this obstacle we can use several times the
"White Balance" command present in the "COLOR CORRECTION" group in the
“LANDSCAPE" tab.
Once we have eliminated the reddish dominant of our photo we can work with color
masks to accentuate the nebula object of our image.
We use the color mask "R - Red Mask" in the midtones that automatically selects the
red color that is present in the nebula. After selecting the color mask and confirming it
with the "APPLY" button, you can saturate the color red or other colors using the
"Hue/Saturation” or "Curves” adjustments.
188
In the following image I worked with the saturation of the red color to make it more
saturated and slightly bright. When using color masks it is essential to create a new
layer otherwise the command will not work.
189
I also corrected the dominant Magenta in the shadows that is still present at the edges
always desaturating it with the Hue / Saturation adjustment.
Apply this workflow with any color or brightness mask. You can also mask with a black
brush the areas of the image that are not affected by the modification you are making.
If the result is not satisfactory, color management is present in the "DEEP SKY” group
of the "ASTRO" tab. We can use the "LAB" command that amplifies the color saturation
in COLOR LAB without exaggerating.
If your image shows some light pollution, open Adobe Camera Raw and try to reduce
with a few clicks the light pollution located at the top right. Through the graduated
filter we can select the area where we are going to reduce light pollution and set these
parameters. You can read more in the chapter "Reducing light pollution".
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In the "DEEP SKY" group we have other commands to extract some details from the
photo and darken the sky background. In this case click on the "CONTRAST" command
in the “SHARPNESS" subgroup to increase the fine detail and on "BLACK SKY" "1" to
darken the background of the photo. This function must be used in combination with
the brightness masks and for this reason I add a layer mask, select the sky background
with the Astro Panel dropper and do "APPLY" for a perfect selection.
Look at the image on the next page to see the result of this processing.
After processing with the astronomical functions, we return to the "LANDSCAPE" tab
to give a magical touch to our photo. Here we have functions such as “ORTON EFFECT",
"GLOW EFFECT”, “D&B EFFECT" to make the latest changes.
To the Deep Sky images I prefer to give a touch of Orton or Dodge and Burn effect. The
Orton effect is nice in deep sky images, so we will use the "SIMPLE" command and a
maximum opacity of 30-40% to finalize the photo.
You can also use the Dodge and Burn in combination with the brightness masks as
explained in the Milky Way and double exposure workflow, but the photo with this
workflow has already acquired the three-dimensionality I wanted.
191
If there is still a slight dominant, use the “COLOR" function in the "COLOR
CORRECTION" group, before applying the Orton effect.
This tutorial serves to give an input to your workflow by making graphic processing
simple and impactful, saving you time and hours at the PC.
With the correct controls we arrived at a pleasant result without creating artifacts,
maintaining remarkable detail and correct colors.
Then you can proceed to crop the photo to delete portions of the image that do not
interest us or to exclude areas affected by light pollution. The latter is just a piece of
advice.
Group all the layers you created in post-production into a single group and you'll notice
the difference from the source file.
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193
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3.3.4 Startrail Processing
In this chapter we will show you how to post-produce a Startrail in Adobe Photoshop
with the help of Astro Panel X. The workflow is very simple and suitable even for less
experienced people.
The example image that we are going to elaborate is composed as follows:
1. 20 light frames, 30" Exposure Time, Aperture F/2.8, ISO 800;

2. Nikon D750, Nikon 20mm F/1.8 G ED;
3. Manfrotto tripod.
I merged the images by activating "Tripod Alignment" and pressing the BLEND button
at the end.
Now we open Adobe Camera RAW and adjust the white balance, contrast, dim the
lights and open the shadows to fix our photo and prepare it for the post-production
of the startrail.
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Clicchiamo su “OK” e ritorniamo in Photoshop per continuare l’elaborazione grafica.
Con questo passaggio non abbiamo fatto altro che rendere uniforme nell'esposizione
e nei colori l'immagine che all'inizio si presentava sottoesposta e con le luci delle stelle
un po' spente. Duplichiamo il livello e apriamo di nuovo Adobe Camera RAW per
contrastare e abbassare nuovamente le luci dello Startrail. Impostate -100 alle alte luci.
196
We create a brightness mask on the highlights and click "LIGHT1" inside the panel. In
this way Astro Panel will automatically select Level 1 lights. Select the copied layer and
do "APPLY".
In doing so we will apply to the
copied layer the changes made
in Adobe Camera Raw and only
on the stars. We reopen Adobe
Camera RAW again and give more contrast to the image by dimming the lights.
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At this point we could say that we have finished the post-production of the star trail
leaving the clear lines as seen in most photos taken with this technique.
But there is another technique that allows us to achieve a soft Startrail using the
function of Astro Panel X "LIQUIFY" (FLUIDIFY) in the STRATRAIL group. With this
command we can soften the Startrail making it fluid and more beautiful to look at.
Click on the "LIQUIFY" command and in this way a new layer is created with a black
mask that will serve to fluidize the Startrail through the use of the white brush. Brush
up the whole photo to get the desired effect.
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We repeat the operation another time to make the Startrail even more fluid, paying
attention to the landscape or object you have photographed in the photo. After this
step, try cooling the image in Camera RAW and increase the color saturation by 20%
with the Hue/Saturation adjustment located in the "Image -> Adjustments" menu of
Adobe Photoshop.
199
We zoom to 100% of the photo to check if there are hot pixels or color noise. In my
case I do not have to apply any noise reduction as the file is good.
We apply a slight sharpness to the image with a function of the "SHARPNESS-
CONTRAST" group (LANDSCAPE tab) called "HIGH PASS" leaving everything by default
(Radius = 4 Pixels). In this way we have recovered some detail through the "Accentuate
Passage" filter modified in Astro Panel X.
High Pass filter should not be applied on the trails of
the stars and to do this we click on the previous mask
that we used with the fludify button and click on "Add
Mask to Selection", In this way we can exclude the Sky
from the "HIGH PASS" function with a 100% black
brush of opacity.
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At this point, we use the Dodge and Burn as explained in the previous chapter to give
some contrast to the photo and make it three-dimensional. From the "DODGE AND
BURN" group (LANDSCAPE tab) click on SIMPLE and two layers are created.
At the Dodge level I always apply a brightness mask in the highlights, while at Burn one
of the shadows. In this way the
procedure becomes precise and with the
right three-dimensionality on the
landscape.
For Dodge I apply the mask "LIGHT 2" (LIGHTS-2) while for Burn I select "SHADOWS3"
(SHADOWS-3).
With the white brush I lighten the bright areas with an opacity of 30-40%, instead with
the black brush I burn the shadow areas.
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After the post-production of our image, click on "SINGLE LEVEL" to join all the layers.
We can process the sky and the landscape with two different elaborations and combine
them later, but thanks to the level and brightness masks we can do it with a single
procedure.
To finish our photo, we join the layers and increase the vignetting to darken the edges
giving that magical touch of night photography. To do this we go to the "FINALIZE"
group of the "LANDSCAPE" tab and click on "VIGNETTE" to increase the vignetting.
Adjust the opacity of the level to your liking. We can also add the Orton effect, but
personally I prefer to leave the photo like that.
202
The before and after of the image we just processed in post-production.
203
3.3.5 Remove Light Pollution
In this chapter I will show you how to mitigate in post-production the light pollution
present in our images. It should be noted that to obtain images with little light
pollution, you must consult the terrestrial maps online on the
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ website to choose a place to photograph the
Milky Way or the Deep Sky completely in the dark. Despite this, it can happen to incur
some inconvenience and for this reason I will show you how to attenuate light
pollution.
We open our image in Adobe Photoshop through the use of the Camera RAW filter or
in Adobe Lightroom. The procedure is identical in that we are going to use the
graduated filter that is found in both software.
204
Now we select the graduated filter and holding down the mouse cursor we have to
draw a drop-down on the photo to select the area that interests us. To make a precise
selection activate the mask of the graduated filter with the color you prefer (in my case
it’s green).
Done this, setting the parameters as filter so as to slightly reduce the exposure, lights,
cool the temperature of that area as the light pollution is composed of warm lights and
desaturare slightly. We press "OK" to confirm the selection and return to process the
photo.
205
206
3.3.6 Make Panorama Images in Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe Lightroom
In this chapter I will show you how to create a panoramic composition starting from
the sequence of photos we took during the day or night session. The procedure
consists of loading or dragging our sequence in Adobe Photoshop CC or Adobe
Lightroom. When we import the photos into Adobe Photoshop Adobe Camera RAW
will open to allow you to make some adjustments on the images and be able to create
the composition. So, once we have selected our photographs let's drag them into
Adobe Photoshop CC or import them into Lightroom.
In this case I took a sequence of horizontal photos freehand to compose the panorama
of the Calabrian coasts. The photo was taken with a focal length of 300mm and then I
took about ten photos to shoot the whole scene.
Before proceeding with the fusion of the images we will have to make some
adjustments on the color temperature, basic adjustments, vividness and horizon
correction.
207
Made these adjustments we can proceed to merge the images into an overview with
the help of Adobe Camera RAW. Then we select all the images and click on one of them
with the mouse by clicking on "Merge as Panorama" and wait for the file to render. We
click on "Merge" and save the file in our favorite directory.
208
Once the rendering of the panoramic composition is complete, edit the file by
arranging the horizon if it is not straight with the "Crop" command. During the
procedure I realized that one of the files was duplicate and I deleted it.
To continue post-production, you can open the file in Adobe Photoshop or edit it in
Adobe Lightroom if you have used this program.
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4. Astronomy Pills
In this chapter we will explain how to observe and

recognize the starry sky, the auroras, the lunar and solar 210
eclipses and the Solar System. astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
4.1 Let's learn to recognise the Sky
Sky since ancient times has been a resource for everyone. Think of the ancient
Egyptians, the Sumerians and the Maya, the first sailors who oriented themselves with
the stars. Today with the technological age this fascination of looking at the stars has
faded, and many are wondering what the Milky Way is and how to see it in the Sky and
during the year.
Unfortunately, due to light pollution increasing it is more really difficult to observe the
stars. In fact we have to go to dark places away from the cities to observe the Night
Sky (that's why it is called the Milky Way since ancient times). The Sky is not the same
during the year, in fact the Earth rotating around the Sun allows us to see constellations
and portions of the celestial arch differently. We can distinguish two different portions
of the starry Sky: the one we see during the summer and the one in winter.
But even the Sky we see in the Northern Hemisphere is different from the Southern
Hemisphere. In fact, if we are in the Northern Hemisphere some constellations of that
Austral are not visible and vice versa.
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4.1.1 The Northern Sky
The northern celestial hemisphere is that half of the Sky that contains the north
celestial pole and that is obtained by dividing the celestial sphere along the celestial
equator into two hemispheres. One of the most characteristic and well-known
constellations of the Northern Hemisphere is represented by the Big Dipper. Most of
the Northern Hemisphere is not visible from places that are located in the Southern or
Southern Celestial Hemisphere.
With the help of the Big Dipper, in the constellation of Ursa Major we can identify the
North Star. This is the only star that does not move at night. To recognize the North
Star we have written an in-depth analysis in the chapter "1.4.2 Using the Astro
Tracker".
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THE SUMMER SKY
During the summer, the spectacle of the celestial arch is purely more scenographic and
interesting. In fact, we can see the entire Arc of the Milky Way already from the early
hours of the evening, scrutinizing the Core, the immense nebulosity of the Swan, the
Andromeda Galaxy, the large dark clusters and interesting star clusters such as those
present in Sagittarius and Scorpio.
Scorpio is one of the most characteristic constellations of Sky, one of the brightest and
also one of the few that really give an idea of what it intends to represent in Sky. Its
main star, Antares is a fiery red supergiant, which with its magnitude of 1.07, is the
sixteenth brightest star on Sky.
Scorpius is a constellation in the southern hemisphere, visible above the southern

summer horizon; it is easily identified, south of the Ophuchus, along the luminous trail
of the Milky Way, at this particularly bright point due to the proximity to the galactic
center.
The head of Scorpio stands out very well to the west of Antares, being made up of
second-magnitude stars, all blue, which contrast with the red color of Antares.
To the south-east, on the other hand, a concatenation of bright stars is easily followed,
visible only if the southern horizon is free from obstacles; the tail group, in the
southernmost part of the constellation, is composed of a group of bright stars arranged
to form a sort of triangle, which identify the "sting" of the animal. Pointing towards it
we can identify the brightest part of our galaxy then following upwards all the other
constellations of the Milky Way.
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RHO OPHIUCHI
The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud is a giant molecular cloud composed partly

of bright ionized hydrogen and largely of dark dust; it owes its
name to the star that dominates the region in which it is located,
ρ Ophiuchi, located three degrees north of Antares, in the
constellation of Ophiuchus.
214
SADR
Sadr is the second brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, after

Deneb. Located at the center of the asterism known as the
Northern Cross, it has an apparent magnitude of +2.23. Its name 215
comes from the Arabic ‫ ﺻﺪر‬şadr, "bust", astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
from which the name of
the star Shedir also derives.
Sagittarius is a rich southern Zodiac constellation, located between Capricorn and
Scorpio, visible in the southernmost regions; it contains the densest part of the Milky
Way where the center of our Galaxy is located, about 30 thousand light years. The sun
crosses it from December 18th to January 19th.
Interesting items:
- The "Teapot" is an asterism of eight stars: gamma(γ), epsilon(ε), delta(δ),

lambda(λ), phi(Φ) zeta(ξ), sigma(σ) and tau(τ) Sagittari;
- M8 (Nebula "Laguna") distant from us about 5200 light years, is one of the
largest nebulae of the firmament, visible even to the naked eye with dark Sky,
as large as three times the full moon;
- M17 (Nebula "Omega")distant about 4900 light years;
- M20 (Nebula "Trifida") about 5200 light years away;
The constellationCygnusis located in a star-rich region of the Milky Way. It represents

a Swan in flight, but its main stars are arranged in such a way as to form a cross, hence
its second denomination "Northern Cross".
Interesting Objects:
- Alpha(α) Cygni "Deneb" remarks the tail of the Swan or even the "head of the
Northern Cross"; is a supergiant that is more than 3000 light years from earth, it
is one of the vertices of the "Summer Triangle".
- Beta(β) Cygni "Albireo" is the "Swan's beak" one of the most beautiful double
stars of the summer Sky, one orange and the other has a blue-green color.
- NGC 7000 the famous nebula "North America" its shape recalls that
geographical area.
- NGC6992 the "Veil " nebula:it is the remnant of a supernova that exploded
thousands of years ago.
216
Another fascinating constellation of summer and winter Sky is Cassiopeia,recognizable
in Sky by its particular "W" shapedrawn by its brightest stars.
Interesting objects: M52 an open cluster at 5200 a.l., and NGC457 open cluster, whose
appearance resembles an owl, with the most important stars marking the eyes and
M103 cluster in the shape of a dart.
We can distinguish during the summer nights the so-called " Summer Triangle",
composed of three stars that are Vega (in the constellation of Lyra), Deneb (in the
constellation of Cygnus) and Altair (in the constellation of Aquila).
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NGC7000 – NORTH AMERICA
The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation

Cygnus near Deneb. The shape of the nebula draws the North American
continent, especially the east coast, between the Gulf of Mexico and 218
Nebula is attributed
astropanel.it
Florida. The discovery of the North America to
- angeloperrone.it
astronomer William Herschel.
THE WINTER SKY
During the winter we can see another portion of the Starry Sky. From Orion to the
Charioteer, Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major, Taurus and Pleiades, the show is
assured.
Orion is one of the most evocative constellations; it represents a gigantic hunter or

warrior followed by two dogs, the Canis Major and the Canis Minor. Its main feature is
the belt of Orion, formed by three aligned stars placed exactly at the celestial equator.
A set of stars and a widespread nebulosity represents the "sword" hanging from the
"belt"; there is the Orion nebula or M42: a large region of star formation Every year, in
October, the meteor shower of the Orionids seems to radiate from a point near the
border with Gemini.
Myths and Legends, Orion, son of Poseidon, god of the sea, was tall and good-looking.
The poet Homer describes him in the Odyssey as a great hunter wielding a bronze club.
Very vain, he boasted to the goddess Diana that he could kill any animal on earth. The
goddess Gea (mother Earth) as punishment sent a scorpion that punished him to
death. In the Sky Orion it is located on the opposite side of the constellation of Scorpius
and, every night, the first disappears under the horizon at the rise of the other.
According to another legend Orion fell in love with a group of nymphs, the Pleiades
represented by the homonymous star cluster of the neighboring constellation Taurus,
his position seems to chase that star cluster.
In addition to M42, the Orion Nebula, The Horsehead Nebula represents another of
the visible objects in this constellation. The stars Betelgeuse Alpha(α) and Rigel Beta(β)
Orionis, are the brightest.
219
Taurus is a very flashy Zodiacal constellation that lies between Aries and Gemini. (The
sun crosses it between May 14 and June 21).)
The two main objects of Taurus are the two clusters: The Pleiades and the Hyades. The
first according to Greek mythology would be the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione,
so the cluster M45 is also called "the seven sisters". The cluster is only 400 a.l.; the
brightest star is eta(η) Tauri Alcyone blue white giant of magnitude 2.9.
The Hyades with the characteristic "V" shape, on the other hand, would be the
daughters of Atlas and Etra, and mark the muzzle of the bovine, while the red giant
Aldebaran alpha(α) Tauri 65 a.l. from us, is the eye injected with blood. The cluster is
150 a.l. from the sun.
M1 (Crab Nebula) is the remnant of a supernova observed in 1054 a.c.
Canis Major
- Represents the largest of the dogs of the hunter ORION;
- It is embellished with Sirius alpha(α) Canis Majoris the brightest star of the Sky
magnitude -1.44; if it were instead of the sun it would be twenty times brighter and is
close to us at 8.6 a.l.; it is a white star, but when it is low on the horizon it seems to
sparkle with iridescent colors due to atmospheric refraction;
- M41 is a cluster open at about 2300 a.l.
Canis Minor
- it is a very small constellation, it represents the smallest dog of the hunter Orion;
- Alpha(α) Canis Minoris (Raccoon) is the 8th star of the Sky for brightness, magnitude
0.4 and its name, of Greek origin, means "before the dog", meaning by this that rises
before Sirius. It is a star 11.4 a.l. distant.
220
ORION NEBULAR COMPLEX
The Orion Molecular Nebula Complex is a large molecular cloud named

after the constellation in which it is visible, that of Orion. Its distance
from Earth is estimated between 1500 and 1600 light years and its
diameter corresponds to a few hundred light years; it is the best
observable molecular nebula complex, as well as the most studied and
known. 221
Photo by Earl Mallia Duca
THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY
The Andromeda Galaxy is a giant spiral galaxy that is about 2.538 million
light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Andromeda,
from which it takes its name. 222
Photo by Earl Mallia Duca
4.1.2 The Southern Sky
The southern celestial hemisphere, also called the southern celestial hemisphere or
southern celestial hemisphere, is that half Sky that contains the south celestial pole
and that is obtained by dividing the celestial sphere along the celestial equator into
two hemispheres.
The first thing an observer of the Northern Sky notices when he first looks up at the
Sky of the South, is the great abundance of stars, both bright and background,
compared to the Sky to which he is accustomed. The brightest stars of the Sky are
observed here interrupted by a considerable number of other stars, some decidedly
bright, aligned along the Milky Way that in some places appears no less bright than the
galactic center or the swan tract.
Far from the Milky Way, the Sky becomes much less rich, and lacks, unlike the northern
hemisphere, easily recognizable asterisms. The monotony is broken by the presence
of two extended light spots, similar in appearance to the Andromeda Galaxy, but larger
and irregular: the two Magellanic Clouds.
The Magellanic Clouds are two galaxies very close to the Milky Way, to the point of
being satellites, that is, that they make orbits around our Galaxy.
THE MAIN CONSTELLATIONS OF SOUTHERN SKY

THE CROSS OF SUD
What certainly strikes more than anything else in the southern skies is the presence,
along the Milky Way, of a group of very bright stars rather close to each other; two of
these, the brightest, are arranged in pairs, while to the west there is a second group of
stars, arranged to form an almost perfect cross. This second part is a real constellation,
the famous Southern Cross, also reported in the flags of many southern nations, such
as Australia, and New Zealand. The Southern Cross is one of the symbols of the
223
southern hemisphere, a bit like the Big Dipper is in the boreal one, and like the latter
allows you to trace the celestial pole.
The Southern Cross becomes completely circumpolar south of 32°S, not far from the
Tropic of Capricorn; further north, although it does not appear circumpolar, it is still
present for most of the nights.
THE SOUTH CELESTIAL POLE
The simplest method of tracing the celestial south pole is, once the Southern Cross is
known, to draw a line that starts from the northernmost star of the Cross, descends to
the southernmost, according to the major axis, and extends it in the same direction
about five times. At the end, you arrive in an area of Sky almost devoid of stars, where
only a few scattered fifth-magnitude stars are observable in a clear Sky. There falls the
south celestial pole, at a point almost at the center of the faint constellation of Octant.
The Octant is a constellation introduced in the mid-eighteenth century by Nicolas Louis

de Lacaille, one of the first who systematically studied the southern skies, from Cape
Town; he also found about fifteen new constellations to fill the "holes" in the celestial
maps of the period. Thus, were born extremely small constellations with decidedly
little "poetic" names, such as Sextant, Octant, Pneumatic Machine, Burin, Furnace,
Sculptor, Telescope, Microscope, and so on, all created to fill these gaps in the celestial
groupings, existing since these parts of Sky, being visible only at southern latitudes or
at most equatorial, were never observed by astronomers of the great classical
civilizations of the Mediterranean.
224
THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Despite being the least extensive of the constellations, the

Southern Cross is one of the brightest in the evening sky of
the southern hemisphere. It is surrounded on three sides by
the Centaur, while to the south lies the small constellation of 225
Moscow.
CENTAUR AND CROSS
The Centaur and the Southern Cross are the two most characteristic constellations of
the southern Sky; while the central-northern part of the Centaur is also observable
from Italian latitudes, the Southern Cross always remains below the horizon, as well as
the brightest stars of the Centaur.
It's worth dwelling a bit on this part of Sky. The Southern Cross lies entirely in the
southern Milky Way; its brightest star, which is also Sky's thirteenth brightest star
(magnitude 0.77) and Sky's southernmost first-magnitude star, is known as Acrux: this
is a double star. Next comes Mimosa, the twentieth star of Sky (magnitude
1.23). Gacrux and the δ Crucis complete the figure of the Cross. In ancient times these
stars were considered part of the Centaurus, but their arrangement meant that it was
later recognized as a constellation.
Centaurus is an important southern constellation; it is very extensive, and its

southernmost part also falls on the southern Milky Way. The front legs are indicated
by two very bright stars; the brighter of the two is the famous Alpha Centauri (also
known as Rigil Kentaurus), which in addition to being the third brightest star on Sky
(magnitude -0.27) is also the closest star to our Solar System, just 4.3 light years. In
fact, this star is also double, indeed triple, since in addition to the two main stars there
is a third, a red dwarf, invisible to the naked eye, which in this period is even closer,
and is therefore known as Proxima Centauri. The second of the two stars is Hadar, the
tenth star on Sky by brightness, with a magnitude of 0.61.
THE ARGO SHIP
To the west of the Southern Cross extends an area of Sky in which there are many
second-magnitude stars, with a background rich in small stars. The Milky Way becomes
extremely bright here, and then disperses in the star fields. Further west, detached
from the Milky Way, shines an extremely bright yellowish star, isolated: it is Canopus,
226
the second brightest star of sky, the one that already from the Sicilian islands of Linosa
and Lampedusa began to show itself low on the southern horizon.
The Sky belt between Canopus and the Southern Cross is less easy to "untangle". The
simplest method to orient oneself is to look for, to the west of the Southern Cross, two
asterisms, once again in the shape of a cross: one is located just south of the dense
Milky Way and has an elongated shape; this asterism is known as the Diamond Cross.
The other "cross", more compact and luminous, can be observed even further west,
where the Milky Way becomes less intense; this other asterism is instead known as the
False Cross, because of its resemblance to the nearby Southern Cross, and it is not
uncommon that at the beginning it can be confused with the true constellation.
These two asterisms help to identify two important constellations, the Carine, the
southernmost, in which Canopus is contained, and the Sails, half of which is also visible
from Italian latitudes. These two constellations formed, together with the
northernmost Poppa (visible in full of southern Italy), the great and ancient
constellation of the Argo Ship, dismembered in the eighteenth century by the Lacaille.
227
THE CENTRE OF THE MILKY WAY
The Milky Way Center, also known as the Galactic Center, is the
rotational center of the Milky Way; it is located about 7900 ± 430
parsecs from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius,
228
at the point where the Milky Way appears brightest.
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
The Magellanic Clouds, as already seen, are two satellite galaxies of ours. They are
observed at a certain distance from the Milky Way, in areas not very rich in stars, if two
are excluded, very bright: the first is Canopus, as already seen, while the second is
Achernar, the ninth brightest star of Sky, the mouth of the great river Eridano, visible
in Italy during the autumn months except for this star.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is, in addition to being the brightest, also the closest to us;
it has an elongated shape and is observed about 20 degrees south of Canopus and is
divided between two small and obscure southern constellations, the Dorado and the
Mensa. Near the Great Cloud is the south pole of the ecliptic, that is the pole of the
Earth's orbit, roughly coinciding with the pole of the Solar System.
The Small Magellanic Cloud is smaller and farther away; the reference star to detect it
is Achernar. If you have Achernar and Rigil Kentaurus available on the same night, the
Small Cloud is easily identified because it is right on the junction of the two stars, closer
to Achernar. The constellation in which it is located is the Toucan.
Both clouds are bright, but to notice them you still need an unpolluted Sky and possibly
without a Moon.
Achernar facilitates the recognition of the constellation of the Male Hydra, which is
formed mainly by three third-magnitude stars with the vertex pointing north, almost
in the direction of Achernar. Achernar herself helps to locate the vertex star. Between
Achernar and Canopus there is, with ease, the small constellation of the Lattice, in
prominence because it is formed by stars of third and fourth magnitude very close to
each other. The Diamond Cross instead allows easy recognition of the Flying Fish, a
small constellation at the foot of the Carn.
229
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
Magellanic Clouds are two small irregular

galaxies, which orbit our Milky Way as
satellites. They are visible to the naked eye in
the night sky of the southern hemisphere and 230
are named after the navigator Ferdinand astropanel.it - angeloperrone.it
Magellan.
4.1.3 The Northern and Southern Lights
The Polar Auroras are beautiful and fascinating phenomena that can be observed near
the Earth Poles. Depending on the hemisphere in which they occur, we speak of Aurora
Boreal and Aurora Australe.
A polar aurora consists of a diffuse luminescence of green and reddish hues that color
the Sky at night and are called polar because they can be seen at the Poles at high
latitudes. They can take various shapes and extend for hundreds of kilometers
developing in height and width in the Earth's magnetic field.
From the physical point of view they are similar and are generated solar activity that
manifests itself on our planet. However, a recent study suggests that the two
phenomena are different depending on the behavior of the Earth's magnetic field.
Solar charged particles investing in the atmosphere reach the exosphere by ionizing
the neutral atoms present. The recombination effect between ions and electrons
consequently emits energy in the form of light at different frequencies:
• Green in the case of oxygen;

• Red in the case of nitrogen.
Polar auroras can be observed in the European Nordic countries, Alaska, Greenland
and Canada in the periods from September to October and from February to March.
As for the southern hemisphere, the southern lights are observed from the Falkland
Islands, the southernmost areas of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The best
time to get them are between April and August.
On the following page you can see a shot of the Northern Lights taken by my dear
friend and professional photographer Earl Mallia Duca during one of his trips to
Iceland.
231
232
4.1.4 The eclipse of the Sun and Moon
An eclipse is an astronomical event that involves the partial or total darkening of a
celestial body due to the interference of one, or more bodies, between it and a light
source; in other words, it occurs when three or more celestial bodies are aligned in the
same plane.
In the case of the Sun-Earth-Moon complex, two types of eclipses can occur: Eclipse of
the Moon and Eclipse of the Sun.
We illustrate what are the differences between the two types of eclipse.
LUNAR ECLIPSE
Lunar eclipses occur when the earth's shadow cone invests the Lunar disk in a "total"
or "partial" way. This type of phenomenon can only occur when the Moon and the Sun
are located at two points diametrically opposite the Earth (full moon phase), that is,
when the Moon is in the vicinity of one of the nodes of its orbit.
A total eclipse of the Moon has a maximum duration of 100 minutes, but during this
period the Moon continues to be more or less visible assuming a reddish color. This is
because, due to the effect of the Earth's atmosphere, the sun's rays are partly diffused
and partly refracted towards the interior of the shadow cone, and not completely
shielded.
This type of eclipse is visible from all terrestrial areas for which our satellite is above
the horizon, and occurs about 4-5 times a year.
233
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
The phenomenon of solar eclipse occurs due to the interposition of the Moon between
the Earth and the Sun, whose luminous disk is then covered entirely or in part, giving
rise to total or partial eclipses. This type of eclipse occurs, therefore, only at the time
of the conjunction of the Moon with the Sun, that is, at the new moon, when the Moon
is near one of the nodes. Due to the different distances of the Earth from the Sun and
the Moon and their different sizes, the Earth never manages to enter entirely into the
lunar shadow cone (the Moon is the smallest body among the three).
This implies that an eclipse of the Sun concerns only a limited part of the Earth's
surface: there will be areas of shadow in which the eclipse will be total and areas of
penumbra in which the eclipse will be partial. The eclipse will appear total only in a
restricted area of the Earth, which will be a band just over 200 km wide and due to the
movement of the lunar shadow on the Earth's surface due to the rotational motion of
our planet.
In a total eclipse the lunar disk covers entirely, and almost exactly, the solar disk: this
is due to the fact that the apparent angular diameter of the two stars is almost
identical. The complete darkening of the Sun occurs if, verifying the relative distance
conditions listed so far, the angular diameter of the Moon is equal to or greater than
that of the Sun. When the total eclipse occurs with the Moon at apogee, therefore with
an angular diameter smaller than that of the Sun, the darkening cannot be total: there
is a so-called "annular" eclipse. In the image on the next page the total eclipse of the
moon on July 27, 2018 taken near Otranto, Italy.
234
235
4.1.5 The Solar System
The solar system is a planetary system consisting of a variety of celestial bodies kept in
orbit by the gravitational force of the Sun, to which the Earth also belongs: with a
diameter of about 120-130 AU (Astronomical Units) it is located in the Orion arm of
the Milky Way, orbiting around the galactic center at a distance of 30000 tolightyears
and a speed of 230 km / s. Itestimates that the solar system takes about 230 million
years to complete a loop around the galactic center.
The Solar System consists of the Sun and eight planets (four inner rocky planets and
four outer gas giants) and five dwarf planets, their respective natural satellites, and
many other minor bodies, the latter category includes asteroids, largely divided
between two asteroid belts (the main belt and the Kuiper belt), comets (mainly located
in the hypothetical Oort cloud), meteoroids and interplanetary dust. In order of
distance from the Sun, the eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; the five dwarf planets are: Ceres, located in the main
asteroid belt, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
236
4.1.6 Astronomical Glossary
Aberration
It represents a defect created in telescopes by the shape of the lenses and their
position. It happens when the shape of the observed object is distorted (GEOMETRIC
ABERRATION), or its colors are smudged and do not coincide (CHROMATIC
ABERRATION).
Adapter
Accessory of a telescope useful for pairing objects of different diameters.
Alone
Indicates a circle of light around an object. They can be described as haloes of diffuse
brightness, which can be observed around the Sun or the Moon. They are caused by
REFLECTION and REFRACTION of light.
Altazimuth FRAME
Indicates the carrier system of an astronomical instrument (telescope or binoculars)
that refers to the ALTAZIMUTH COORDINATESYSTEM. It allows movement both
vertically and horizontally.
Coordinate system
It is a coordinate system having as reference the horizon and the meridian. See
COORDINATE ALTAZIMUTALI.
Heap
It is a grouping of stars in a well-defined area of Sky. The stars are physically linked to
each other, through a gravitational interaction, and not by visual alignments in the Sky.
It stands out:
Open cluster
A set of stars that is not very dense. They can contain a few tens to a few thousand
stars in a region with a diameter of about 1 PARSEC. Normally these clusters are formed
by young stars recently formed in the galaxy.
Globular cluster
237
Dense grouping of stars, which can reach from hundreds of thousands to millions. It
does not have an irregular shape like the open cluster but tends to take on a spherical
shape. They contain many of the oldest stars in our star system.
Year
It is the time taken by the Earth to carry out a REVOLUTION around the Sun.
Sidereal Year
The time interval between two successive culminations of a star. It corresponds to a
complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun.
Tropic Year - Solar Year

Time interval between two successive passages of the Sun for the point of the
EQUINOX of spring. It is shorter than the sidereal one due to the PRECESSION of the
equinoxes.
Anomaly Year
It represents the time interval taken by the Sun to return to the Perigee of its orbit
around the Earth. It can also be calculated by the time it takes for the Earth to return
to the Perihelion of its orbit around the Sun. It is slightly longer than the sidereal year
because the perihelion advances annually by about 11 seconds.
Cosmic year
Also called the galactic year, it indicates the time taken by the solar system to make a
revolution around the center of the galaxy.
Light year
It is a unit of measurement used in astronomy to indicate great distances.
It is equal to the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a solar year, that is, it is
equivalent to 9460.5 billion kilometers.
Aperture
It represents the diameter of the lens of a refractor telescope, the main mirror of a
reflector telescope and the satellite dish of a radio telescope.
238
Apex
It is the point of the celestial sphere to which the Sun and the solar system are headed.
In general, the apex is the point of the celestial sphere towards which a celestial star
or body is headed.
Apogee
It is the point of the ORBIT of the Moon or of an artificial satellite, where it is located
at the greatest distance from the Earth.
Daytime arch
It represents the duration of the permanence of a star above the horizon. It is the
opposite of the NIGHT ARCH.
Night arch
It represents the duration of the permanence of a star below the horizon. It is the
opposite of the DAYTIME SPAN.
Right ascension
It is one of the coordinates of the EQUATORIAL SYSTEM.
It is the angle measured counterclockwise, between the FUNDAMENTAL MERIDIAN
and the CELESTIAL MERIDIAN passing through the body.
Celestial axis
Extension of the Earth's axis around which the celestial sphere apparently rotates. This
movement is due to the Earth's rotation.
Axis of the world

It represents the axis around which the Earth rotates, passing through its center.
Major axis
The maximum diameter of an elliptical orbit.
239
Astrometry
Discipline of astronomy that deals with determining the position of celestial bodies in
space. The main data from which the exact position of a star can be drawn are parallax
and PROPER MOTION. Only in this way was it possible to discover planets and dark
bodies outside the solar system.
Atmosphere
Gaseous envelope of variable thickness surrounding a planet.
Star atmosphere
It is the set of surface layers of a star that contribute to the outward irradiation of the
energy produced in the lower layers. The atmosphere is limited to being a means of
transmission and therefore does not produce energy.
Lighting circle
The lighting circle is a band of a certain width where the lighting varies gradually, until
it creates darkness. Here the TWILIGHT is formed, that is, the passage from day to night
and vice versa. This phenomenon is caused by the atmosphere, in which the sun's rays
produce effects of diffusion and refraction of light.
Vertical circle
It is an imaginary circumference passing through the ZENIT and NADIR.
Circumpolar
In astronomy it indicates an object that never sets, as its
Conjunction.
There are three types of conjunction:
- inferior when a celestial body is interposed between the Sun and the Earth.
- higher when instead the body is beyond the Sun.
- planetary when between the aligned bodies we find one or more planets
Apparent diameter
It is the angle under which any non-point celestial object is observed.
It represents the magnitude that we evaluate by observing a celestial body close
enough to the Earth, such as the Sun or the Moon.
240
Accretion disk
It represents the ring of matter around a star or other celestial object. From this disk
falls the matter, spiraling down, attracted by the object that is inside it.
Zenith distance
It is the angular distance of a celestial object from the ZENIT. It can be useful to
calculate the HEIGHT through the following formula: 90° - zenithal distance = height
Ecliptic
It is the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
Doppler effect
It is a particular phenomenon where the observer of a source (mainly sound or
radiation) moving with respect to the observer himself, receives a sound or radiation
of greater or lesser frequency depending on whether the source is approaching or
moving away. Based on this phenomenon it is possible to understand if a celestial body
is approaching or moving away from the Earth:
- if its color tends to red it is moving away.
- if its color tends to blue it is approaching.
This phenomenon is also referred to as RED SHIFT.
Ellipsoid
It represents a geometric surface that should ideally indicate the shape of a spherical
body, such as the Earth or the Moon, not perfect. The non-perfection of the shape of
the two bodies are due to polar crushing.
Facole
It is a region of the solar surface intensely bright. It can be observed near sunspots on
the PHOTOSPHERE or electromagnetic RADIATION, emitted by a source.
Length (wave)
The wavelength thus represents the distance between two successive (higher)
maximum points or two successive (lower) minimum points.
241
Apparent magnitude
It represents the BRIGHTNESS of a star seen from Earth. Considering only the apparent
magnitude it is impossible to establish the intrinsic brightness of a star. In fact, objects
placed at different distances, such as stars, appear less bright to us if
they are further away. To understand the true brightness of a star it is necessary to
consider the ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE.
Absolute magnitude
It is the APPARENT MAGNITUDE that a star would show if it were moved 10 PARSEC
(about 32 LIGHT YEARS) away from Earth.
Nadir
It represents the point on the celestial sphere on the vertical of the observer but placed
downwards. It is opposite to ZENIT.
Knot
Indicates the point at which the orbit of a planet or celestial body intersects the
ECLIPTIC.
There are two types of nodes:
1. ascending, if the star passes from the SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE to the northern
hemisphere.
2. descending, if not.
Achromatic lens
Objective corrected by chromatic ABERRATION.
Red Shift
The redshift is the phenomenon by which the light or other electromagnetic radiation
emitted by a moving object has a longer wavelength than it had at the emission.
Double stars
They are very close pairs of stars. There are two types:
- binary, two stars physically linked by mutual attraction.
- optics, appear close for a perspective effect.
242
Sunset
It represents the disappearance of a star under the HORIZON.
Transit
It is the passage of Mercury or Venus on the disk of the Sun, or a satellite on the disk
of a planet.
Escape velocity
It is the minimum speed that an object must acquire to escape from the gravitational
pull of a planet. If this value is not reached, the body falls back to the planet.
Empty
The term is used to refer to regions of the universe that do not contain many visible
bright galaxies. Voids occupy about 98% of the volume of the cosmos, while luminous
matter is concentrated in a measly 2%. This does not mean that the universe is empty
in the true sense of the word. Astronomers, in fact, believe that dark MATTER resides
in the voids.
Astronomical Unit (UA)

The astronomical unit represents about the distance between the Earth and the Sun
and was defined in 2012 with the exact value of: 1 au = 149597870700 m
Zenith
It represents the point where the vertical passing through the observer intersects the
celestial sphere. The vertical, prolonged in the opposite direction towards the center
of the Earth, meets the celestial sphere in NADIR.
243
5 Bibliography and Conclusions
- Kelvin degree scale, Image, Source: http://polinice.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/temperatura01.png
- White, grey and black cardboard, Image, Source: http://www.virtualfoto.it/16213-
thickbox_default/jjc-cartoncino-18-
gray-neutral-3-in-1-for-the-digital-balance-of-white.jpg
- Manfrotto, tripods, accessories, Source:
https://cdn.manfrotto.com/media/catalog/product/cache/9/image/df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d271
36e95/u/u/
uuid-1800px-inriverimage_383393.jpg
- Nikon mc-dc2, wired remote control, accessories, Source:
http://www.nikon.it/it_IT/product/accessories/slr/slr-connectivity/remote-control/remote-cord-
mc-dc2
- Astronomical tracker "Skywatcher Star Adventurer", Source: http://www.skywatcher.it/
- Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 paymentsoftware, Source:
http://www.adobe.com/it/products/photoshop.html
- Stellarium, free Open-Source planetarium, Source: http://www.stellarium.org/it/
- Google Sky, free Google planetarium, Source: https://www.google.com/intl/it/sky/
- Star Map, software for Windows Phone devices, mobile planetarium, Source:
https://www.microsoft.com/it-it/store/apps/mappa-stellare/9wzdncrfhxn9
- Star Walk 2, software for Android and iOS devices, mobile planetarium, Source:
http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk-2-guide-sky-night-day.html
- Stellarium Mobile, software for Android and iOS devices, Source:
http://noctua-software.com/stellarium-mobile
- Meteoblue, meteorology service website, Source: https://www.meteoblue.com
- Sat24, meteorology service website, Source: http://it.sat24.com/it/it
- MeteoAM, meteorology service website, Source: http://www.meteoam.it/
- Constellations Map, Fonte: https://in-the-
sky.org/data/charts/constellations_map_equ110112.png
- Solar System, Source: https://www.castfvg.it/sistsola/pianeti/planets_iau.jpg
244
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH NIGHT SKY
2023 Edition
Version 1.0
26/04/2023
Angelo Perrone
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HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH THE

1.1 The Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) - Mirrorless

1.1.1 How a DLSR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) is built

1.1.2 Manual Exposure

1.1.3 Manual Mode

1.1.4 Exposure Times and Aperture

1.1.5 The ISO Value

1.1.6 White Balance

1.1.7 Exposure in Live View

1.1.8 The Focus

1.1.9 The Hyper-focal

1.1.10 Composition Techniques

1.2 Digital noise

1.2.1 What is Digital Noise

1.2.2 Techniques to eliminate it

1.3 Choosing the right optics

1.3.1 The best focal length

1.3.2 Chromatic Aberrations

1.3.4 The Coma Effect

1.4 How to shoot in Astrophotography

1.4.1 Single Shot and the 300 Rule

1.4.2 Using the Astro Tracker

1.4.3 Calibration with Dark, Bias e Flat Frames

1.4.4 Multiple Exposure

1.4.5 HDR Astrophotography

2.1.1 Camera Accessories

2.1.2 Astrophotography Filters

2.1.3 Clothing and Accessories

2.1.4 Light Pollution

2.1.5 Land Maps and Software for Smartphones and PCs

2.1.6 Astronomical Seeing and Weather

3.1 Meet Astro Panel X

3.1.2 The Panel

3.1.3 The Landscape / Pro Section

3.1.5 The Retouch Section

3.1.6 Export / Masks Section

3.1.7 The Fusion Section

3.2 Stacking of images in Astro Panel

3.2.2 Stacking Startrail

3.2.3 Stacking Astronomical Images and HDR

3.2.4 Stacking Deep Sky Channel

3.3 Workflow images in Adobe Photoshop with Astro Panel

3.3.1 Single Shot Processing

3.3.2 Dual Exposure Processing

3.3.3 Deep Sky Processing

3.3.4 Startrail Processing

3.3.5 Remove Light Pollution

3.3.6 Make Panorama Images in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom

3.4 Workflow for Video Timelapse (Coming soon)

3.4.1 Image Processing in Adobe Photoshop

3.4.2 Image Processing in Adobe Lightroom

3.4.3 Timelapse Video Sequence Processing in Adobe After Effects

3.4.4 Editing video sequences in Adobe Premiere Pro

In this chapter we will learn how to use our digital camera

THE MOMENT THE CAMERA SHUTTER BUTTON

INCREASE IN DIGITAL NOISE AS ISOS CHANGE

Generally, a focal length of 50mm is equivalent to about 45cm. If the subject to be

LIVE VIEW MODE

- the focusing distance.