AstroPhotography Blog – Katorella Astro

The PixInsight or Photoshop Black Hole

March 2, 2021March 8, 2021Katorella Astro

So what’s better for processing images, PixInsight or Photoshop? No, this isn’t exactly another one of those opinion pieces. Google “PixInsight vs. Photoshop” and you can read for hours. The question may have been answered a million times over with a thousand slightly differing opinions, but none of them might be right for you. The super short answer is that Photoshop and PixInsight can both be used on their own, but in the best use case they compliment each other. Reading through, you’ll see that this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to add two more software licenses to the cost of the shiny new imaging rig you just bought to get started. I’ve only just now transitioned to a PixInsight and Photoshop blend after spending more than three years strictly processing all data with Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.

For a little background and history, I’ve been in various levels of IT organizations for very small and very large companies over the last 25 years. I’ve spent most of that time in the end user space, with a big chunk of the last quarter century spent improving user experience. So I think I’m somewhat qualified to say this: PixInsight is the worst thought out end user application ever created that maintains such a large popularity. There is absolutely nothing intuitive about it. Books – very long books – are written just on using the basic functions of the application. Thousands of hours of YouTube tutorials exist. None of the tutorials are the same, and they are quickly out of date. “But that just shows how versatile the application is”, you say. Hogwash. Versatility doesn’t have to introduce a level of complexity requiring a one-hour video tutorial or an entire chapter in a how-to book when learning a single basic function. You shouldn’t need a programmers brain, or require days of research to learn basic functionality of any application; especially not an application at this price point.

So let me tell you what I really think of PixInsight if you haven’t already guessed. It’s freaking awesome!

Meade LX85 Mount First Impressions

November 26, 2019December 12, 2019Katorella Astro

I’d been wanting to upgrade/update my old LXD75 mount for quite some time. The old horse has been tracking great, but I really want to take my imaging to the next level, and I had an opportunity for a package deal with an Meade 80mm triplet refractor that I couldn’t pass up. You can check out the video below, and/or read on for some first impressions.

Stand Out

November 25, 2019December 1, 2019Katorella Astro

How to Differentiate Yourself in a Sea of M42’s

It’s the Orion time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Images of the Great Nebula in Orion and the Horsehead and Flame nebulae litter Instagram and Astrobin on a daily basis. Images with great detail and small round stars look great, and really do stand on their own, but do they stand out? Can the average person who isn’t an astro-imager really appreciate the difference? Are you happy with our little astrophotography community appreciating your pictures, or do you have bigger aspirations of bringing the magic of space to the world through imaging and art?

Is Astrophotragphy Getting Too Easy?

November 19, 2019November 19, 2019Katorella Astro

Everybody should be able to take pictures of space without having an astronomy degree, IT background, or having to take out a second mortgage. A lot of us like to think our little club is exclusive, but I think it should be more inclusive. I talk a lot about how hard and frustrating this hobby is on someone starting out, so I’m all for technology making things easier on us. But are these new phone image sensors and software all they’re advertised to be? And is an upcoming all-in-one scope, mount and imager misunderstood? Is imaging space getting too easy?

Are we Living in the Greatest Time in Astrophysics?

September 17, 2019September 19, 2019Katorella Astro

You wouldn’t know it if you watch the news.

Stories about immigration, impeachment, sanctions, political investigations, attacks on oil fields and the like litter the headlines daily. These are deeply important to some, while others are more content to obsess over what celebrity did what to who, or who was airbrushed in what magazine. In the reality of the Universe, none of it matters. The celebrity with the DUI, the world leader threatening nukes. Even the events we view as the most important in human history are all pointless.

What’s Your Unobtanium?

September 9, 2019November 19, 2019Katorella Astro

What object in the sky always bites you in the ass when you try to image it? Endless cloudy nights, dew problems, focus issues, equipment failures… A lot of us have one object that continues to elude us year after year. We look on Astrobin or Instagram, see everyone’s beautiful images of this object and want to tackle it ourselves, but every time out the Gremlins start to work their way into our imaging session. I wouldn’t rush to say that everyone has some object they just can’t seem to capture, despite good planning and preparation, but I’m sure there are a lot of us out there with one object that just pisses us off, night after night and year after year.

Do you have OHD?

August 31, 2019February 17, 2021Katorella Astro

How to diagnose and treat Obsessive Hobby Disorder.

If you can check off just one of the symptoms on the list below, you probably have OHD.

Do you check the clear sky chart before planning date-night with your significant other?
Do you find family time sidetracked by staring at a computer screen monitoring your mount’s tracking?
Do you wake up in the middle of the night, and instead of going right back to sleep, look outside to see if the sky is clear?
Have you ever called in sick to work because you were up all night imaging?
Do you START drinking coffee at 8PM because the sky is clear?
Do you disassemble, re-grease and test your mount because, Saturday?
Do you plan out the next 6 months of imaging wile you’re at work?
Is your bank account’s primary purpose to fund your next piece of astrophotography gear?

Trip to Dark Skies

July 30, 2019November 19, 2019Katorella Astro

Last week, my family and I took a trip out to Galena, IL – about 3 hours West of Chicago. My wife and I frequent the area, but this was the first time we were taking the kids along. I took a video a couple days before we left, talking about my plans to shoot 2+ hours of the Eastern Veil Nebula in Chicago and then 2+ hours of the same object from Bortle 3 skies in Galena. I knew there would be a huge difference and I’d need to find a way to get to dark skies more often.

Buying Your First Astrophotography Setup? Start Here… kind of

April 8, 2019November 30, 2019Katorella Astro

I often wonder if anybody in astronomy forums has had to struggle to figure out how to pay kids’ school fees and the mortgage in the same month, or forgo that pizza order to put gas in the car.