Comments for Astrodoc: Astrophotography by Ron Brecher

Comment on Messier 71 by Ron Brecher

Ron Brecher — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 14:39:45 +0000

In reply to Harlan King. Glad my notes are helpful.

Comment on Messier 71 by Harlan King

Harlan King — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 14:05:50 +0000

Well done Ron! Really appreciate the write up as well, processing can be quite difficult (at least for me ).

Comment on IC 1318 – Sky-Watcher Esprit 70 EDX First Light by Ron Brecher

Ron Brecher — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:45:37 +0000

In reply to Cheryl Wilcox. Awesome! Glad you enjoyed my article.

Comment on IC 1318 – Sky-Watcher Esprit 70 EDX First Light by Cheryl Wilcox

Cheryl Wilcox — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:27:15 +0000

This is beautiful! I’ve been imaging IC 1318 over the past three nights with my Redcat 51, ASI585MC Pro, and L-eXtreme filter from my light-polluted backyard in southern CA. I am still pretty new at using PixInsight, but I’m learning! I enjoyed your article in the August 2026 S&T about dual-band imaging with a one shot color camera. I’m glad my anniversary is coming up next month so I can ask my hubby for the L-Synergy!

Comment on NGC 6366 by Ron Brecher

Ron Brecher — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:02:42 +0000

In reply to Kevin Mace. Hi Kevin. The core of a GC is a pretty high-signal region, and probably doesn't need noise reduction. Consider using a mask that protects the core from NoiseXT. Hope this helps.

Comment on NGC 6366 by Kevin Mace

Kevin Mace — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:59:59 +0000

Hi Ron, I’ve been an avid fan of your work for years. I did some film-based AP back in the day, and when COVID hit in 2020 I found myself with some time on my hands which I used to learn how to do digital AP. I’m still learning, of course, and have invested in equipment and software and have built up my skills quite a bit in the last few years. I’m still doing OSC, and will likely progress into mono at some point.

I have a question with respect to processing globular clusters specifically. I often run into what I call “the worms” – small, mostly linear artifacts which seem to be introduced (or made worse) in the NoiseXTerminator (linear) step. I’ve found that NxT AI version 2 doesn’t do this as badly as NxT AV version 3, but then again AI v2 doesn’t distinguish stars in the GC core as well as v3, either. Nothing I do has much of an effect on the worms, and they come out in both the stars and starless versions, and short of time-consuming Blemish Blasting (via SETI Astro), I can’t seem to not create them in the process.

Thoughts? Thanks – keep up the great work!

Comment on Markarian’s Chain by Julie

Julie — Thu, 14 May 2026 02:40:32 +0000

woo hoo baby ~ woo hoo!

Comment on NGC 4244 by Ron Brecher

Ron Brecher — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:10:41 +0000

In reply to Trevor Jones. Thanks!

Comment on NGC 4244 by Trevor Jones

Trevor Jones — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:57:10 +0000

Fantastic image, Ron. I struggle to capture clean galaxy images from home – you nailed this one!

Comment on M82 by Leslie Chaks

Leslie Chaks — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:30:16 +0000

WOW! Great capture and processing. Looks spectacular