DeepSky Academy
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Learning Path Content & Exercises
The Philosophy of DeepSky Academy
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DeepSky Academy: Philosophy: Dusty Truths
[This lesson is a preview of an in-progress course that is being built… as fast as I can. Previews of a course’s material in advance…
DeepSky Academy: Philosophy: Depth Cues
In this lesson we consider the various kinds of depth cues that are contained in our images or suggested by the way we display them.
DeepSky Academy: Image Imbalances: Introduction Part 1
This lesson introduces the general idea of imbalances in image features or attributes. The lessons that follow dive into additional examples. An imbalance isn’t necessarily…
DeepSky Academy: Image Imbalances: Color Blocking: Part 2
Color blocking (or clipping) occurs when the saturation of image is greater than the contrast or the brightness of the features of an object will…
DeepSky Academy: Image Imbalances: Bright Tonal Desaturation: Part 3
When values of an image are greater than 0.8 (normalized between 0 and 1) the associated colors will become dilute and approach white. However, the…
Stars and Star Clusters
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DeepSky Academy: Star Stretches Part 1
This is the first of a two part lesson that covers the specifics of stretching stars for stars-only blended results. After an introduction this lesson…
DeepSky Academy: Star Stretches Part 2
This is Part 2 of star stretching for stars-only blending. Here oversampled data is examined and the different stretching processes are compared.
DeepSky Academy: Globular Cluster III: Data Download
Published 2025-08-06 If you like to follow along with the following lesson please download this image. Also download the WorkFlow PDF for this lesson…
DeepSky Academy: Globular Clusters III
Published 2025-08-06 This lesson shows yet another powerful (and exclusive) way to process star clusters in combination with the ImageBlend Script.
Deep Sky Academy: Globular Clusters II
Published 2025-06-10 This lesson follows the previous concerning enhancing (globular) star clusters. However, this variation avoids some of the pitfalls of applying masked stretch…
Deep Sky Academy: Globular Clusters I
Published 2025-06-10 This lesson demonstrates an oft used method of enhancing globular clusters by using masked stretch. The technique shown here uses this process…
The "Crux" of Handling Starry Fields
Published 2025-05-10 This video is part of the Deep Sky Academy series of videos. Here the constellation of Crux is afloat deep within the uncountable…
Nebulae
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DeepSky Academy: NGC 6337: Data Download
Published 2025-12-11 This data set was made available by request to accommodate following along with the DeepSky Academy topic that demonstrates image processing of…
NGC 6337: The Ghostly Cheerio: Gradient Correction and BXT
Published 2025-070-07 This first lesson demonstrates an important (but subtle) example of resampling an image to potentially improve deconvolution. In small compact objects each…
NGC 6337: The Ghostly Cheerio: StarXterminator
Published 2025-07-07 Careful removal of stars is a must for objects with small bright features.
NGC 6337: The Ghostly Cheerio: Stretching and Blending
Published 2025-07-07 This section is the most critical and relies exclusively on the idea that decisions for processing particular objects come from taking inventory…
NGC 6337: The Ghostly Cheerio: Final Adjustments
Published 2025-07-07 The final adjustments to the image are made in this lesson including the overall brightness and inclusion of the NB stars.
Deep Sky Academy: Managing Color: Veil NB: Data Download
Use the link below to download member Matt Simmons’ master light frames and follow along with the instruction. Big thanks to Matt for permitting ABS…
Deep Sky Academy: Managing Color: NB Veil: HOO and Stretching
Published 2025-08-02 The data used in this lesson comes from a member. (No complaining that I always use “perfect” data… 🙂 ). The desire…
DeepSky Academy: Managing Color: NB Veil: Star Removal
Published 2025-08-02 This lesson includes exclusive content on a method to protect features of an object during star removal without having to manually paint…
DeepSky Academy: Managing Color: Veil NB: Selective Color
Published 2025-08-02 In this lesson Jurgen Terpe’s selective color script is used to help make more vibrant to the low saturation areas in an…
DeepSky Academy: Managing Color: Veil NB: RGB Stars and Wrapup
Published 2025-08-02 This lesson shows how to add RGB stars. However, the member threw a curveball for me. I demonstrate a way to fix…
DeepSky Academy: PNe: NGC 1535 I
Published 2025-12-19 Processing bright planetary nebulae is a challenge that comes with a unique set of processing techniques. Small bright objects like this typically…
DeepSky Academy: PNe: NGC 1535 II
Published 2025-12-19 Now that we have created special masks for this planetary nebula, we will continue with making multiple versions of the object. This…
DeepSky Academy: PNe: NGC 1535 III
Published 2025-12-21 This lesson continues the processing of NGC1535 by combining the intermediate images that have been created in combination with their masks to create…
DeepSky Academy: PNe: NGC 1535 IV
Published 2025-12-21 With the completion of the Luminance image in the previous lesson it is now possible to create an HOO image to colorize…
DeepSky Academy: PNe: NGC 1535 V
Published 2025-12-21 This final lesson shows how to create colorful HOO stars using NarrowbandNormalization and incorporate them into the final image. The stars of…
DeepSky Academy: NGC 3199: SOO With ImageBlend Masking Part 1
This first lesson in a series of three introduces data that I processed many years ago. The revisit allows me to demonstrate more principles of…
DeepSky Academy: NGC 3199: SOO With ImageBlend Masking Part 2
In this second lesson of three on NGC 3199 an SOO image is prepared as well as thinking about the H-alpha image and how to…
DeepSky Academy: NGC 3199: SOO With ImageBlend Masking Part 3
In this final session of the NGC 3199 processing revisit ImageBlend is featured with its new masking capabilities.
Galaxies
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NGC 300: MasterLights, DBE, SuperLuminance and SPCC
Published: 2025-12-02 This is the first lesson in the sets of videos that demonstrates processing a galaxy and including H-alpha data as well. The…
NGC 300: Narrowband Blending Ha/LRGB (I)
Published 2025-12-01 This lesson is the first of two parts that demonstrates the incorporation of narrowband images into a color (LRGB in this case)…
NGC 300: Narrowband Blending Ha/LRGB (II)
Published 2025-12-01 This is the second lesson of a two-part demonstration on blending narrowband data into a color image (LRGB in this case). This…
NGC 300: Ha/LRGB Final Processing
Published 2025-12-08 This is the final lesson on processing the HaLRGB image of NGC 300. The important take away techniques shown here include protecting…
Deep Sky Academy: NGC2613: Examine Luminance and BXT
This lesson continues to understand the data in light of the object (a galaxy) and applies BXT to the Luminance.
Deep Sky Academy: NGC 2613: WBPP, Blink, NSG
This series on NGC 2613 demonstrates how to process an exemplar galaxy such as this perfect spiral galaxy. The LRGB master lights are available from…
Deep Sky Academy: NGC 2613: RGB SPCC, BXT, MAS, NXT
Published 2026-03-15 In this lesson we turn our attention to the RGB data. First it is color calibrated (SPCC) and then sharpened (BXT), stretched…
Deep Sky Academy: NGC 2613: LRGB Production
Published 2026-03-15 In this lesson the Luminance is stretched so that it will blend well with the stretched RGB image we have in hand. Then…
Deep Sky Academy: NGC 2613: Final Adjustments
Published 2026-03-15 In this final lesson the galaxy image has three significant adjustments that are typical for this type of object. The color is…
01 DeepSky Academy: NGC 4696: WorkFlow Chart Summary
This is the summary for the workflow for processing NGC 4696. The PDF for this chart is a download available below.
02 DeepSky Academy: NGC 4696: Intro RGB and BXT
In this lesson we dive into the DeepSky Academy analysis of NGC 4696 and begin post processing. Find the masterlight RGB files below or in…
03 DeepSky Academy: NGC 4696: MultiScale Adaptive Stretch and iHDR
This DeepSky Academy lesson focuses on the stretching of NGC 4696 using a combination of Multiscale Adaptive Stretch and iHDR (script).
04 DeepSky Academy: NGC 4696: Clean Spikes HDRMT Saturation
This lesson continues with the post processing of NGC 4696. Due to the extreme stretch of the galaxy the diffraction spikes of a handful of…
05 DeepSky Academy: NGC 4696: Stars-only Processing NXT Color Filter Effect
This lesson concludes the processing of NGC 4696 with some final adjustments.
Other Objects
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Deep Sky Academy: C/2025 R2 (comet SWAN) Part 1
Published 2025-09-25 This lesson begins the journey to do standard comet processing of Comet SWAN (C/2025 R2) as it appeared on September 21st 2025.…
Deep Sky Academy: C/2025 R2 (comet SWAN) Part 2
Published 2025-09-25 In this lesson the technical side of comet image process is demonstrated. Both normalization and image integration play vital roles in determining…
Deep Sky Academy: C/2025 R2 (comet SWAN) Part 3
Published 2025-09-25 One of the most underappreciated aspects of comet image processing is the use of comet subtraction to improve star fields. This is…
Deep Sky Academy: C/2025 R2 (comet SWAN) Part 4
Published 2025-09-25 In this lesson we construct the RGB images that will eventually be blended together in the final image (last lesson).
Deep Sky Academy: C/2025 R2 (Comet SWAN) Part 5
Published 2025-09-25 This final lesson assembles the starless comet image with the cometless starfield. Both images have a background and you get to choose…
Hickson 88 Galaxy Group
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00_DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: Workflow Chart Summary
Check out this summary of the processing for this image. The workflow chart PDF and master lights are below. Although I demonstrate the initial processing…
01 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: Inspect and WBPP Configuration
This lesson inspects the files for Hickson 88 and sets up WBPP for the initial processing.
02 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: Frame Selection and WBPP Results
A good demonstration of how to think about using Frame Selection is shown in this lesson. Then the masterlights are examined.
03 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: Luminance Processing
The processing of the luminance data includes gradient correction and BXT.
04 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: RGB Processing
This video focuses on the RGB side of the processing for this field and prepares for the LRGB production of the data.
05 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: LRGB Processing and a Bright Stars Adjustment
One of the key elements of this DeepSky Academy course is to show techniques that are generally helpful to know. In this video the bright…
06 DeepSky Academy: Hickson 88: High Pass Filter with Overlay
The final adjustment to this image is the selective use of the High Pass Filter with Overlay.
Description
DeepSky Academy is about learning how to think through the processing of astronomical images.
Rather than approaching every image with the same sequence of tools and techniques, DeepSky Academy begins by deconstructing an image—identifying the important features of the object, understanding the strengths and limitations of the data, and recognizing the challenges that will shape the processing. From there, we select and apply the methods best suited to bringing out those features while creating a balanced and compelling final image.
Through detailed examples involving nebulae, galaxies, star clusters, comets, and other deep-sky subjects, you will see how different objects call for different solutions. Along the way, we explore stretching, color management, sharpening, star processing, masking, blending, narrowband integration, and many other techniques—not simply as isolated tools, but as solutions to specific imaging problems.
The goal of DeepSky Academy is not to teach a single processing recipe. It is to develop the observational and problem-solving skills that allow you to look at your own data, decide what it needs, and build an effective processing strategy.
DeepSky Academy is an evolving course with a few more sections to be added. New subjects, techniques, and complete processing examples will continue to be added as the Academy grows.
