Bode's Galaxy from Black Mesa
In April 2026, I finally took the plunge and got a trial license for PixInsight. This is my first effort: Bode’s Galaxy, aka M 81.
M 81; taken from Black Mesa State Park in Oklahoma; processed on PixInsight with BlurXTerminator, Syqon Prism Deep, and GHS
To my untrained eye, it looks a bit over-processed. But I’m happy enough with it to put it on my blog.
This was made almost entirely following an excellent YouTube video from the View Into Space channel. I’ve recently joined Sascha’s Patreon, and it’s well worth it.
As for this photo, Black Mesa State Park completely spoiled me, and made me think that some things (in particular, background extraction) are easy. Ha. The next photo that I processed was taken from Monsters’ Clubhouse, in my Bortle 6.6 back yard.