Target: Horsehead Nebula (B33)
Date: February 3, 2026 - February 7, 2026
Location: My Backyard in Georgetown, Texas
Sky Conditions: Clear skies, 39-47°F, Wind: light, Moon: Avg 82% illuminated.
Bortle Class: 5
Integration: 951 x 60 seconds

This is a 3-panel mosaic of the Horsehead Nebula, marking the beginning of my sixth year in astrophotography. After five years of learning and growth, I believe this is my best image yet, and I’m incredibly proud of it. However, I’m also humbled by the fact that I’m just beginning to explore this hobby and have much more to learn.

I initially posted my first version of this photo in the forums, seeking advice. I went through 11 iterations based on the feedback and critical critique I received, ultimately arriving at this version. I genuinely tried to incorporate each piece of advice into my astrophotography toolkit.

Some comments focused on the color. As someone who is red-green colorblind, I couldn’t initially see the greens and purples in the image and found the reds overpowering in the first version. People offered suggestions on which colors to adjust, and one person even showed me a tool to create a color mask that could isolate the colors I couldn’t perceive with my own eyes.

Some commented I was missing a lot of stars in the image, so I re-stretched the image to make sure I wasn’t leaving any out while ensuring I didn’t blow out larger stars like Alnitak. I originally had the tool set to the default value so I didn’t know I was removing any stars.

Others recommended using less sharpening with a tool I’ve had for years called BlurXTerminator. I’ve always used it at default settings or cranked it up to maximum values, believing that this would result in a better image. However, reducing it to a modest 20% actually yielded the best results because anything higher would create crunchy artifacts.

Overall, I’m incredibly proud of this image. After five years, I’ve made some nice images, but very few that I can truly claim as just proud. I want to view this image as the inspiration for my sixth year as an astrophotographer. It serves as a testament to my growth and a reminder of the vast amount I still have to learn.

Post-Processing Workflow

Software Used: PixInsight

Stacked in Siril using Naztronomy’s OSC Script
Cropped Image.
Applied AutoDBE Exported .FIT file for editing in PixInsight.
Applied BlurXTerminator: Correct Only.
Updated Astrometry and applied SPCC.
Applied BlurXTerminator: 20% Stars / 20% Non-Stellar.
Unscreened and removed stars with StarXTerminator.
Applied NoiseXTerminator at 50% on starless image.
Used MAS to stretch image.
Curves Adjustments: Made slight adjustments to blue and green channels to add contrast in darker regions of image. Made overall s-curve adjustment to RGB/K to add contrast and boost saturation.
Extracted a Luminance Channel and applied Local Histogram Equalization at .12 percent. Then combined the edited L channel to the image using the LRGB Combination tool to add a touch of clarity to the image.
Used Seti Astro's star stretch script to stretch star image at .600 to make sure no stars were left out ;), with color boost at 1.50 and SCNR checked.
Combined starless with star images with image blend script.
Exported as PNG.