Assembling a 3-panel Astro Mosaic in Photoshop

I briefly describe the capture and basic processing of an astro image mosaic in Voyager and PixInsight. I also show in detail how I assemble the mosaic in Photoshop using both a standard and a starless workflow.

[@SassePhoto]

Cool! Very impressive solution when mosaics fail in astro software as this is rock solid.

[@markmuller3086]

Great video! I like your Photoshop process. I notice the stars have spikes. Is that something you elected to do in PixInsight…make them “burst” a little?

[@utahdesertremoteobservator8328]

The diffraction spikes are caused by the supports for the secondary mirror. They're common in some types of telescopes such as Newtonian (reflector) telescopes where a secondary mirror is supported at the front of the telescope. The Hubble has similar diffraction spikes. The James Web telescope has an unusual pattern of 6 spikes.

[@toanthai]

Would “photomerge” in photoshop stitch the panels faster?

[@utahdesertremoteobservator8328]

In my experience sometimes it works but usually it doesn’t I don’t think it would work at all with a starless workflow where stars and nebula are on separate layers. But there’s no harm in trying.

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Photomerge would do this much easier than this method.

[@utahdesertremoteobservator8328]

Sometimes it will work but usually it fails. I don’t think it will work at all for a starless workflow when stars and nebula are separate.