Some sessions give you diamonds. Others, merely gravel! The ups and downs of milky way astrophotography!

 New to my blog? You can drop in here first to learn more about me and the blog: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/p/welcome-to-my-astronomy-and.html

As the blog grows, I want it to stay easy to navigate. To help with that, I’ve put together a simple guide that explains how everything is arranged and how to find things quickly:

• Want to Find Something Quickly on My Blog? https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/want-to-find-something-quickly-on-my.html

You’ll also see labels, categories, and series developing over time so you can follow particular themes - whether that’s equipment, observing sessions, learning logs, or location-based posts. Anyway, welcome and enjoy. I hope ytou find something useful.  Steve 

Milky Way Editing Workflow: What I Managed to Salvage From a Tough Night at Durdle Door

“Not every Milky Way session gives you diamonds — sometimes you come home with gravel. Last week at Durdle Door was one of those nights! Here, in today’s post, I show how I salvaged the data, blended the sky and landscape in Affinity Photo, and squeezed something usable out of a tough session. Clear skies… eventually!”

 

Last week I returned to Durdle Door for my second Milky Way session of 2026 — and if you’ve read the trip report, you’ll know it was a night that fought me every step of the way. Between wind, moon glow, and a restless tripod, the data I brought home was… well, let’s call it “character‑building.” Sometimes astrophotography hands you diamonds; sometimes it hands you gravel. This time, I came home with a bucket of gravel.

Still, even a difficult session has value. You learn, you adapt, and you squeeze every last drop out of the data you did manage to capture. That’s what this post is about: how I processed the images, what worked, and how I blended the sky and landscape using Affinity Photo.

Read the full story of my Durdle Door Milky Way shoot here: My Second Milky Way Session of 2026 at Durdle Door
https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2026/05/my-second-milky-way-session-of-2026.html

And if you want the detailed version of my milky way editing workflow, this earlier guide covers the foundations: For the full breakdown of my workflow, see my Milky Way Editing Tutorial (Affinity Photo + Sequator).
https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/editing-tutorial-guide-to-how-i-post.html

 Below is the updated, slightly refined workflow I used for this session.

 

My Milky Way Editing Workflow (2026 Update)

1. Stacking the Sky Images — Twice

For each night, I created two separate stacks:

• one in Sequator
• one in Affinity Photo

I always do this. Some nights Sequator produces a cleaner, more natural result; other nights Affinity Photo pulls ahead. It’s a bit like developing film in two different darkrooms — you never know which one will coax out the best detail until you compare them side by side.

Each program produced one stacked sky image for Night One and one for Night Two.

 

Lots to be please about in the landscape bit - most of it is well lit and in focus. 

The blur of breaking waves is nice. 

Issues? The stark transition line at horizon; the mismatching tone and colouring between landscape and sky. The sky is too blue and not well defined. 

2. Preparing the Landscape Images

I selected a handful of blue hour and midnight hour landscape shots and opened them in Affinity Photo’s Develop Persona for basic RAW adjustments.

Key steps:

• neutralised the pink cast caused by my astro‑modified camera
• applied the same colour‑correction method described in my earlier workflow post
• exported each landscape frame as a TIFF

These TIFFs become the “foreground plates” for the final composite.

 

3. Preparing the Stacked Sky Images

The stacked skies went through the same initial treatment:

• colour‑neutralising the astro‑mod magenta tint
• adjusting white balance for a clean, natural starting point
• exporting as TIFFs ready for blending

At this stage, both sky and landscape images are “pre‑balanced” so they play nicely together later.

 

Version two - the landscape is too dark now! 

This post editing malarkey is quite challenging to grasp! 

How I Replace the Sky in Affinity Photo

This is the part people ask me about most often, so here’s the exact process I use — clean, repeatable, and reliable-ish – if you have some basic photo processing skills.

Step‑by‑step sky replacement workflow

1. Select the sky
   Use the Select Brush Tool to paint over the sky area.
   Click Refine and brush along the horizon to improve the transition.
2. Invert the selection
   Now the landscape is selected instead of the sky.
3. Create a mask
   With the landscape layer highlighted, click the Mask Layer icon.
   The sky should now disappear.
4. Deselect
5. Add the sky image
   Paste your sky TIFF into the document.
6. Move the sky layer below the landscape layer
   This places the sky “behind” the masked foreground.
7. Position the sky
   Use the Move Tool.
   I temporarily set the sky layer to 75% opacity so I can align it precisely.

 

Blending the Horizon for Realism

This is where the magic happens — the difference between a believable composite and one that looks like two photos glued together.

Softening the transition

• Select the landscape mask
• Use a soft black brush at 10–20% opacity
• Gently paint along the horizon to soften the edge
• If the transition is still too harsh, apply a 1–3px Gaussian Blur to the mask

As my wife, who makes her own clothes, would say “Think of this step as feathering two pieces of fabric together until the seam disappears.”

 

Matching Colour and Light Between Sky and Foreground

Adjusting the sky

On the sky layer, I typically apply:

• Recolour Adjustment (warmer or cooler depending on the scene)
• Curves Adjustment (to brighten or darken specific areas)
• HSL Adjustment (to reduce saturation if needed)

For the Milky Way:

• background sky → slightly cooler, bluer hue
• Milky Way core → a touch more magenta

Right‑click each adjustment and choose Mask to Below so it only affects the sky.

I often darken the sky slightly near the horizon — a personal preference, but it adds depth and realism.

 

This one is my favourite - the landscape was taken at midnight. The sky done afterwards with fewer tracked shots at a lower ISO and shutter speed. 

Adjusting the landscape

The goal is to make the foreground feel like it belongs under that sky.

Typical adjustments:

• Curves to darken or cool the landscape
• HSL if colours feel too warm or saturated
• Mask to Below so adjustments apply only to the landscape layer

Finally, I may feather the horizon again with a soft black brush at 10–20% opacity, building up the blend gradually until it feels natural.

 

Final Thoughts

This wasn’t the Milky Way session I hoped for — far from it. But even when the data isn’t great, the workflow still teaches you something. Every failed frame is a stepping stone to the next successful night, and Durdle Door will definitely see me again when the conditions are kinder.

If you’ve got tips, tricks, or your own approach to blending sky and landscape, drop them in the comments. I always credit contributors in future updates and love learning from other people.

Clear skies, stay safe, and keep looking up
— Steve

• Beginner’s Guide: How to Photograph the Milky Way in the UK  https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/02/beginners-guide-to-taking-your-first.html
• How to plan for a milky way photography session: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-beginners-guide-to-post-editing-your.html

My second milky way session of 2026

 New to my blog? You can drop in here first to learn more about me and the blog: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/p/welcome-to-my-astronomy-and.html

As the blog grows, I want it to stay easy to navigate. To help with that, I’ve put together a simple guide that explains how everything is arranged and how to find things quickly:

• Want to Find Something Quickly on My Blog? https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/want-to-find-something-quickly-on-my.html

You’ll also see labels, categories, and series developing over time so you can follow particular themes - whether that’s equipment, observing sessions, learning logs, or location-based posts. Anyway, welcome and enjoy. I hope ytou find something useful.  Steve 

My Second Milky Way Session of 2026… and It Doesn’t Go Well

My second Milky Way session of 2026… and the universe said “nope”.
Wind, tripod wobble, star trailing moon glow and one very enthusiastic light‑painter down on the beach.
Durdle Door was beautiful — my images, less so.
Plenty of lessons learned from an early‑season astrophotography session

 

You’re probably expecting a triumphant post full of Milky Way images from Wembury. I even teased my first session of 2026 in an earlier post and promised I’d share the photos “soon”: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2026/04/planning-milky-way-shoot-at-wembury.html

Well… “soon” has turned into “not yet”.
Either the weather has been about as cooperative as a cat at bath time, or I simply haven’t been home.
Sorry!

I will get those Wembury images done - and I’ll post them the moment the universe stops conspiring against me.

Meanwhile… Durdle Door Called

Planning a Milky Way Shoot at Durdle Door

 We took the motorhome over to Dorset for a short break, staying at the holiday park perched on the hill above Durdle Door. It’s one of those places where the view alone makes you feel like you should be holding a mug of tea and contemplating life’s mysteries.

Two nights.
One cliff top.
One iconic limestone arch.
And one astrophotographer (me) trying to wrestle the Milky Way into a frame.

 

Preparation: The Week of Hope

I spent the previous week doing what all astrophotographers do before a big shoot:

• Scouring the internet for inspiration
• Staring at Photopills like it was a crystal ball
• Sorting gear into neat piles
• Convincing myself that this time everything would go smoothly

Photopills gave me a shooting plan for each night. The plan was beautiful. Elegant. Precise.
Reality, as you’ll see, was none of those things.

 

Astrophotography Gear Used for This Session

• Astromodded Canon 800D
• Samyang 14mm f/2
• Sky‑Watcher Star Adventurer 2i
• Benbo Mach 3 carbon fibre tripod
• Two 25,000 mAh powerbanks
• Intervalometer
• Ball head
• MSM green laser pen
• Sky‑Watcher right‑angled viewfinder
• William Optics wedge

Basically: enough kit to make passing hikers assume I was either photographing the cosmos or trying to contact it.

 

Photopills Planning and Location Scouting

The Shooting Plan

• Afternoon recce on day one to scout cliff‑top locations
• Using Photopills AR to line up the Milky Way over the arch
• Returning at blue hour for landscape frames
• Night session from 00:40 to 04:00
• Repeat the whole thing on day two

I’ll share the exact shooting settings in the next post when I present the edited images — or whatever I manage to salvage from the wreckage.

 

Issues on Both Nights (A.K.A. The Universe Laughs)

Let’s just say the conditions were… character‑building.

• Brisk easterly winds (14–25 mph, gusting to 28 mph)
  My tripod shook like it was auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing.
• Exposed cliff‑top site
  Slippy grass, loose gravel, and vegetation hiding the cliff edge.
  Polar alignment required turning my back to the drop — a thrilling experience I don’t recommend.
• Star trailing
  Even with the tracker. Even with weights. Even with me acting as a human windbreak.
• 35% moon
  Casting moonglow across the scene like a cosmic floodlight nobody asked for.
• Milky Way barely above the arch
  Early season problems — the galaxy was basically peeking over the horizon like a shy child.
• Another astrophotographer on the beach light‑painting the arch
  Continuously.
  For hours.
  Much to the despair of the five of us on the cliff top.
• Cold
  Windchill that could freeze enthusiasm itself.
  I wore thermals, a fleece, two jackets… and three hats.
  Yes, three. Don’t judge me.

 

Night Two: A “Safer” Spot… Sort Of

I moved to a more sensible position on the main footpath.
Better footing.
Clearer view of the Milky Way above the Channel.

But the wind had other ideas.

• Northeasterly gusts spilling off the fields
  They pushed the tripod towards the cliff edge.
  I had to stand between the wind and the tripod like a bouncer protecting a VIP.

 

Techniques I Tried to Reduce Star Trailing

• Lower tripod height
• Weighted tripod with my rucksack
• Standing as a human shield
• Shorter shutter speeds + higher ISO

Did it help?
Not really.
But I looked impressively committed.

 

The Results?

Not great.

The Milky Way frames from both nights show trailing, wobble, and some truly unpleasant light gradients.
The kind of gradients that make you sigh, close your laptop, and go make tea.

But — and this is important — I learned loads.
And the blue hour images?
They’re actually pretty decent, and I’ve got several I can work with.

Over the next week or two, I’ll attempt to salvage something from the night‑sky shots.
Any blend I produce probably won’t be pretty…
But that’s part of the fun, isn’t it?
We’ll talk about it, learn from it, and maybe even laugh about it.

Clear skies, stay safe, keep looking up.

Steve

 

My first contact

 Today is a monumentous day in the history of this new blog. 

I made 'first contact'. 

Well, a reader made 'first contact' with me, if we are being accurate.

Tony, from Australia, dropped me an email saying how much he appreciated the blog. He is a beginner to astrophotography and like me, has been spending hours trawling the internet via blogs and YouTube to find out information. 

He was grateful for finding all the information he needed as a beginner in just one place. 

And that is and will always continue to be the main aim of the blog - you can read more about my aims here: 

https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/what-is-aim-and-purpose-of-my-new.html

https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-little-more-about-me-and-why-i-am-in.html

https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/welcome-to-my-new-astronomyastrophotogr.html

Anyway, Tony, thanks for taking the time to drop me an email - greatly appreciated - confirmation that it is helpful for beginners and that the blog is fulfilling its aim of helping other beginners. 

Planning a milky way shoot at Wembury Beach in South Devon

 New to my blog? You can drop in here first to learn more about me and the blog: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/p/welcome-to-my-astronomy-and.html

As the blog grows, I want it to stay easy to navigate. To help with that, I’ve put together a simple guide that explains how everything is arranged and how to find things quickly:

• Want to Find Something Quickly on My Blog? https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/want-to-find-something-quickly-on-my.html

You’ll also see labels, categories, and series developing over time so you can follow particular themes - whether that’s equipment, observing sessions, learning logs, or location-based posts. Anyway, welcome and enjoy. I hope ytou find something useful.  Steve 

Imaging session down at Wembury Beach - a milky way landscape

The Milky Way is back in our night time sky and this will be the first milky way imaging session of this year. 

These are my previous attempts at getting a good milky way landscape image at Wembury Beach: 

this was a tracked, stacked and blend photo - seperate sky and foreground. 

The latter is way too dark!

Another seperate sky and foreground shot - my camera had just been astromodded and so post editing didn't go well - as I grappled with sorting the colour balance

So much wrong with this shot, don't know where to start 😄

I was pleased with this shot - a seperate sky and foreground - the latter had some light painting over the mill building. The sky was a series of non tracked but stacked images 

A single shot image - just totally underexposed in all aspects

So, tonight will be my latest attempt to get a decent image - how do I go about planning a night-time landscape image session? 

Step one: an on-site visit to find some good compositions and to do some thinking about the kind of image I want to achieve. I also use AR on Photopills to position the milky way above the landscape foreground I am thinking of including in the shot

I have written previously about how I plan a milky way session here:  https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/editing-tutorial-guide-to-how-i-post.html  and also here:  https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-beginners-guide-to-post-editing-your.html

These blog posts go through some of my thinking when I am at a potential location. I also refer to a crib sheet because I'm at an age where I am somewhat absent minded and forgetful.  Below is my most updated crib sheet. 

Step two: finding an appropriate night for shooting

This is my research phase a few days before a session - here is what I check:

• The moon phase and size
• The weather on the night
• The position of the milky way in the landscape 
• What part of the milky way will be visible at what specific times

First app: Sky Safari which tells me step by step exactly what parts of the milky way will be visible, at what times and in what directions

App two is Clear Outside. Tonight my window of opportunity is between 0200 and 0300 and the skies are clearing then according to the app. I will probably have to use a dew heater band though. Winds will be coming from the north and I will be shooting to the South East so that should be fine and they are getting lighter. The moon will be 2% and by the time I come to shooting it will have set for quite some time. Its going to be a chilly night though. 

Third app is PhotoPills. An essential planning tool for this kind of astrophotography. Not only can I use it to see where the milky way will be positioned and at what times, I can also use it to calculate exposure times, hyperfocal distances and more. 

As a matter of course, I always cross-reference Clear Outside with the Met office app. I find that they very rarely coincide and this is evident tonight with this app showing clear skies throughout the night and Clear Outside clearly not! 

Step three - Deciding on a shooting plan 

This is the one I always find tricky. Picking the right aperture, ISO and shutter speed for the shooting plan I am aiming for. Another tricky bit for me is planning how many image targets I can safely do in one night. 

Tonight, this is my provisional shooting plan - I am aiming for a tracked, stacked sky shot which is then blended with a separate foreground shot - and here I will use either depth of field focus stacking OR hyperfocal distance calculations to ensure that all the landscape is in focus. So, 

1. I turn up an hour before the optimum time for milky way imaging - take some foreground landscape shots. I am looking at a potential foreground that includes some washed up tree trunks, boulders on a gravel/sand beach and then off to one side an old mill house. The milky way will be rising over the distant headland behind all of this. 
2. I then complete the milky way imaging from the same spot
3. Finally I collect some calibration frames at the end of the shooting session

So, what about shooting settings? 

I will be using an astromodded Canon 800D teamed with either a Samyang 14mm F/2.0 lens OR a Canon 22mm F/1.8 lens. Given I have a cropped sensor - then these focal lengths will be 14mm x 1.6 = 22.4mm  and 22mm x 1.6 = 35.2mm focal length respectively. 

Which lens? 

Well that depends - If I am going for as much of the milky way as I can get in the shot (which will be portrait) then I will use the Samyang. This also allows me to shoot with my Optolong L-enHance clip in filter as well. On the other hand - there is an opportunity to shoot a closer image of just part of the Milky Way around the Antares area using the 22mm or even my 50mm canon lens - but then I cannot use the clip in filter with those lenses. 

Normally I just go with my gut when I arrive on scene - the decision made implusively! 

Step four - getting the equipment together

My equipment for tonight will be as follows: 

• Astromodded Canon 800D with dummy battery
• Samyang 14mm F/2.0 lens
• Canon lenses 22mm F/1.8 and 50mm F/1.8
• SWSA 2i tracker
• Benbo carbon fibre tripod with gorillapod ball head and adjustable dovetail clamps
• Two 25,000mAH power banks
• One dew band heater strap
• Optolong L-enHance clip in filter
• Samsung A9 tablet for calibration frames
• Osprey rucksack
• Primus Lite stove for drinks

So, there we go - hopefully the weather will play ball and I will have sufficient data to create a final image some time next week. 

How do you plan your milky way landscape session?

What additions, alterations or tips would you make to the way I go about it? 

As always, tips, constructive advice always welcome - drop me a comment in the box at the end of this blog post.

In the meantime, clear skies, stay safe and keep looking up

Steve 

A single shot image before my Camera was astromodded

Imaging M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy using a zenithstar 61ii refractor

Blogger isn't always the most intuitive platform to navigate - but it is free and simple to use and manage. 

To help you find information quickly on this blog, you can

• use the search bar using key words e.g. Asiair mini
• use the blog menu list by date 
• use this page which will be regularly updated https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/want-to-find-something-quickly-on-my.html
• visit my home page https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/p/welcome-to-my-astronomy-and.html

 Another session in the back of the garden. You can read about my previous one and some of the limitations I face here: 

https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2026/03/imaging-session-ngc-2304-intermediate.html

This time I managed to do two nights on the same target and so gather nearly five hours of acquistion time! 

The Pinwheel Galaxy, home of a famous supernova and bright blue arms filled with newborn stars is a spiral galaxy 170,000 lightyears across, located 25 million lightyears away from Earth in the Ursa Major constellation.

The giant spiral disk of stars, dust, and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way and astronomers estimate that M101 contains at least one trillion stars.

The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms.

Sadly, I havent quite managed to capture the bluish colour with pink hydrogen cloud rich spots. Hard work is this post editing learning journey! 🤔 I may have mentioned that before! 😆

And for those who like a competition - how many galaxies can you see in the image?



For those wanting to know the acquisition and post editing details:

Equipment:

• Canon 800D astromodded camera paired with zenithstar 61ii refractor and its 61A field flattener.
• Clip in Optolong L-Pro filter.
• Autoguiding uses ASIair Mini with ZWO 120mm mini and RVO 32mm guiderscope.
• The entire rig is powered by a Celestron Lithium Pro power pack and three smaller power banks.
• The mount is a skywatcher EQM-35-PRO.

Data capture details:
Two consecutive nights in back garden under bortle 4 skies. On both nights:

• lights 240" x 40, at ISO 800.
• Calibration frames - 10 dark, 30 bias and 50 flats.

Post editing workflow:
SIRIL:

• crop - autoBGE - veralux NOX - image plate solve - SPCC colour calibration - Aberration remover
• Starnett - veralux hypermetric stretch - veralux curves - veralux revela - veralux star recomposer
• veralux vectra - cosmic clarity denoise and sharpen

Affinity Photo:

• curves and leves - contrast - brightness

If you want to know more about my post editing SIRIL workflow you can find out more here: https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/12/beginner-tutorial-workflow-for-using.html

I couldn't quite capture the bluish tinge to the arms or the pink spots of the hydrogen gas areas - very frustrating. I also think that the images are a little npoisy and so I need to possibly rethink my work flow order. 

As always, feel free to share your images of M101 along with some acquistion details in the comment box below. If you have some processing tips - share them as well. 

As always, clear skies, stay safe out there and keep looking up! 

Steve