Your screen has only 8 bits of intensity resolution and your astro-images probably have 16. That’s 256 shades of intensity vs. 65536. Before actually stretching the data, it’s nice to see what’s inside there. PixInsight’s version of the “B” and “W” sliders in programs like Nebulosity is the Screen Transfer Function. It’s a lot more powerful that simple black and white points and it’s at least as nice as having a temporary adjustment layer in Photoshop. Here’s an introduction to them.

Tags: PixInsight