u/Buffur

This was a collaboration with u/zTrojan: he handled the acquisition and stacking, while I took care of the post-processing.

A deep-field view of the Cygnus region, captured with a Xiaomi 13 Ultra using its 3.2× telephoto camera.

Acquisition

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra — 3.2× telephoto
• ISO 800 | 50s
• 356 light frames (RAW/DNG)
• 4h 56m 40s total integration
• SVBONY UHC filter
• EQ mount with OnStep
• Darks included
• Stacked in Astro Pixel Processor

My processing workflow

• Siril: color calibration, green-noise removal, GraXpert background extraction, stellar deconvolution, and saturation adjustment
• StarNet++: created a separate starless layer and nebula masks for more controlled stretching
• Photoshop: final curve adjustments, mask refinement, Camera Raw finishing, and overall cosmetic corrections

The goal was to bring out as much of the faint structure in the Cygnus Milky Way as possible while keeping the star field under control. The field contains a huge number of targets, including the North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula, Crescent Nebula, Veil Nebula, and surrounding emission and dust structures.

I've also included a region map showing the main objects covered by the image.

Huge thanks to u/zTrojan for the capture and stack — this was a really fun image to work with.

[23 mm • f/1.6 • ISO 400 • 20 s] × 469 Light frames + 50 Dark frames (2 h 40m total integration time)
Stacked in Sequator.
Processed in Siril: green noise removal, Graxpert script background extraction+deconvolution objects, colour calibration, saturation adjustment, and starless stretching using StarNet++ to create separate star and Milky Way masks.
Finalized in Photoshop: final curve adjustments + camera raw.
Untracked, shot using only a smartphone mounted on a static tripod under Bortle 5 skies.
Shot on a Xiaomi 14T Pro using the main Light Fusion 900 sensor.

Date: July 24, 2026

Equipment: 700mm focal length telescope, 25mm eyepiece + Xiaomi 14T Pro (Main Sensor)

Method: Single frame, handheld eyepiece projection (shot by hand, no phone mount/fixator)

Single exposure processed in Adobe Lightroom (adjusted contrast, highlights, and shadow levels)

[23 mm • f/1.6 • ISO 2500 • 15 s] × 100 Light frames + 250 Dark frames (25 min total integration time)

UPD: Reddit heavily compressed the image. For the best quality, download the image to your device and view it locally.

Stacked in Sequator.

Processed in Siril: green noise removal, background extraction, colour calibration, saturation adjustment, and starless stretching using StarNet++ to create separate star and Milky Way masks.

Denoised in GraXpert.

Finalized in Photoshop: final curve adjustments, saturation, colour calibration, and channel mixing.

Untracked, shot using only a smartphone mounted on a static tripod under Bortle 5 skies.

Shot on a Xiaomi 14T Pro using the main Light Fusion 900 sensor.

Explore this region of the sky: Legacy Survey Viewer

[ 23 mm • F/1.6 • ISO 2500 • 15s ] x 100 L + 100 D (25 min total integration time)

Stacked in Sequator.

Processed in Siril: green noise removal, background extraction, colour calibration and saturation, starless stretching using StarNet++ for separate star and Milky Way masks.

Finalized in Photoshop: final curves corrections, saturation, color calibration, and channel mixing.

Untracked, shot using only a smartphone mounted on a static tripod in a Bortle 5 location.

Shot on Xiaomi 14T Pro using the main Light Fusion 900 sensor.

[ 23 mm • F/1.6 • ISO 800 • 20s ] x 20 L + 50 D (400s total integration time)

Stacked in Sequator. Post-processed in Siril, finalized in Photoshop.

Untracked, shot using only a smartphone mounted on a static tripod in a Bortle 5 location.

Shot on Xiaomi 14T Pro using the main Light Fusion 900 sensor.

This is my first attempt at capturing the Milky Way core.