The contest
Participants in the Lunatico New Year image processing contest all started from the same set of raw astronomical images and applied their own processing techniques — calibration, stacking, stretching, noise reduction, and colour work — to produce the best final result they could.
The contest was open to all Lunatico customers and forum members. Entries were judged on detail, colour accuracy, noise handling, and overall aesthetic quality.
The winning entry
Congratulations to the winner of the Lunatico New Year 2022 image processing contest! Their entry demonstrated exceptional technical control and artistic balance — rich detail, clean noise handling, and natural colour rendition that brings out the best in the raw data.
Runner-up
The runner-up entry was an equally impressive result — different processing choices led to a distinctly different feel, demonstrating how much creative latitude exists even when starting from identical raw data.
Thank you to everyone who entered. The range of results from a shared dataset shows just how much of astrophotography lives in the processing — skill, taste, and patience.