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I made this photograph of the North America Nebula, my first astrophotograph, back in high school in 1966. Then, all serious astrophotography was done on special glass plates that were only about half the thickness of the old pictorial photography glass plates. Twenty years ago my photograph got broken into eight fragments during a move. Other than that, the image is in very good condition. I isolated each fragment of the plate with a mask and nudged them into perfect alignment. Filters and repair utilities erased the crack lines between the sections. Shadow contrast was enhanced to bring out the nebulosity, and a radial gradient adjustment was made to correct for light falloff from the center to the edge of the field of view. A complete description of how I performed this restoration is in my book, Digital Restoration From Start to Finish. (Time to restore: approximately six hours.) |