Eeeee! This is Gonna be Interesting

[OhNo]

Just purchased a license for PixInSIght 1.8.8, WOW, I've got some studying ahead. Any recommendations on where to start? Have found some videos, and joined the PI Forum......

[Baskevo]

lightvortexastronomy.com helped me a TON! I would start there if you are trying to learn how to stack in PI.

I just purchased the monthly subscription for IP4AP.com. I haven't really gone through it yet, but I have heard a lot of goods things about it. It's only $10 a month

[Stuart]

I just purchased the monthly subscription for IP4AP.com. I haven't really gone through it yet, but I have heard a lot of goods things about it. It's only $10 a month

Please let me know how you like them. I'm actually seeing Warren next weekend at AIC.

[OhNo]

Well Stuart, I did pull up the provided link, and am a bit disappointed. Not at what I saw, but what Pleiades Astrophoto lacks in (one product review had mentioned this point). I am still suffering sticker shock from the purchase, $350.59 CAD. I can appreciate the time and expense of someone putting together a tutorial, and the program seems pretty grand in ways to do things. At the current time I will be sticking with the reference material I can use to introduce myself on to the what does what in the program.

I'm sure I'll need to pay lots in the future. Sadly this spring I signed up for the trial version of the program and never got to us it. Within minutes of downloading it, the phone rang and I was busy for the next 6 weeks! Hey I have nothing but time until they pour me in a urn, no big hurry!!!

[STEVE333]

A great place to start is the video tutorials at Harry's Astroshed which is found at the link below. They are free.

https://www.harrysastroshed.com/Pixinsighthome.html

Steve

[Micke187]

Deprant (Teagan) got a website you should check out with some tutorials for pixinsight
https://depratnt.wixsite.com/astrophotography

[OhNo]

Well, I am laughing (as opposed to the other option). I can get to a certain point before the wheels fall off, lots of goodies in a bunch of places. They are correct, a steep curve. Glad the weather sucks, but much warmer today. Looks like I have a semi-decent chance to image tomorrow night. All assuming the flat forehead from banging my head on the desk didn't effect my brain function......

One thing I will admit to, my previous processing programs are a lot easier to get quick results from now! Good thing I'm stubborn!

[OhNo]

Hmmm, I think I finally figured out something about PI. Seems there is no "Right" or "Wrong" way to use the program. Before I purchased it, I had come to the conclusion that with each type of image (Galaxy, Nebula, Clusters....) each required a little special something in processing especially using the tools I had at hand.

While I barely scratched the surface of what it can do, I already see I need to amend some things I have and haven't been doing. I've have accepted that I can always use more lights, I have been lazy in Flats, Darks and Bias data. Until I purchased PI I had never done any Bias frames. Low and behold I was surprised that IF you plan on using the stacking within PI there is a lower limit in how many you can use. SURPRISE!!!!

It will be a long term learnin' process for my old brain. I'd also be surprised if anyone within a 1/2 tank of fuel is using it, and could offer some one-on-one experience sharing. But ya never know.... Given I just celebrated my first anniversary in the fantastic world of AP I have learned a lot, and there is a whole lot more to learn.

[OhNo]

Held my head to the grindstone and discovered a few different way to attack issues I see I have with my images. Stacking my images in Pi is possible, however processing those stacked images leaves me shy of the results I get when processing images stacked with DSS. In addition, images captured in SGP are much more difficult to process (FIT) compared to images captured with APT (RAW) even with a full load Darks, Flats and Bias. Searching for possible reasons why this is happening. I believe my answer lays with the conversion back from Gray (grey scale for us Canadians).

Some of the tools available in PI and their associated literature and/or videos got me to thinking.... When is enough processing enough!!! My philosophy is to have finished images satisfy the vision of the object in MY mind. Natural resolution with soft colors. This rational comes from looking at over-cooked images, but also from a little article I read from some guy at NASA. The jest of his opinion was that a lot of earthbound images are a great help to NASA, but most images are scrubbed too clean.

Perhaps I am failing to understand what stuff is garbage in an image and what is tangible data. One thing that has cost me a huge amount of time is discovering how photons work. Does a Photon at a specific wavelength traveling perpendicular to my line of sight change the background to a different hue? One example of this is some would have us believe the background of space is grey(ish). Ummmm, here where I live and image sure looks pitch black to me during a New Moon.

Enough rambling, off to discover more new stuff in PI. I'm still looking for a way to bring out the hues of color in my data......... sky isn't going to be worth a hoot for the rest of the week so I have lots of daylight hours to research and study....

[OhNo]

I am finally getting a handle on the basics of PI. I'm still hunting for the right tool to help correct a few things in individual images. Occasionally a artifact (usually a gradient across the bottom) will show up. I may be something to do with my camera... The other issue I often have is manipulation of color.

Thus far I've been frustrated, then satisfied with what the program can do. Pretty sure that as time, research and use go on I will find the answers that are right there!!!!!

Below is a image I gathered last night. Thee forecast was better than the sky showed. Both transparency and seeing were average, humidity 82%. Intermittent high thins messed with guiding of the 5 minute exposures. Only managed 9 shots before the heavens disappeared. M33 fits my imaging FOV, I should have rotated the camera 90 degrees. The 9 images were stacked in DSS with Darks, Flats and Bias frames. A green(ish) red hue was prevalent.

It cleaned up Ok, but had to make a trip through ST to get rid of that gradient across the bottom....

[OhNo]

Opps, brain fart and hit the wrong button!

120119 M33 by Brent Secord, on Flickr

[OhNo]

An old set that I could never quite get the color the way I thought it should be. The real challenge is to figure out how rich that is (taste).

Here is one like that, it's previous version is lower down on my Flickr page (the washed out looking image)

_0526C19_ST_ABE by Brent Secord, on Flickr

[UlteriorModem]

Looks like your off to a good start!

I highly recommend the book "Inside Pixinsight"

And this subscription video tutorials, well organized and easy to follow.

https://www.ip4ap.com/

[OhNo]

LOL I'd ask for it for Xmas, but according to the wife I get coal (a tiny lump Carbon tax and all....)!

[Stuart]

I would be careful of random free videos you find online. Many of them are misleading and although they may seem to deliver decent results they will lead you down the path of poor technique, and you will run into a wall. Just because someone has a screen capture program and a bit of charisma does not make them an expert. There is no one right way to do things in PixInsight, but there are wrong ways to do it. It's a testament to how good the program is that one can do things completely wrong and still get decent results. There is a basic workflow that should be followed, like a skeleton. Then you build upon that. I'm happy to post an outline of mine if you like.

Anyway, tutorials I recommend:
Adam Block's Fundamentals tutorials
Inside Pixinsight by Warren Keller (make sure you get second edition)
ip4ap by Warren
Kayron's Light Vortex Astronomy (be careful here, though. He does some stuff like local normalization that is appropriate sometimes, but many people have been doing this unnecessarily and has been screwing people up)
Harry's Astro Shed (these videos are very old but the fundamentals are still sound)
Rogelio Bernal Andreo is publishing a book that should be out soon but is not available yet.

Stuart

[Baskevo]

Kayron's Light Vortex Astronomy (be careful here, though. He does some stuff like local normalization that is appropriate sometimes, but many people have been doing this unnecessarily and has been screwing people up)

Hey Stuart,

So when is local normalization necessary? I think this might have been what was making my pictures that muddy red-brown color...

[Stuart]

Hi James,

It's something to do with preprocessing files before image integration. I have never used it. Kayron used it in his example, and beginners took it as gospel that it should be used every time, and were running into problems. So, I'm going to go with "never" as an answer. But others may disagree. Can you post a file of one of your problematic images---ideally a linear .fits or .xisf file? I'll be happy to take a look at it.

Stuart