Having just got my monochrome camera (QHY 294M Pro), I went out on the first clear nights I could and I got great data. Then I had to face learning the beast that is PixInsight. Thanks to you making this video, I've finished my first ever narrowband image, and my first ever image in PixInsight! I couldn't be happier with the result! Thank you so much!
Excellent tutorial Cuiv! I used this on my bicolor Crescent Nebula project and I'm so amazed at the difference from my first attempt with WBPP and LRGB combination alone! Keep this great content coming, it's the best sales tool for sticking to the wonderful capabilities of PixInsight!
Whoa! I am currently evaluating PixInsight as I learn how to perform image processing. So much material to digest, and very helpful! Shows the scope of PixInsight, and workflow utilized. Thanks again! CS! I'm super hyped
Holy Moley ... incredible tutorial. Are you sure you didn't write PixInsight? Your knowledge of it is mind-boggling. BTW, incredible final results!. My mind is still spinning ... make it Stop! No, keep these videos coming. (Patrick Prokop, Savannah, GA)
I am sure I didn't write PixInsight! ;) But I am flattered! To be honest there are many people who are light years ahead of me in their knowledge of PixInsight, I am just standing on the shoulders of giants!
Brilliant video, Cuiv! I added EZ after watching this yesterday and it is a game changer! I'd also never used Dark Structure Enhance before. This does in a click what I'd been trying to achieve manually for ages. Thank you!
PSF is Point Spread Function. It describes the spread function of star light that should be a point source but in your image has spreaded over a certain area. Decon uses the PSF to reverse that spreading of light.
Very instructive Cuiv thank you! I never used EZ tools but I'll definitely try them after watching your video. Im'm working on the same image, taken with an OSC and L-eNhance filter. I'll use your post-production guide, separating the channels first and using red for the H-alpha and green and blue for the OIII. Many people use this technique to create images in HOO, please consider making a tutorial about it! Thank you for your videos!
Seriously, thanks so much for taking the time to do these videos! I am just getting into astrophotography (just bought my first real scope, a CEM-40+Celestron 8" + ASI224MC ) and have been having a ton of fun learning how to use the gear in my backyard doing planetary imaging. My ultimate goal is to do DSO but there is so much to learn it seems like planetary is a great way to start. That said, I am eagerly watching what you do from a light polluted area with on deep-space imaging. Thanks again for your energy, passion, and videos!
Thank you for that feedback Ryan, it means a lot to me!! This is a great setup you have, and with the right scope and camera, you'll be imaging DSOs in no time! And planetary is an excellent way to start, and that equipment is perfect for it!
Again, superb video Cuiv. For anyone reading this, I have a suggestion, that you not accept the winsorized default settings. I found, that the default values, especially sigma high, very often clips way too much actual detail. I would suggest to always inspect the high rejection map and increase the sigma value, until you are not clipping nebulosity. For me, sigma high has the biggest impact and it just feels wrong rejecting actual detail. Sometimes I can get away with 4.0 other times I have to go as high as 6.5. Every image is different. So I will run the default setting, and if I am clipping too much, I will increase sigma high incrementally by 0.5 or 1.0 until I see no nebulosity being clipped and only satellite trails and noise.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Man, I love your lazy approach :D and to be honest, adjusting high clipping changes the rejections from maybe 2% to 1% so it will probably be as good as invisible in the end-product, so I guess it's just my perfectionist nature talking ...
@@CuivTheLazyGeek The -6 version of Pix came out today, and there Starnet was! I used your subtract then add method and it worked great. Thanks for the excellent video.
One day I might get to know about 1/100th of what you know with PI. I love that look you get when something just appears spot on and then I wait for that evil take over the world laugh.
Cuiv, if you were really really lazy you would take up Star Tools. Nevertheless your tutorials are appreciated. I am sure you will have short-cuts in Pixinsight. I have set up all my Newtonian OTAs in my observatories like you do: Focuser pointing down.
Hahaha, I think to each their own! I've tried out Startools again recently for a few hours while following some tutorials, and couldn't get results I can get in PixInsight. Lack of skill and just not used to it no doubt! But with the EZ Suite from Darkarchon in PixInsight, the post processing is pretty much click and wait, so it doesn't get much lazier than that! :-) if you have some time and the impetus, I'd be super interested to see what you would get from Startools with the raw data in the description, as well as steps followed! No obligation of course, I am truly curious!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I totally agree, I use star tools because my trial run out on Pix insight. Startools has some good features and the noise reduction tracking system especially, is quite unique . But I find it very quirky and it sort of 'takes control' of your image rather than you controlling it. I want Pix insight back now, I really miss it!, so when I can afford/justify to get it, I will. Its a shame they cant make it a little cheaper or run a rent to buy scheme on it so more people can afford to use it.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Star Tools drove me crazy until I figured it out. It is much much easier than you ever imagined. Most of the videos on Star Tools are very poorly made, unlike the high quality ones you are producing.
Nicely done... but I am super lazy... I just throw everything into deepsky stacker for the pre processing and then move the stacked images into pixinsight for post processing. Might make an interesting video.. pixinsight batch processing vs deep sky stacker. Does the extra effort of calibrating separately, then running through sub frame selector really pay off?
Hahaha, I completely understand that James! I can answer in the affirmative, yes it makes a huge difference, unless you exclude frames manually. Frames through the smog, or with clouds that get included at the same weight as others introduce lower SNR and worse gradients to deal with (from having tested in the past). Good video idea, I'm taking notes :-)
Only if thing I found could improve to image is to reduce the saturation of the stars itself, but I think many ppl would think more colorful stars are eyes pleasing
i watch a guide video and after 0:58 i cant follow it anymore, cause the first button he is pressing is not there in my version...... where is the WeightedBatchPreProcessing script hiding?
Excellent question! It depends on the data - with a fairly narrow FOV, in very tight bandpasses narrowband, I rarely have to do DBE, especially after having used LocalNormalization!! But many datasets do require it - I'd advise doing it!
I followed your method on my own data of this same target, although using a OSC and a refractor. On inspection after the EZSoftstretch I noticed some halos around some of the brighter stars. Did the EZDeconvolution do that? Were your values too aggressive for my data or too little?
I also have some small halos as well! If the stars are not well masked, deconvolution could cause artifacts a bit like that indeed - one way to avoid them is to widen the stars in the star mask some more. My solution is more simple: I choose not to care :-)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I tried using the default values and that seemed to help quite a bit. There are still some artifacts though. I will continue to experiment. Thanks!
Very timely...I just started on this target last night! I only have HA so far, but was planning on doing SII as well. Not sure how much signal there will be. Should I skip SII?
I personally skipped SII because I absolutely love the colors of the bicolor palette - and I don't think a true Hubble Palette (which murders the color brought by HA) would be any better... I'd be very interested in what you get though!
Great video! Trying to decide if I want to move over to PixInsight from DSS and Photoshop. Stacking seems much more complicated. Are the results significant better than with DSS which is comparatively simple (for lazy guys like me)?
It's getting easier and easier - my latest processing video has for more details. From light polluted areas, with Normalized scale gradient, it gets better results...
Excellent question! Yes, I really dislike the parameters used for weighting in the WBPP script. SNR is particularly problematic as it tends to have a higher value the more LP smog or clouds are in my image. Stars is a much better criteria to me, as it gives a summary of the image. Poor focus? Fewer detected stars. Wind and elongated stars? Fewer detected stars. Light pollution or clouds? Fewer detected stars. It's a catch-all that I really like, but is not available in WBPP...
Well, it also works (at least for cooled sensors) as they can approximate bias - but then they will be applied to everything, not just the flats. I prefer to keep it simple and just have the "Calibrate with dark flats" checkbox on the Flats tab checked!
Nice. I use WBPP too. I use blink first to get rid of any faint or trailing star frames by hand. This can take a while though when you have a couple hundred frames to check. Do you know of any lazy way to achieve that same thing?
I’m not a NINA user, maybe I should be! I’m super lazy and stick to ASIAIR, it’s super easy to use and does everything I want. I’m surprised you don’t use it tbh as it’s such a lazy solution. It locks you into their hardware is the downside I guess. Not a downside in my opinion but everyone is different
Hi Quif, if you are going to do a comparison between Pixinsight and other software would you consider including Gimp and the Gimp Astronomy extension, here is a link to the extension. www.hennigbuam.de/georg/gimp.html Mike.
Oh, my, word! Thank you!! I didn't know there was a Gimp Astronomy extension, I will try it out! This is super exciting, I was thinking about doing a whole video of processing astrophotos with free software! Thank you!
Having just got my monochrome camera (QHY 294M Pro), I went out on the first clear nights I could and I got great data. Then I had to face learning the beast that is PixInsight. Thanks to you making this video, I've finished my first ever narrowband image, and my first ever image in PixInsight! I couldn't be happier with the result! Thank you so much!
Awesome to hear! I'm so glad this was helpful!!
Excellent tutorial Cuiv! I used this on my bicolor Crescent Nebula project and I'm so amazed at the difference from my first attempt with WBPP and LRGB combination alone! Keep this great content coming, it's the best sales tool for sticking to the wonderful capabilities of PixInsight!
Excellent to see it helped!
Whoa! I am currently evaluating PixInsight as I learn how to perform image processing. So much material to digest, and very helpful! Shows the scope of PixInsight, and workflow utilized. Thanks again! CS! I'm super hyped
My pleasure, I'm glad this is helpful!PixInsight is an amazing tool, and while it may seem expensive, it is worth every penny!
Superb tutorial, I followed it processing my bubble nebula images, made the workflow so much more fluid.
Super nice Narrow Band PI Process, i am Beginer in PI and it first nice Workflow with possibility use your data. Thanks a lot.
Holy Moley ... incredible tutorial. Are you sure you didn't write PixInsight? Your knowledge of it is mind-boggling. BTW, incredible final results!. My mind is still spinning ... make it Stop! No, keep these videos coming.
(Patrick Prokop, Savannah, GA)
I am sure I didn't write PixInsight! ;) But I am flattered! To be honest there are many people who are light years ahead of me in their knowledge of PixInsight, I am just standing on the shoulders of giants!
Great video as usual Cuiv you're the best. Keep up the great work.
Thank you so much Kasra! Glad it's useful!
Amazing work as always. Helping our family with processing!
Thank you! Glad it helped!
Another great video - very nice final image.
Thank you Paul!
Amazing...I will need a week to digest all this processing...:-)....as I'm a new user of PIX...great video...
Glad it's helpful! Take your time, and you will enjoy PI immensely!
Great creative video again Cuiv. Thank You!
My pleasure! I hope it will be helpful to many!
Brilliant video, Cuiv! I added EZ after watching this yesterday and it is a game changer! I'd also never used Dark Structure Enhance before. This does in a click what I'd been trying to achieve manually for ages. Thank you!
My pleasure Luke - glad this is helpful! EZ is really, well, easy :D Enjoy it!
Nice work Yannick! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! And my pleasure, as always :-)
Very helpful!! Thanks again.
My pleasure, glad it was helpful!
PSF is Point Spread Function. It describes the spread function of star light that should be a point source but in your image has spreaded over a certain area. Decon uses the PSF to reverse that spreading of light.
Thanks Remco! I really want to go into the actual discrete maths of it at some point...
Good tutorial Cuiv👍🏼 Especially the part on the subframe selector
Thanks Ranjit, glad it was helpful!
Very instructive Cuiv thank you! I never used EZ tools but I'll definitely try them after watching your video. Im'm working on the same image, taken with an OSC and L-eNhance filter. I'll use your post-production guide, separating the channels first and using red for the H-alpha and green and blue for the OIII. Many people use this technique to create images in HOO, please consider making a tutorial about it! Thank you for your videos!
Thanks Leonardo! I'll make a tutorial on that once I get the L-extreme filter!
Seriously, thanks so much for taking the time to do these videos! I am just getting into astrophotography (just bought my first real scope, a CEM-40+Celestron 8" + ASI224MC ) and have been having a ton of fun learning how to use the gear in my backyard doing planetary imaging. My ultimate goal is to do DSO but there is so much to learn it seems like planetary is a great way to start. That said, I am eagerly watching what you do from a light polluted area with on deep-space imaging. Thanks again for your energy, passion, and videos!
Thank you for that feedback Ryan, it means a lot to me!! This is a great setup you have, and with the right scope and camera, you'll be imaging DSOs in no time! And planetary is an excellent way to start, and that equipment is perfect for it!
Great job . Amazing
Thank you Ibon!
nice shoot and post progressing
Thanks Charles! :-)
Great video.
Thank you!
Hi Cuiv, you just did in 30 minutes what takes me a whole day 😅
You'll get faster with habit :D I did cut off all the actual computer processing time too!
Again, superb video Cuiv. For anyone reading this, I have a suggestion, that you not accept the winsorized default settings. I found, that the default values, especially sigma high, very often clips way too much actual detail. I would suggest to always inspect the high rejection map and increase the sigma value, until you are not clipping nebulosity. For me, sigma high has the biggest impact and it just feels wrong rejecting actual detail. Sometimes I can get away with 4.0 other times I have to go as high as 6.5. Every image is different. So I will run the default setting, and if I am clipping too much, I will increase sigma high incrementally by 0.5 or 1.0 until I see no nebulosity being clipped and only satellite trails and noise.
Thank you Christoph! I have to say I've always been too lazy to run integration multiple times to adjust the settings but you are absolutely right!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Man, I love your lazy approach :D and to be honest, adjusting high clipping changes the rejections from maybe 2% to 1% so it will probably be as good as invisible in the end-product, so I guess it's just my perfectionist nature talking ...
Love what you did with Starnet++ and wish I could use it on my Mac, but I'm told I have to wait until -6. Oh well.
Wait, doesn't it have a MacOS version? sourceforge.net/projects/starnet/files/PixInsight_module/ Hope you can get it working, as it is amazing!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek The -6 version of Pix came out today, and there Starnet was! I used your subtract then add method and it worked great. Thanks for the excellent video.
One day I might get to know about 1/100th of what you know with PI. I love that look you get when something just appears spot on and then I wait for that evil take over the world laugh.
Mwahahaha :-) it's my natural evil laugh :D and you'll definitely get there! There are many, much more skilled PI users!
This is great as most astro photographers have this software!!
Thank you! It is an amazing (but expensive!) piece of software!
Absolutely gorgeous! I tried this target with a color cam but wasn’t too impressed; not enough OIII signal with that damned bayer filter 😄
Yeah it's a bit difficult with an OSC - but I've ordered the L-extreme from Optolong, and hopefully it will work well!
Thank you for the tips 😊
My pleasure!
What do you think of pre processing with DSS? . Much quicker and similar results to PI.
Hi Cuiv. I am even lazier. Would Blink and the defaults for WBPP and reference frame selection, give reasonable masters ?
Cuiv, if you were really really lazy you would take up Star Tools. Nevertheless your tutorials are appreciated. I am sure you will have short-cuts in Pixinsight. I have set up all my Newtonian OTAs in my observatories like you do: Focuser pointing down.
Hahaha, I think to each their own! I've tried out Startools again recently for a few hours while following some tutorials, and couldn't get results I can get in PixInsight. Lack of skill and just not used to it no doubt! But with the EZ Suite from Darkarchon in PixInsight, the post processing is pretty much click and wait, so it doesn't get much lazier than that! :-) if you have some time and the impetus, I'd be super interested to see what you would get from Startools with the raw data in the description, as well as steps followed! No obligation of course, I am truly curious!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I totally agree, I use star tools because my trial run out on Pix insight. Startools has some good features and the noise reduction tracking system especially, is quite unique .
But I find it very quirky and it sort of 'takes control' of your image rather than you controlling it.
I want Pix insight back now, I really miss it!, so when I can afford/justify to get it, I will.
Its a shame they cant make it a little cheaper or run a rent to buy scheme on it so more people can afford to use it.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Star Tools drove me crazy until I figured it out. It is much much easier than you ever imagined. Most of the videos on Star Tools are very poorly made, unlike the high quality ones you are producing.
@@dankahraman354 Well I'd need to get up to speed on it so we can have better startools videos? ;)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek It will be a big burden for you. Not only would you have to learn it but to teach it to others you have to be a master of it.
I think its time I gave pixinsight a try
Oh yes! It's an amazing piece of software!
Ooh! Thanks for this!!!
My pleasure, glad it is helpful!
Cuiv, The Lazy Geek I learned a lot from this. Also thanks for showing how to use starnet to replace the stars! Bookmarking this one
Nicely done... but I am super lazy... I just throw everything into deepsky stacker for the pre processing and then move the stacked images into pixinsight for post processing.
Might make an interesting video.. pixinsight batch processing vs deep sky stacker. Does the extra effort of calibrating separately, then running through sub frame selector really pay off?
Hahaha, I completely understand that James! I can answer in the affirmative, yes it makes a huge difference, unless you exclude frames manually. Frames through the smog, or with clouds that get included at the same weight as others introduce lower SNR and worse gradients to deal with (from having tested in the past). Good video idea, I'm taking notes :-)
Only if thing I found could improve to image is to reduce the saturation of the stars itself, but I think many ppl would think more colorful stars are eyes pleasing
Thank you! Yeah could be fairly easily done with starnet. Thanks for the feedback!
i watch a guide video and after 0:58 i cant follow it anymore, cause the first button he is pressing is not there in my version...... where is the WeightedBatchPreProcessing script hiding?
the solution to the problem is to uninstall it and install it again until it shows up
One more great video Cuiv. Just a question : you did not make DBE ? EZ-Denoise is enought ?
Excellent question! It depends on the data - with a fairly narrow FOV, in very tight bandpasses narrowband, I rarely have to do DBE, especially after having used LocalNormalization!! But many datasets do require it - I'd advise doing it!
I followed your method on my own data of this same target, although using a OSC and a refractor. On inspection after the EZSoftstretch I noticed some halos around some of the brighter stars. Did the EZDeconvolution do that? Were your values too aggressive for my data or too little?
I also have some small halos as well! If the stars are not well masked, deconvolution could cause artifacts a bit like that indeed - one way to avoid them is to widen the stars in the star mask some more. My solution is more simple: I choose not to care :-)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I tried using the default values and that seemed to help quite a bit. There are still some artifacts though. I will continue to experiment. Thanks!
Very timely...I just started on this target last night! I only have HA so far, but was planning on doing SII as well. Not sure how much signal there will be. Should I skip SII?
I personally skipped SII because I absolutely love the colors of the bicolor palette - and I don't think a true Hubble Palette (which murders the color brought by HA) would be any better... I'd be very interested in what you get though!
Thanks you are a genius! Me... Totally lost. 😂
Hahaha, sorry about making you feel lost! Good luck!
Great video! Trying to decide if I want to move over to PixInsight from DSS and Photoshop. Stacking seems much more complicated. Are the results significant better than with DSS which is comparatively simple (for lazy guys like me)?
It's getting easier and easier - my latest processing video has for more details. From light polluted areas, with Normalized scale gradient, it gets better results...
I want to stay lazy with my OSC workflow, but you are making me consider going monochrome AND buying PI. 😂 Clear skies!
Mwahaha, go to the dark side! You can still be lazy / automated with monochrome :-)
Just wondering why you are using subframe selector when this is automatically done in WBPP now ? Is there a reason for you doing it manually ?
Excellent question! Yes, I really dislike the parameters used for weighting in the WBPP script. SNR is particularly problematic as it tends to have a higher value the more LP smog or clouds are in my image. Stars is a much better criteria to me, as it gives a summary of the image. Poor focus? Fewer detected stars. Wind and elongated stars? Fewer detected stars. Light pollution or clouds? Fewer detected stars. It's a catch-all that I really like, but is not available in WBPP...
so Darkflats should be in the darks tab?.... I put them on bias....
we all used to do that.. LOL
Well, it also works (at least for cooled sensors) as they can approximate bias - but then they will be applied to everything, not just the flats. I prefer to keep it simple and just have the "Calibrate with dark flats" checkbox on the Flats tab checked!
I love the idea of SubFrameSelector but i'm lazy like you. what do you do these days to filter out junk frames?
These days it's integrated in WBPP! No need to do it separately!
Nice. I use WBPP too. I use blink first to get rid of any faint or trailing star frames by hand. This can take a while though when you have a couple hundred frames to check. Do you know of any lazy way to achieve that same thing?
@@benjiwhittle yep, i use the NINA #stars chart and delete everything that's in a dip without looking, then don't bother checking subframes
I’m not a NINA user, maybe I should be! I’m super lazy and stick to ASIAIR, it’s super easy to use and does everything I want. I’m surprised you don’t use it tbh as it’s such a lazy solution. It locks you into their hardware is the downside I guess. Not a downside in my opinion but everyone is different
Hi Quif, if you are going to do a comparison between Pixinsight and other software would you consider including Gimp and the Gimp Astronomy extension, here is a link to the extension.
www.hennigbuam.de/georg/gimp.html
Mike.
Oh, my, word! Thank you!! I didn't know there was a Gimp Astronomy extension, I will try it out! This is super exciting, I was thinking about doing a whole video of processing astrophotos with free software! Thank you!