I'm new to all of it so the tutorials and the thorough and thoughtful time you've taken with each has proved to be invaluable. Grateful to find the videos. Many thanks. Cheers, Craig
After putting off getting into Pixinsight, I finally decided it was time to learn something new. Your tutorials have been absolutely amazing and priceless! Thank you so much for putting out this content. The time and effort you put into these videos is much appreciated.
Really, thank you, man. Really, I reached the point of despair from this program. I tried to learn, but as I said, there are millions of things in it. I do not know why I really loved this program. I wanted to leave it forever, but I notice you here, very much. I was very happy with this,, I will stick to this channel,,, I am really very happy with this lesson and your explanation is really excellent. Channel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you man
This is an excellent intro to PixInsight. There's a lot more to the program and the process, but this is exactly the level of detail someone new to the software needs to know to get started. Excellent work!
Excellent production. When you were reviewing the Masters folder, you recommended recycling the calibrated, registered, debayered, etc. folders to save space. Personally, I recommended saving the calibrated folder, for inclusion is multi-session projects. The user can then delete the original light and calibration files, as well as the master calibration files. Thanks for the tutorial and keep up the good work.
sure that is a thought - but another one is NEVER delete the originals - NEVER - I am into data analytics... and the saying is no amount of downstream processing can cure an upstream data acquisition error... you process that data a certain way... so now you're stuck with it... the way the data is altered depends on your parameters - again... I get it - dealers choice... but in the business - you never ever delete the original data.
Hot sigma of 3 in the CosmeticCorrection is to aggressive and result in dark dot in the center of small stars. Recommend to use auto-detect or to increase it as appropriate. WBPP process is quiet long to execute so auto-detect seem to be the most effective solution.
I have started watching your tutorials and believe I will learn a lot... Well done! I have joined your Patreon site as a member so I can get the data/images used in the tutorial to work on them myself. The problem is I can't find anything. Where/how can I get the data? Thanks
Hello Sascha this is an excellent tutorial, as all of yours... thanks a lot. I have a question regarding WBPP, clicking on the flat raw, sometimes but not allways, the dark-flats do not become green, I have no idea why, do you know the reason? Ciao Roberto
Quite honestly no - and that is the reason why I personally don't stack in PixInsight but in APP. But that aside, have a look at the video Cuiv has recently released that Darks are with modern cameras not necessary anymore - I will adapt that and it will make stacking so much more effortless.
Thank you so much for taking the time and making this video. Question: i only have Lights, Darks and Flats, will this tutorial work for me? Thank you in advance from a fresh newbie!
Sure it will work. In principle, it will work only with lights... Just the more calibration frames you have, the better the result. For the start, lights, darks and flats is fully sufficient, later on you can also add dark flats (darks short at the exposure lengths of the flats), which will improve the result a bit more again
From your vid description: "Free data for stacking and processing as well as a detailed PDF with all steps explained is available on my Patreon site." I completely understand the value of acquired astronomical data, as it is quite challenging and very expensive(higher quality data). So, naturally it is a good patreon benefit to provide, that being said, is it not deceitful to claim "free data" when the data is locked behind a subscription paywall?
Yes, it would be, if payment would be necessary, but as Patreon has 1 week free trial period you can subscribe to a Silver membership on my Patreon channel and leave a few days after without paying a dime. While a lot of people stay around for as long as they feel it is worth it, there are some who make use of this free option, and I'm totally fine with it.
Thank you so much for an awesome tutorial Q. I use a Seestar S50 and a Dwarf, can I just use the lights? and a master dark?. your tutorial is so good....
Great video , help me with an insider into Pixinsight. I do tend to have 60 sec exposure pictures as I use a non polar aligned alt az Mount telescope for Astro imaging. Q: do you always use a .fit file ? As cameras would often use .jpg or .heic
.jpg is really bad as it is massively compressed, so you lose information. If you can shot RAW or at least TIFF with your camera that would already be a big step up. And then in pixinsight the output will be .xisf.
Great video, however, I had many issues using my own data. I only used lights and flats (my ASI533 doesn't need darks). It produced a master flat but tried to plate solve (without knowing where the catalog files were - and wouldn't accept a directory location), and then failed to produce a master light. Figured there might have been some update since you made this video (I picked yours as it was the most recent) that is forcing WBPP to search for the catalogs? Thanks anyway for a great video even if I didn't get a result!
Sometimes it helps to watch some videos from different content providers when you struggle with a topic. For example the public videos of Adam Block about WBPP might be a good option.
@@viewintospace thanks for the reply. Exactly what I am doing now, actually bought the Adam Block fast track course, and have watched some of Lukomatico too - you and he are both very good, covering everything that needs doing and showing the screen in sufficient resolution to see effects, which takes time and effort, and is much appreciated. Toss up though whether WBPP is worthwhile considering how slow it is, I can see why people use APP, although that is another £200. Thanks i will certainly join your Patron for a month (or more) just to get the pdf. Cheers.
@@philleng480 It is an open secret that I use APP for stacking - exactly because of all the complexity and issues WBPP brings with it. APP is very well worth the money and there is a trial version. My WBPP coverage within this beginner tutorial will be the only time I ever cover it, but I wanted to do a start to end tutorial and from that perspective it was the right decision.
@@viewintospace totally understand wanting to cover it - a lot of folks use it and then process in PI. I have used APP (and DSS and a lot of the others). They all have good bits, blink is very useful, the statistical analysis in dss is very straightforward, the results are good from app. How about a video on mono stacking in APP - I never did figure out how to set a ref frame? Thank you for your time and efforts supporting the community.
Well, which options do you mean? In principle what I show in this tutorial is the easiest way to use WBPP. We leave as much as possible at default but change what needs to be changed to work or to substantially increase quality.
I can make a process Icon (the cosm template in your example) to do the CosmeticCorrection, but I can't see how to make PixInsight remember it. I figured out how to save the template and then, next time I start PixInsight, I can manually load it and use it. But there must be a more automatic way to make PixInsight just load my template when it starts, yes?
Hello Sascha, thank you for the walk through on this topic. Could you please see if you are able to help me with an issue I have working with WBPP during the stacking procedure. In the execution monitor I get green ticks up to and including Debayer but a purple message appears in the process console saying no valid PSF signal samples are in the metadata, then all the light frames are rejected in the measurement phase and the rest of WBPP aborts. I have had this once before and was advised to purge the cache in global options which fixed the problem then but will not work this time. All the lights look good in Blink, I have 80 300 sec OSC data of M16 with corresponding darks,flats and dark flats. Any help will be gratefully received, thank you.
Sorry, you will not like this answer but it is stuff like this why I stack in APP and not in PixInsight. I did this WBPP tutorial to give beginners an end-to-end tutorial, but for stuff like that you have to ask hardcore WBPP users - I hope they can help you.
This cam is for planetary/moon usage. You record videos with it not pics, so you do not need to take darks and flats. And quite frankly, also PixInsight is the wrong tool to process. Look up planetary workflows (with Autostakkert and Registaxx) which are offered by other UA-camrs. Or for moon I have a video. But for deep space pics (nebulas, galaxies) you need a different, cooled camera with a larger sensor.
Hi This is a great video but...... As a complete beginner I have down loaded the software on a trial version and having been out last night I have some images to try with, However you talk about lights, darks, flats etc to go into the WBPP but i have none of that and that has confused me. I just have the images. Can you help with this?
I personally have no videos explaining calibration exposures, but search on UA-cam and you will find good explainers. But for the images you just shot, simply consider them as lights and proceed without the rest
No, it still drizzles, but it does not increase the resolution of the picture. This is what you do when you are not under sampled. It still has a positive effect and is at least from a OSC aspect required when using SPCC
Need some help here, i have created flats and dark flats, but when importing into WBPP in PixInsight, it puts them together under the FLAT table in the Calibration tab? I don't understand if this is the right way to do it? Thanks in advance. Both of my flats and dark flats are the same exposure length, because that's what i was told to do. Will Pixinsight still read and calibrate correctly, it is not throwing any warnings and errors.
Sure - 100% agree. We are aligned in this regard! But this is a beginner tutorial and it would be unrealistic and also unfair to tell beginners that they should buy and learn now even another software. So in that spirit I decided to create this tutorial. And btw - just saying - I had recently a case where APP completely failed with stacking leaving some red artefacts and WBPP did it without problems. I guess it is always good to have alternatives....
I'm new to all of it so the tutorials and the thorough and thoughtful time you've taken with each has proved to be invaluable. Grateful to find the videos. Many thanks. Cheers, Craig
Thank you very much!!! Happy that it is helpful!
After putting off getting into Pixinsight, I finally decided it was time to learn something new. Your tutorials have been absolutely amazing and priceless! Thank you so much for putting out this content. The time and effort you put into these videos is much appreciated.
Great introduction to PixInsight. I finally got it to stack and stretch my images. ;-) Thank you!
Really, thank you, man. Really, I reached the point of despair from this program. I tried to learn, but as I said, there are millions of things in it. I do not know why I really loved this program. I wanted to leave it forever, but I notice you here, very much. I was very happy with this,, I will stick to this channel,,, I am really very happy with this lesson and your explanation is really excellent. Channel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you man
Comments like this one make my day 😊😊 Thanks 🙏🏻
Thank god for your easy 123 videos.☺👌
Excellent. I'm searching for so long. You are my hero. Now, PixInsight isn't longer the holy grail for me. Please keep it up.
Thank you very much for all the time and effort you put into these videos so that us newbies can learn faster. I cannot thank you enough!
Thank you so much. Clear and it's a pleasure to learn with your videos
Going back to PixInsight, your tutorial is amazing. Not too into details, but all the good details ! well done !
This is an excellent intro to PixInsight. There's a lot more to the program and the process, but this is exactly the level of detail someone new to the software needs to know to get started. Excellent work!
Great tutorial, just the right amount of detail for me. You have good presentation skills - thank you!
Sasha, you are the best.
Great tutorial, very informative and a delivery style that really suits my own learning need and level understanding.
Fantastic tutorial!! Thanks a million to help me get started with PI. Greetings from Austria!
thanks for sharing..i use PI for a year but there are several hints to use....i give it a try... clear sky
It was great to find a relevant (recent) good introduction, well explained and easy to follow.
Great video! Very helpful! Subscribed today.
Amazing class, thanks for sharing the information.
I am learning.🙏🙏
Excellent production.
When you were reviewing the Masters folder, you recommended recycling the calibrated, registered, debayered, etc. folders to save space. Personally, I recommended saving the calibrated folder, for inclusion is multi-session projects. The user can then delete the original light and calibration files, as well as the master calibration files. Thanks for the tutorial and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the advice!!!!
sure that is a thought - but another one is NEVER delete the originals - NEVER - I am into data analytics... and the saying is no amount of downstream processing can cure an upstream data acquisition error... you process that data a certain way... so now you're stuck with it... the way the data is altered depends on your parameters - again... I get it - dealers choice... but in the business - you never ever delete the original data.
Fantastic. The best PI tutorial out there. Subscribed + Patreon member!
Awesome, thank you!
Amazing Video Sascha 😎🤘🏻 can't wait for part 2
Good presentation - thanks.
Thank you so much, this made my image of M13 so much better. I am brand new to Astrophotography and very much look forward to your next video!
LOL, I was processing M13 also!
Thanks, my refference point everytime......
Hot sigma of 3 in the CosmeticCorrection is to aggressive and result in dark dot in the center of small stars. Recommend to use auto-detect or to increase it as appropriate. WBPP process is quiet long to execute so auto-detect seem to be the most effective solution.
Thanks!
Thanks a lot - appreciated!!!
Thanks!
Thanks a lot - appreciated!!!!!
I have started watching your tutorials and believe I will learn a lot... Well done! I have joined your Patreon site as a member so I can get the data/images used in the tutorial to work on them myself. The problem is I can't find anything. Where/how can I get the data? Thanks
Sorry, just saw that now - but good thing I saw your message on the Patreon side earlier... 😉
I am a beginner and very anxious to learn the whole process. I hope you can help learn this. I am familiar with photo and video editing programs
I'm sure this will help you - just follow along step by step through the whole triology and ensure to pick up the pdf for reference.
Hello Sascha this is an excellent tutorial, as all of yours... thanks a lot.
I have a question regarding WBPP, clicking on the flat raw, sometimes but not allways, the dark-flats do not become green, I have no idea why, do you know the reason?
Ciao
Roberto
Quite honestly no - and that is the reason why I personally don't stack in PixInsight but in APP. But that aside, have a look at the video Cuiv has recently released that Darks are with modern cameras not necessary anymore - I will adapt that and it will make stacking so much more effortless.
@@viewintospacemasdivee ed thanks for your comments 🙏😉
Thank you so much for taking the time and making this video. Question: i only have Lights, Darks and Flats, will this tutorial work for me? Thank you in advance from a fresh newbie!
Sure it will work. In principle, it will work only with lights... Just the more calibration frames you have, the better the result. For the start, lights, darks and flats is fully sufficient, later on you can also add dark flats (darks short at the exposure lengths of the flats), which will improve the result a bit more again
@@viewintospace you have earned yourself a Patreon supporter, thank you again for writing back!
From your vid description: "Free data for stacking and processing as well as a detailed PDF with all steps explained is available on my Patreon site."
I completely understand the value of acquired astronomical data, as it is quite challenging and very expensive(higher quality data). So, naturally it is a good patreon benefit to provide, that being said, is it not deceitful to claim "free data" when the data is locked behind a subscription paywall?
Yes, it would be, if payment would be necessary, but as Patreon has 1 week free trial period you can subscribe to a Silver membership on my Patreon channel and leave a few days after without paying a dime. While a lot of people stay around for as long as they feel it is worth it, there are some who make use of this free option, and I'm totally fine with it.
Danke!
Danke Dir!!!!
Thank you so much for an awesome tutorial
Q. I use a Seestar S50 and a Dwarf, can I just use the lights? and a master dark?.
your tutorial is so good....
Sure, there is no requirement for calibration frames, but using them - especially flats - massively improves your image
Great video , help me with an insider into Pixinsight. I do tend to have 60 sec exposure pictures as I use a non polar aligned alt az Mount telescope for Astro imaging.
Q: do you always use a .fit file ? As cameras would often use .jpg or .heic
.jpg is really bad as it is massively compressed, so you lose information. If you can shot RAW or at least TIFF with your camera that would already be a big step up. And then in pixinsight the output will be .xisf.
Great video, however, I had many issues using my own data. I only used lights and flats (my ASI533 doesn't need darks). It produced a master flat but tried to plate solve (without knowing where the catalog files were - and wouldn't accept a directory location), and then failed to produce a master light. Figured there might have been some update since you made this video (I picked yours as it was the most recent) that is forcing WBPP to search for the catalogs? Thanks anyway for a great video even if I didn't get a result!
Sometimes it helps to watch some videos from different content providers when you struggle with a topic. For example the public videos of Adam Block about WBPP might be a good option.
@@viewintospace thanks for the reply. Exactly what I am doing now, actually bought the Adam Block fast track course, and have watched some of Lukomatico too - you and he are both very good, covering everything that needs doing and showing the screen in sufficient resolution to see effects, which takes time and effort, and is much appreciated. Toss up though whether WBPP is worthwhile considering how slow it is, I can see why people use APP, although that is another £200. Thanks i will certainly join your Patron for a month (or more) just to get the pdf. Cheers.
@@philleng480 It is an open secret that I use APP for stacking - exactly because of all the complexity and issues WBPP brings with it. APP is very well worth the money and there is a trial version. My WBPP coverage within this beginner tutorial will be the only time I ever cover it, but I wanted to do a start to end tutorial and from that perspective it was the right decision.
@@viewintospace totally understand wanting to cover it - a lot of folks use it and then process in PI. I have used APP (and DSS and a lot of the others). They all have good bits, blink is very useful, the statistical analysis in dss is very straightforward, the results are good from app. How about a video on mono stacking in APP - I never did figure out how to set a ref frame?
Thank you for your time and efforts supporting the community.
Thank you so much Sasha. Can I turn off a lot of WBPP options to make it more like Deep Sky Stacker?
Well, which options do you mean? In principle what I show in this tutorial is the easiest way to use WBPP. We leave as much as possible at default but change what needs to be changed to work or to substantially increase quality.
I can make a process Icon (the cosm template in your example) to do the CosmeticCorrection, but I can't see how to make PixInsight remember it. I figured out how to save the template and then, next time I start PixInsight, I can manually load it and use it. But there must be a more automatic way to make PixInsight just load my template when it starts, yes?
Hello Sascha, thank you for the walk through on this topic. Could you please see if you are able to help me with an issue I have working with WBPP during the stacking procedure. In the execution monitor I get green ticks up to and including Debayer but a purple message appears in the process console saying no valid PSF signal samples are in the metadata, then all the light frames are rejected in the measurement phase and the rest of WBPP aborts. I have had this once before and was advised to purge the cache in global options which fixed the problem then but will not work this time. All the lights look good in Blink, I have 80 300 sec OSC data of M16 with corresponding darks,flats and dark flats. Any help will be gratefully received, thank you.
Sorry, you will not like this answer but it is stuff like this why I stack in APP and not in PixInsight. I did this WBPP tutorial to give beginners an end-to-end tutorial, but for stuff like that you have to ask hardcore WBPP users - I hope they can help you.
thanks! One question, I have recently purchased the SVBONY SC311 (to use with my 8" SC) and don't understand how to take darks and flats, etc.
This cam is for planetary/moon usage. You record videos with it not pics, so you do not need to take darks and flats. And quite frankly, also PixInsight is the wrong tool to process. Look up planetary workflows (with Autostakkert and Registaxx) which are offered by other UA-camrs. Or for moon I have a video. But for deep space pics (nebulas, galaxies) you need a different, cooled camera with a larger sensor.
Hi This is a great video but...... As a complete beginner I have down loaded the software on a trial version and having been out last night I have some images to try with, However you talk about lights, darks, flats etc to go into the WBPP but i have none of that and that has confused me. I just have the images. Can you help with this?
I personally have no videos explaining calibration exposures, but search on UA-cam and you will find good explainers. But for the images you just shot, simply consider them as lights and proceed without the rest
Either my cpu is lagging or this video was cut to death. However, good beginner content!
Happy you find the content helpful. BTW - your CPU is lagging 😉
Is a drizzle value of 1 equivalent to none?
No, it still drizzles, but it does not increase the resolution of the picture. This is what you do when you are not under sampled. It still has a positive effect and is at least from a OSC aspect required when using SPCC
Need some help here, i have created flats and dark flats, but when importing into WBPP in PixInsight, it puts them together under the FLAT table in the Calibration tab? I don't understand if this is the right way to do it? Thanks in advance. Both of my flats and dark flats are the same exposure length, because that's what i was told to do. Will Pixinsight still read and calibrate correctly, it is not throwing any warnings and errors.
No, the dark flats should be in the dark section. Just put them manually there.
@@viewintospace thank you, that worked.
Hoi, welk boek raad u mij aan om dit beter te kunnen begrijpen?
There is no good book, but I would recommend to you Adam Blocks training.
What means pedestal?
Here is a video of Adam Block which explains this in detail: ua-cam.com/video/M4Bie7NOXbg/v-deo.htmlsi=SuGdoJ5gut-dyfo9
I tried WBPP but Astropixel processor kills it with stacking as for processing Pixinsight shines
Sure - 100% agree. We are aligned in this regard! But this is a beginner tutorial and it would be unrealistic and also unfair to tell beginners that they should buy and learn now even another software. So in that spirit I decided to create this tutorial. And btw - just saying - I had recently a case where APP completely failed with stacking leaving some red artefacts and WBPP did it without problems. I guess it is always good to have alternatives....
@@viewintospace for sure
Thanks!
Thanks - appreciated! 🙏🏻
Thanks!
Thanks a lot - appreciated!!!!