Basic Image Processing in PixInsight 1.8 

Peet du Toit Thanks for the kind words =D I'm glad to hear it's helpful. More on the way!

SoftwareSavesMe It was fun! You can always take advantage of their free trial first too.

Thanks! When I finally manage to carve out some time to get back to astrophotography and re-familiarize myself with these things, I do want to make more.

Glad I could help! M51 is one of my favourite objects haha

Jay Bird Glad it helped!

They're definitely important tools and can be used to great success! I just figured that there was so much to PixInsight that I'd start with a simple approach that could take even a new user from data to result =) I keep planning on making more videos for further tools like what you suggest, one day it'll happen!

A good tool I like to use is Morphological Transformation toward the end of the process. If you use it with a star mask and you're careful about not masking in nebula areas, you can use it pretty quickly and easily to reduce the strength of stars in your image. There's some customization that's available, but if you just apply the default settings you'll get a sense for whether the tool will do what you want in particular, in which case you can continue to tweak the settings to match what looks best to you. Otherwise I'm not sure - it may be helpful to see a picture of a single frame and the stack as well!

Hi, i guess you already solved your problem...had the same thing, just make sure that you picked your picture under the 16-bit button and maybe u have to zoom out greets

doesn't work for me...no matter what I do, there's no data showing in the histogram...and yes, 16 bit is selected. I've tried zooming but it does nothing.

OK, figured it out...if it says "no view selected" click on that drop down area and actually select your image...then the histogram is populated with data.

Hi! All my images are captured with a Canon 600D. A few years ago I modified it to remove the IR cutoff filter that comes on DSLRs to get better reds. This image was done before that modification. I used to use a Celestron AVX mount, but replaced it later with a SkyWatcher NEQ-6 to handle a heavier telescope I would later purchase. This was shot on the AVX, using a SkyWatcher ED80. I still use that scope for wide field images, but for smaller objects I'll use a Vixen VMC 200L (too heavy for the AVX, hence the mount change). I shoot at prime focus, and haven't modified my focusers from what came on the scope. One day I'll probably buy a motorized focuser for convenience. Most gear can collect really nice images, the key is integration time! The best combination of the longest exposures you can make, and many of them, for the overall exposure time, will do wonders. Without a long focal length, your only limit is object size.

daniel hare Thanks man! It's great software, you won't be disappointed =D I'm definitely planning on doing more processing tutorials, but I'm on an old laptop overseas until mid-August, so they'll probably be coming sometime in late August or early September.

philip rees Sorry for the late reply. Usually the F12 key will activate/deactivate the screen transfer function. If you hit the nuclear icon or did CTRL+A and your image appears to stretch more, F12 turns that on and off. If you stretch using HistogramTransformation then the key won't undo the action. The key also applies/unapplies a particular use of the screen transfer function, so if you make changes to your image you should redo CTRL+A instead of just hitting F12

That's a better approach than what I've done here for sure! This video was more of a quick-and-dirty way to get a decent image from data, but in my full workflow I do the same.

I'm having the same problem. Are you on a Mac by any chance?

Sorry for the late reply. If you haven't already, you have two options: If your RGB files are in one colour image, use LRGBCombination, check off only the L checkbox, select your L image, and activate the tool onto the RGB image. If you've got 4 separate channels, use that same tool but have all L/R/G/B checkboxes checked, with the appropriate image for each channel.

It could be that an update changed the file preferences for the type of file you're using. If you're using RAW files off a DSLR, look on the left side of the screen for Format Explorer. Choose DSLR_RAW and at the bottom right hit "Edit Preferences". Make sure that "Create raw Bayer CFA image" is not checked. If it is, you will have to debayer your image manually before working in colour. While many people do this manual step, I've done a number of tests to debayer manually during the process itself, or to let PixInsight do it on import to see the difference. In no cases has it actually made a quality difference, and in each case I actually haven't been able to tell between the final image whether it was debayered or auto-debayered; even when they're side-by-side on screen. Usually when an update comes through that messes with the file import settings, I'll come to that preferences panel and hit de-Bayer RGB in the bottom left. This will reset all the settings above accordingly, so if you have manual changes you make (for example, I always make sure "no image flip" is checked off) you'll have to reactivate them after clicking that button.

Thanks a lot Richard that was exactly what my issue was. much appreciated

You buy it first. It's not cheap. pixinsight.com/buy/

These basic tools are good for any object. My aim was to explain the tool options so you could use them on things that look different, but still be able to know what to change and what to look for. I'm hoping to start up with tutorials and processing videos again, I'll make sure to do a nebula next =)

Richard Bloch awesome can’t wait for more videos! Do you have any videos o PHD2 guiding?

I don't! I've been out of the game for about a year and a half, so I have to refamiliarize myself with the image taking process itself before I can give advice =(

Again sorry for the late reply - the AutoStretch doesn't actually change the image data, it just changes how it appears. So if you work on something that's AutoStretched, and never did a stretch via HistogramTransformation (with AutoStretch OFF so you can see the real effects), that'd be why your image was linear. The AutoStretch is good for tools that need to be done on a linear image (noise reduction, deconvolution, etc.) but about 1/3 to 1/2 way through your process, you'll end up stretching and not returning to the AutoStretch until your next image.