PixInsight Workshop by Vicent Peris
Adler Planetarium, Chicago, September 10  –12 2010

Vicent Peris and CAHA's 3.5 meter Zeiss telescope.

From September 10th to 12th, a PixInsight image processing workshop will be held at one of the most prestigious science outreach institutions in the United States: the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. The workshop will be given by Vicent Peris, astrophotographer of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia (OAUV), Spain, and a principal member of the PixInsight Development Team.

Starting as an amateur astrophotographer, Vicent Peris has become a professional astrophotographer working at the OAUV. He leads the world-renowned astrophotographic programs at Calar Alto Observatory (CAHA), with the 3.5 and 1.23 meter Zeiss telescopes (the latter with the collaboration of the Documentary School of Astrophotography), applying innovative image processing techniques and software tools. His works have been published and awarded by some of the most reputed publications worldwide, such as APOD, Scientific American, National Geographic, Bad Astronomy Blog, and Sterne und Weltraum

To give yourself an idea of the workshop's contents and the image processing techniques that we'll show, watch the workshop's demo reel at PixInsight Studios.

Rates and Registration

The workshop has limited capacity for a maximum of about 25 attendees. With a total duration of 12 hours, the registratrion price is $200. Click here to register.

After registering to attend this workshop, please email the author at:
vicent(dot)peris(at)pixinsight(dot)com.

Workshop Methodology

This workshop has been conceived with a special focus on the active participation of the attendees. Each registered participant will be provided with a personal FTP account on our file servers, where he/she will be able to upload raw data that will be worked out during the workshop. In this way the participants will have the opportunity to apply and understand the concepts and techniques described in the context of their particular imaging conditions.

Workshop Program

Total workshop duration: minimum of 12 hours in three sessions of 4 hours each. Click on the images below to see examples with detailed information.

1. Advanced Image Calibration

Good image acquisition and calibration techniques are key to achieving excellence in astrophotography. In this workshop we'll learn how to get the best out of our data with the image preprocessing tools available in PixInsight:


Superflattening techniques are often used in professional astronomy to derive and correct residual errors on flat field corrected images. We'll see how to acquire superflat frames and how to adapt them to the astrophotographic workflow. Read more...

2. Color Calibration

Color calibration is easy and powerful in PixInsight with the BackgroundNeutralization, ColorCalibration and PixelMath tools. We'll introduce advanced color rendition and calibration techniques in this stage of the workshop. Read more...


3. HDR Composition

The new HDRComposition tool in PixInsight will be presented. This new tool is an improved version of the already available JavaScript version, which implements HDR composition algorithms and techniques designed by the author. Being fully automated, this tool makes easy the otherwise painful task of HDR composition. Read more...


4. Dynamic Range Compression

PixInsight's standard tool for dynamic range compression, HDRWaveletTransform, will be reviewed in depth. Although this is a fairly easy-to-use tool, the obtained results can be greatly improved by the use of advanced parameters and other associated HDR techniques. Learn how to get the most out of one of the main avant-garde tools in PixInsight. Read more...


5. HaRGB Combination Techniques

We'll learn how to combine narrowband H-alpha data with broadband RGB data in the linear stage, with a focus on specific techniques for H-alpha enhancement control and prevention of noise transfers between broadband and narrowband data. Read more...