Short stack?

[Ron Kramer]

Hi - I had tried pixinsight for a couple days - didn't have a PHD in math or science and uninstalled it.  Later (couple weeks). I bought it.  Now I'm forced to learn it.   (I have had it a couple days maybe a hour or two into just tinkering.

I shot some subs last night and somehow processed a OSC into a decent single frame sub.  I don't think I could do it again.

So then I want to stack the 9 frames I got... and this has been impossible.  I don't have flats so I just created some to make it happy.   Do I do this after a batch debayer of all frames?  I tried that and I tried fit files direct from OSC camera.
It does a lot of stuff and nothing.  A few errors are listed under diags.
Any simple method?  Can I do it without flats? 

Ron the noob. (I've had my scope and camera out about 7 times). astrophotography is totally new to me.
as is tracking, guiding etc. Im' using SGP.

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Ron,

Welcome aboard. And, yes, you have a long (and sometimes steep) learnng curve ahead of you - but that will, for the better part, be more associated with the actual imaging side than the processing side.

But, don't worry, hopefully there will always be someone online who will try and help you.

So, you now have 9 'plain' (or 'RAW') FITS files downloaded off your camera. Great! Forget about all the calibration files that you may have heard about (Biases, Darks, Flats, FlatDarks, etc.) - just work with those 9 images - and don't expect miracles. Not yet!

Don't worry about Star Alignment or Batch DeBayer - just run them through ImageIntegration (and best to start off the ImageIntegration process with a full RESET of all the operational parameters - look at the option buttons down at the bottom-right corner of the II window. Hover over them until you find what you are looking for, and then click on it. Now load in the 9 images and hit the little blue circle at the bottom-left of the II window to 'start' the ImageIntegration process running.

Have a look at the resultant image - you will want to use the ScreenTransferFunction here - in order to temporarily make the image (which is still 'linear') into a non-linear image purely for viewing 'On-Screen' (hence the STF name). Look at stars on the image = they are probably not in any way 'aligned' - and that means that you will need to go back to your original 9 images and consider applying the StarAlignment Process to them.

I won't go into that just yet (I don;t want to drown you with too much information in one go), but will alo leave  you to think about a possible down-side of StarAlignment. The SA Process can adversely affect the relationship between the image pixels and the ColourFilterArray of your PSC imager. If the CFA alignment becomes mis-matched in any way, then you will not be able to correctly implement the DeBayer Process.

So, you may also have to consider running the BatchDeBayer Script on your RAW images first, before trying to implement the StarAlignment *na dsubesquently implementing the ImageIntegration Process).

Hopefully that all makes a little bit of sense for you.

[Ron Kramer]

Helpful reply!  so while I was reading your reply, I called up imageintegration and it was doing it's thing while I read. And yep when done images were stacked and not aligned.   I'm using a CMOS camera and shooting .fit files. (are those what you refer to as raw?)
I know raw from DSLR.

I picked the best, I did the debayer script. (worked fine).  Then tried to stack and had errors.
So I did image integration with the raw files and they weren't aligned.

As I type this I have starAlignment running... sitting at 89% - and I'll see what that presents.

[Ron Kramer]

It seems hung up at 89%.  Says running...  since you said that likely the matrix won't align properly - I'm going to hit pause abort and try again with my debayered images.

loading debayered...  selecting a refrence image of those.
leaving settings to default.

setting output dir to  'aligned dir I created'.

sample format 'same'.

clicking apply global...  blue ball,  it's processing....  brb

Seeing... generating registered image... about 6 times now, I had about 9 files...
ok. Finished. I saw green text before I could read it the window slid off to the left.
So what happened?  did it align and save new aligned versions?  going to look.

I see them - now selecting these in  ImageIntegration...  brb using defaults.
processing.  says MRS noise.. oh done. I see 3 images.  (high and low) rejection? Something it's eliminating?
deleting those to see integration...

Doing STF stretch. So far doesn't seem different from a single frame. Also LIME green.  Let me see what I can do at this point.

guessing...  background Neutralization. I drag the corner icon to photo.
GREEN gone, but very washed out.
brb guessing again.  (autohistogram) oops that wasn't good.
ctrl-Z  undo.

hmmm Curves transformaton maybe the one.
clicking  open circle for live preview? Adjusting curves and yes seeing it in the preview.

values seem in the ballpark now.  clicked apply.

not bad - I could bring it into photoshop for final tweaks - seems a bit to warm.  Looking....
hmmm can't find anything that says I can adjust color. so Saving and going into shop.
Now that it's somewhat adjusted, it does appear the stack is better. I'll try to share here.
But will it SAVE like I see it?

brb saving .tiff 16 bit for pshop.  hmmm shoot. It's dark appears my boost wasn't saved.
to dark. I could work on levels here - but going back to pixnsight...

looking for a stretch option?    curves transformation seems logical...  under "intensity" which sounds like what I want to adjust.
(sharing my thought process as I guess).
messed it up -  controlZ a bunch - then Y to get back and re applied curves transformation. (it needed blue color balance)
so I clicked "B" and increased the curve and "G" and reduced teh curve. And a little M +  not to bad. Thgouh the stars (whites) seem a little green.
But how to I APPLY and save?   the levels are boosted by clicking upper right nuke button. But how to save what I see?

guessing brb  can't seem to apply STF (seems the boosted stretch is just for viewing) so - going to photoshop to boost curves.
could do - but didn't look near as good?  What next? I have what appears to be a nice image in pixnsight, but it doesn't save as I see it?

getting frustrated = (     well can't save it - but on screen it looks like this.

[Ron Kramer]

So anyway - I did  batch debayer,  align and stack. My first stacked image. Now how would it look if I added my bias and darks?

[RickS]

Congrats, Ron.  Nice first attempt!

You can apply a screen stretch to your image, but it takes a few steps.  You'll need the ScreenTransferFunction and the HistogramTransfer processes, so open them up.  Click on the tick icon at the bottom right of the STF process if it's not already on (this makes STF track the active window.)  Now click on the image you want to stretch.  This makes the title bar go blue so you can see the image is the active one.  Click on the triangular "new instance" icon at the bottom right of STF, drag it over to the gray bar at the bottom of the HT process and then drop it.  That copies the screen stretch parameters calculated by STF for your image to the HT process.  Next, click on the HT new instance triangle and drag/drop it on your image.  It will get very bright and probably go completely white.  That's because you have applied the stretch to the image and it still has the screen stretch as well.  The final step is to turn off the screen stretch using the reset STF button on the menu, Ctrl-F12, or right click the image/Screen Transfer Functions/Reset STF.

It sounds more complicated than it is to do

Cheers,
Rick.

[Ron Kramer]

Thanks Rick, though most of that didn't work.   I think you meant left when you said right etc.
My photo "TAB" didn't turn blue... dragging from STF to HT didn't seem to do anything. oh wel = (

I couldn't get the STF to link/share over to HT.  however in playing I did find how to slide the color bars. (I had to click the pointer arrow).  I did make some interesting changes to the image. (not better though) but good to pick up a few tricks each time.

Is there a way I can make a list of things I've learned  like the   PROCESS/ALL PROCESSES  list but make it my own favorites list?  So I have maybe the 10 things I use/learn making them easier to find? My 60 year old memory isn't what it use to be.

Also ODDLY the program is laughing at me. I have lots of smiles... see attached. !!!  Aliens?

[Ron Kramer]

quick side question. I had made a preview before.  But now when I try (I click new preview) it asks for a title and it does it's own grab of 256 pixels from 0, 0.   It won't let me draw/drag to define the preview areA?

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Ron,

dragging from STF to HT didn't seem to do anything

Once you have the STF sliders set where you (think) you want them to be, and you already have the Histo window open, if you drag the little blue triangle from the STF window to the bottom line of the Histo window, PixInsight will transfer the STF parameters to the Histogram.

However, the Histo has not yet been applied to the image, which still remains un-changed - despite how it might look with the STF applied. If you want to 'permanently' (nothing is #permanent' in PI !!) apply the Histo stretch to the image, you would then drag the blue triangle from the Histo window to the Image window.

But - what the *!!% has happened now? That image is blown to pieces! But, bear in mind that you still have the STF applied as well - it is as if you double-applied the STF. So, either reset the STF, or turn  it off (see the icons at the bottom right of the STF window). And, if you wanted, remember you could even have dropped the blue triangle on the Workspace to create a copy of the STF process that you were using (although you would obviously need to do this before the STF reset !)

Does that make more sense? (Come back to us with the other parts of your last query, and try to explain what you were trying to achieve).

[Ron Kramer]

ah that worked. I turned off the auto STF and now I can save a tif with the corrections. = )

At least it saves it now nearly what I wanted... moving it into ps then allows me to correct minute color and contrast issues. 

Is there a way to create a FAVORITES list of the processes that I find I'm using over and over?

[Ron Kramer]

And any idea where the SMILES came from?

[pfile]

you can create process icons for your favorite processes by dragging the triangle to the desktop workspace. then you can arrange the icons somewhere on the desktop.

the next version of PI will have an automatically-generated list of "most used" processes in the process explorer tab, as well as the ability to load and save a list of favorite modules.

rob

[Niall Saunders]

There is also a means of creating a list of 'Favourites' on the fly-out menu. That is what I have done.

However, like Rob, my 'real favourites' tend to end up on 'the other side' of the vertical line that divides your Workspace into two (the aim of the line being a 'workspace delimiter' if you are moving images around, or maximising them for example - they all remain  on one side of the line, leaving you some un-cluttered space into whic you can park the likes of Process Icons).

Once you get a little bit more experience with PixInsight, you will learn that the 'minute colour corrections' that you are implementing in PS can also be implemented in PixInsight - but with a far higher degree of control - but that lesson is for another day!

One other thing to point out is that, as you become less dependant on other software apps, you will benefit in many different ways from saving your images as .XISF files - the 'native' mode for PixInsight (and one that is fully documented, and 'licence-free' for use by other packages; the hope being that - one day - the restrictive nature of the FITS format will be superceded, and that successor will be the XISF format).

[RickS]

Thanks Rick, though most of that didn't work.   I think you meant left when you said right etc.

Also ODDLY the program is laughing at me. I have lots of smiles... see attached. !!!  Aliens?

Unless you are looking at your screen in a mirror I'm pretty sure my directions were correct 

The "smiles" are hot pixels.  You can get rid of them with CosmeticCorrection and/or rejection during ImageIntegration.

[Ron Kramer]

I see - I placed them on the right of the line. If I close up and load they'll still be there?  I saved a project in case.

So you had me align, integrate and screen transfer and histo transfer.

I like the image, but the noise is a little excessive.  How do I do this again and include my Bias and Darks.  I don't have a flats library yet.