Stacking

[Jason1970]

Hello,

Just download and purchased PIXINSIGHT v5. I two questions, if someone can please answer.

I am trying to stck my images but dont see the "stack" or "combine" option. Can this be done using PIXINSIGHT?

and also is there a manual for pixinsight???. I have checked in the website but havent seen it.


Thank you

Most kind
1970

[Jack Harvey]

ImageIntegration is used to combine your images.  You may have to register them first.  Use StarAlignment for that.

Harry's tutorials that you can access thru ths forum are a great way to get started.

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Jason,

As Jack mentioned, PixInsight has been evolving at an exponential rate - and this strain on limited resources has meant that the 'manual' has never been written. In fact, it may never get written.

This is because a 'written' manual may never be truly useful for such a dynamic application as PI - by the time the manual was written, it would be highly likely to be obsolete  

Instead, there are the new 'official' video tutorials (authored by the P-Team) and the 'unofficial' videos authored by Harry Page. Both sets are an EXCELLENT source of information.

As is this Forum.

Honestly, no matter what your skill level might be and no matter what your experience with PI might be, your questions will be happily answered as best as possible by others here on the Forum.

As to your actual questions, the "stacking" and "combining" of images within PI is still at an early stage of development, with the hope that "calibration" of your data can also be included in the near future. Many users are currently relying on DeepSkyStacker (which is freeware) to move them past that stage, and then using PI to polish up their resultant image. Maybe you are also already using DSS?

If you let us know what equipment you are currently using, and your typical data gathering process, others here on the Forum might be able to give you a good head-start on a suitable methodical approach.

Welcome aboard, and fasten your keyboard safety belt (your life-jacket is under your seat, etc.).

Hope this helps.

[Jason1970]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your replies.

I have been gathering pictures for a few months now thou managed to get what i think some good images of the swan nebulae. I have around 20 exposures of about 500s. 
It has taken me around 3 months to get to grips with the equipment, telescope, mounting, goto features, guider etc.  I think im almost there! ( I think!)
This past weekend i got the above frames and been trying to do some work with MaximDL(which is the software I use to gather the data).
I purchased PIXINSIGHT to learn processing them. OMG! Nevertheless Im always keen to learn this thou dont really know where to start.

I have been looking at video tutorials where I.m beginning to familiarise with the PI. I have been playing around with it and slowly hope to learn .

I did try image intergration and the dynamic align feature and it does work , thank you.

My equipment is:-
WO 80mm Megrez
Meade LX90 8"
HEQ5PRO Mount
Skywacther 80mm for guider
H9C with guider head from Starlight xpress.
(No Hubble unfortunately)

Can you help me with this next question?
I have the color cam , I can convert the images to color using MaximDL, but so far been unable to do this within PI. Can you tell me how to convert them to color using PI please? (Or at least the feature to do this?)

I am pleased with the images taken( at last!), just trying to make them look good:)

Well thanks again and your coments will be appreciated.

Jason

[Harry page]

Welcome to the fold Jason

Learn't to use all your gear in 3 months , i have been trying to master mine for several years now

Alighnment and intergration is next up on the video jobby 

Sander pools debayer modual which is under colour spaces should be what you want

Regards Harry

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Jason,

Welcome to PixInsight Forum!

Little to add to what others have already said about your questions. StarAlignment is an automatic image registration tool specifically designed to align deep-sky images (as its name suggests it uses stars as registration references). ImageIntegration is the tool you must use in PixInsight to combine (stack) your frames. Both StarAlignment and ImageIntegration implement state-of-the-art algorithms, especially the new versions that come with the next release of PixInsight, due in a few days.

Unfortunately we still lack an image calibration tool, but this is going to change very very soon I fully agree with the suggestion about DeepSkyStacker - it is a top notch application.

Finally, as Harry has pointed out Sander Pool's Debayer module (you'll find it on the Process Explorer, under the ColorSpaces category) is what you want to convert your raw FITS files into regular RGB color images.

Let us know if you need further help with these or other tools in PixInsight.

[Jason1970]

Hello,

First of all thank you very much for your replies, they are proofing quite helpful !

I have managed to Calibrate( using MaximDL),
Then Dynamic align, combine, color and played about with the very good videos produced by Harry. Finally I have the best image I have done so far. Its good!!

I do have three questions you might be able to advice me.

1/ My stars appear far too big, or at least compared to other images I have seen from other sites. Infact there are so many that the main target is cluttered with them. Can I reduce these in size? They are also far too bright .

2/ When I have my image at my best, how can I save them:-

A/ Would like to save them as .fits but every time i open them they appear far too dark, as when i open them before processing. Can these be saved with the Ajusted curves & Histrogram setting?

B/ Would also like to save these images in JPG, at least the final result but again I cannot do these since the setting are not right nor i have a clue whats wrong. When I save it to >jpg I will post it here for you to see.. Obvioursly I'ts my first image!

3/ When i convert them to color, the swan Nebulae shows with plenty of green color... should It not be reddish??

THank you very much

Kind Regards

Jason

[Harry page]

Hi Jason

To reduce the stars you can use morphological transform with the minimum setting I have not tried it to much my self perhaps others can suggest fine settings

I do not know why you can not save your images as fits with the changes you have made as when I do all changes are saved and also do not have a problem
saving as a jpeg

are you  converting your images to colour before you are stacking?

If you are calibrating your images in maxim I think you should debayer in there for the moment because you cannot debayer after calibration

Regards Unofficial Harry

[Jason1970]

Hello Harry,

Thanks for that, It does work, Small stars have disappeared, other bigger brighter ones have been reduced! Great.

Should I debayer the imaging before calibrating? I didn't do that. 



Jason

[Nocturnal]

Hi,

you really should not mess with star sizes until you have the basics down. First acquire the best possible data your equipment allows, then calibrate and stack in an optimal fashion and then worry about processing.

My recommendation is to stack with DeepSkyStacker (DSS) until you are fully aware of the intricacies of calibrating and stacking your images. Heck, I understand it pretty well and I still use DSS DSS is much easier than PI and delivers excellent results. Once you're comfortable working with DSS and would like to use PI for say the stacking operation you can transition to using DSS together with PI.

[Harry page]

Hi Jason

I should back of a bit with the filter if stars are disappearing

The art of calibrating a OSC camera is very long storey indeed and short of explaining all the pit falls either

1) do your calibration in maxim if you are happy with it as Its pretty straight forward

2) Do not calibrate at all ( Obviously debayer ) !

I only use flats for my OSC if I have some dust bunnies to get rid of and DBE can sort any vignetting

Regards Harry

[Nocturnal]

Sorry, I have to disagree with DBE taking care of vignetting. That's simply not true. Vignetting causes illumination differences which are multiplicative whereas DBE takes care of additive effects. At least I haven't had good luck with DBE in 'divide' mode. Targets that fill the field of view such as the nebulae that are coming into view again can not be corrected with just DBE. The center will be bright and the edges dim. Flat fielding is the only way to properly correct for that. Then use DBE to remove remaining artifacts due to errors in flattening and LP gradients etc.

Simply take a flat field and examine the brightness differences between the center the the corner. The same happens to star light coming in from space. Use the profile tool in Fitswork to take a look at the curve of your flat. I have a profile tool for PI in the works, need to finish it

here's a picture of the curve of a flat for my M110 with flattener:

http://gallery.tungstentech.com/main.php?g2_itemId=857

[Harry page]

Hi
 
Technicaly I have to agree with sander and I always advise that flats are taken

But then all I can say is that the tutorial done on M42 with a image of mine and the images in my own videos have no calibration done to them

Thats the joy of this hobby a lot of the time there is no black and white , just what works for you


Regards Harry

[Nocturnal]

So just imagine how nice they would be if you flattened them

What was the focal length you used?

[Harry page]

Hi Jason

I am sorry if we hijacked your Thread 

Sander

I would only say that you can get away without calibration on low noise cameras like the SX range and you QH camera

My scope for galaxies is a 14" f5 newt around 1800mm focal length   and on M42  a 80mm  equinox at f6.25

Lastly I would say the vignetting on jason's H9c would be minimal

Regards Harry