Newbie looking for integration guidance

[andythilo]

Hi

I've been using PI for a couple of months now and slowly getting the hang of it. However I keep seeing videos and suggestions that dont use prebatchprocessing. Rather image integration, star calibration etc.. With my ASI294, I believe I'm best taking Lights, Darks, Flats and Dark Flats. But not sure on the integration process. Any guides out there to help me please?

Thanks

Andy

[John_Gill]

Hi,

The "Batch Processing" works very well, but doing each step manually, inspecting the results, tweaking the setting etc generally give better results. Drop me a mail and I will send you a basic work-flow that will produce a decent image.

space is not black
John

[JST200]

Hi Andy,

It's worth reading through this tutorial from Light Vortex as well: https://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-pre-processing-calibrating-and-stacking-images-in-pixinsight.html

I created my basic process flow from following the tutorial. At each stage I created a Process Icon after filling in the recommended settings for each process. To do this you drag the process's New Instance button (the little triangle at the bottom left of the process window) onto the work space. Then right click on the new icon, select "Set Icon Identifier..." and give it a meaningful name. I then drag and drop each one into a list down the right side of the work space (see attachment)

Cheers, Jim

[bulrichl]

Andy and Jim,

I stated it many times before and will repeat it here:

Pre-calibrating dark frames (which is recommended in the Light Vortex tutorial) is a nonsense for two reasons:
1) When preprocessing in PixInsight, this is an unnecessary step.
2) When you pre-calibrate the darks (and don't use an output pedestal), you do it at the risk of clipping the calibrated dark frames. If this occurs, data loss is the result, the MasterDark will be flawed, and the result of the light frame calibration will be incorrect.

Please see my guide https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=11968 .

Bernd

[JST200]

Hi Bernd,

Thanks for the heads-up.

Actually, for me (and probably Andy too) it's not an issue. I don't use Bias frames at all, because they react badly with my Altair 183c Pro TEC's CMOS chip.

Other than that, the Light Vortex tutorial got me from completely confused and not really understanding or using Pixinsight at all well for 12 months to at least getting a  process in place. From there I have been able to refine it to something that seems to work quite well and to which I can add. For example, I now understand enough to start using the new(ish) StarNet++ process! 

So I would say it's still worth a look (even if it's not perfect )

Cheers, Jim

[MineralMike]

With my ASI294, I believe I'm best taking Lights, Darks, Flats and Dark Flats.

I can't answer your question about integration, but I will offer my opinion on taking darks for flats: I don't think it's worthwhile with ZWO CMOS cameras, which have very low noise. I have an ASI1600MC Pro, and take dusk flats with ACP automation software. My master flats typically show an average of about 0.24 in PI's readout. By contrast, my 600-second master dark shows about 0.012. That's only 5% of the flat level, and would be less if I increased the flat exposure for a higher level.

 If I subtract a  0.012 dark from a 0.240 flat, I get 0.228 -- not much difference at all.

But there's another issue: The dark frames should be exposed for the same time as the flat light frames. ACP automatically adjusts each flat's exposure to achieve a target ADU value, so I'd have to manually expose a set of darks dark for each individual flat. It would be a nightmare trying to create a master flat.

Given the wide disparity between my flat ADU and dark ADU, I see no benefit from subtracting darks from flats.