Basic Galaxy Processing Workflow in Pixinsight from Start to Finish

[@MarvelousLXVII]

Really the best Pixinsight video I have ever seen. Thank you so much. I've been imaging galaxies like crazy and now I can't wait to get home and process them!!!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thank you - I hope you get some great results, and clear skies!

[@MarvelousLXVII]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Now I have to reprocess all my old stuff lol! Getting great results. Thanks again!!!

[@jens-uweberthold1105]

Top video👍👍👍 Question about PSFImage: what value would you recommend if the values are like this: FWHMx 5.26 FWHMy 3.98 Thanks very much

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

I would go with 4.62. That's halfway between the x and y values. To get that number: 5.26 - 3.98 = 1.28; 1.28/2 = 0.64; now add 0.64 to the lower number (your x value of 3.98); 3.98 + 0.64 = 4.62. Of course, you can experiment with your PSF number - but I've found that this method works well.

[@leumas1996]

this lad is good! really love his editing method, short and sweet. Please do a video for nebula too! Sub to your channel

[@Arcteek]

Really good video thank you

[@Yambolic]

Thank you, great result! Top the target list for when I change the rig over to 800mm focal length. Any help with processing galaxies is very much appreciated. I will need alternatives to BlurEx and NoiseEx but hey ho, maybe later this year. Thanks

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thank you - TGV denoise is a great alternative to NoiseX for linear denoising - I've got a video on that process as well. Hope you get some nice galaxies at 800mm this year!

[@johnsikora]

Fantastic video. You cleared up a lot of questions and demystifyed Pixinsight quite a bit.

[@macrodaz9831]

thank you my image of m51 went from shit to super after watching this

[@rodbell4222]

Nice workflow...! Straight and to the point...First time seeing your channel...PI user since Aug 2022, Subscriber MOP...Thanks!

[@johnlewis4073]

This has been a really helpful tutorial as I wrestle with PI and workflows. Very informative, not only in terms of practically what to do, but also what to look out for as you process an image. Thanks for putting it together

[@lawrencejames1143]

Thanks! As a total newbee this was a fantastic jump start for me. In one afternoon I've accomplished so much.

[@josephluciani5531]

Just found your channel. Fantastic tutorial! Would love for you to do a similar mono workflow. Look forward to following your channel..

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Joseph - I'll add a mono workflow to my list!

[@jtepsr]

Do you think any more editing in PS or LR would be in order. Also can you offer any workflow for Osc for galaxy and nebulas. Were you using a light pollution filter on this image. Sorry, I am a beginner

[@yervantparnagian5999]

Just came across your channel. Well done video. As a new PI user, would it be better to do a StarXterminator BEFORE a DBE. That way we won't have to avoid putting points on any stars. Is there any detriment to doing that before instead of later? Thanks!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

I've done that before on short focal length images with crowded star fields and it works just fine. For long focal lengths where there's plenty of room for samples between the stars, it's probably not necessary. The only real risk is the chance of Starnet or StarX introducing artifacts into your image early on. They both work quite well, nowadays though.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 That makes sense. Thanks for the reply.

[@thomasmastrocinque7132]

This was the exact video I needed. It was like you made it just for me. It answered so many of my questions. Can't thank you enough!

[@albertfeuerstein8773]

Excellent video explaining the workflow for galaxies! Lifesaver for beginners! Finally brought color and core details into my galaxy pictures! Thank you so much!

[@Mrpaulgs]

What about stacking? Did you not use PixInsight for stacking the image?

[@Mutrino]

I presume all this comes after the whole stacking process which is not discussed here, correct?

[@AstroDad]

nice video mate

[@ech0tang0]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@McF182]

Excellent video as always. I really like that you not only tell us what you are doing, but why you do it so we can see the though process. Looking forward to more!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Brandon!

[@craiglowery4427]

Great video. Thanks

[@ganymede235]

This vid is excellent! I've been using PI for about 6 months, enough to be comfy with WBPP, through BlurX/NoiseX. Spent two days going through this flow in detail, and will no doubt refer back again and again. Thank you!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Glad you find it useful Paul. Thanks for checking it out!

[@TheAndyoesq]

Just wanted to say thank you. Relatively new to this, pixinsight was a little daunting when first trying it. I worked along with your video, and processed my first couple of images going step by step with you. Your video was the first that I could actually follow along with. Really good job explaining every step of the way. Now I basically have your video in the background listening to it every time I process an image. So thanks a lot for your work, and your explanations showing every step of the way what you are doing

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks for the note, Andrew. I'm glad the video has helped you get some results with Pixinsight. It's definitely a complex program with a bit of a learning curve. Clear skies to you, and thanks again for letting me know you've found value in this tutorial.

[@math2cool]

Love the results, but it's your/ his specific and succinct still that really stands out (know your song well before you start singing - he does). Thank you.

[@math2cool]

Style not still :)

[@TevisC]

Why did no one else have the issue of? "*** Error: Database files not available for the Gaia DR3/SP catalog, or the XPSD server is not properly configured."

[@TevisC]

Script>Render>PSFImage is not an option.....

[@elbass0]

Stellar stuff!

[@barthennin6088]

Helpful BUT... Every Pixinsight 'how to process' video does steps in different order using different tools (very confusing) and this video does steps without really explaining WHY or WHAT each step does. I will come back to this though as I learn more. I wish there was a deep dive into what tools are available and what each does...

[@georgehatfield9473]

Excellent video. I also have an Edge HD 8", and in the video, I learned why my focal length is typically measured by PI as 1475.53 mm with the 0.7X focal reducer and why some of my brighter stars have colored fringes. Have you adjusted your back-focus to give the correct focal length? If so, where did you find the problem? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Hi George - I've found that the ideal focal length for my Edge Hd 8 with reducer is 1474mm. I still have some fringing on the corner stars, but generally the field is good. That's the nature of using the reducer - it's simply imperfect. It's a tradeoff on speed vs star quality in my experience. But, that's not specific to the Edge 8 - both of my refractors have fringing when using a reducer. If you check out my blog, I've done a post on my spacing settings (with diagrams) at f/7 and f/10. Thanks for checking out the video!

[@georgehatfield9473]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Thanks for the prompt reply! Actually, I looked at your blog post this afternoon. That is how I have mine set up but without the filter holder. For three of my images, the focal length at 0.7x is 1475 (PI). You also mentioned software to remove fringes. Could you elaborate on that? Might be a good subject for a video since I have the impression it is a common problem with the f/7 reducer.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

@@georgehatfield9473 you're right - that might make for a good video. I use a software program called ON1 Photo Raw. It's a stand alone program. I've also heard that Lightroom can do something similar. I'll add this to my list of video ideas, though, because I think a lot of us could use the ability to "de-fringe" our stars both with the Edge scopes and small refractors.

[@paulmacias6802]

This is awesome. I just bought pix, and other tutorials were ok, but these really help with some of my recent images that don't have a lot of data yet.

[@blairhaynie2335]

Great video, a big help, and I like the intro! Keep up the good work.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Blair, I appreciate it.

[@StevenSSmith]

Glad to see another video!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Steven - hoping to get back into it!

[@melvinatkins3443]

I have watched this video and I must say it’s excellent but when I open Blurexterminator there is no psf in the dropdown menu fron utilities. Can you help please.

[@andrewgunton]

Melvin . agreed re the video ... did you find out how to find PSF in the drop down menu as I cant see it either? Thanks

[@andrewgunton]

Melvin ... worked it out ... down loaded a new tensorflow.dll file for PI into the Bin folder ... work well after this.

[@lawrencepizzi9068]

Great video! You mentioned cpu acceleration. What process did you use to accomplish this for processes other than starnet++. TIA.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Hi Lawrence, thanks! I was referring to GPU acceleration, which requires an NVIDIA graphics card in your computer. Mine has the 1050i graphics card. Then you only need to setup Pixinsight to take advantage of the GPU acceleration. This can only be used by processes like BlurX, StarX, Starnet, and NoiseX as far as I know. It's really worth it, though, because it made my BlurX finish in less than a minute when it was initially taking 10 minutes - and that's with a pretty powerful PC.

[@lawrencepizzi9068]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Thanks. I do have an NVIDIA card. It's the set up process in Pixinsight I'm not clear on. Is there a Global Preference or a setup option in PI that I need to access? I don't see an obvious choice in the Global Preferences.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

It's a few steps to get it to work in Pixinsight since you need to change some PC settings as well as replacing some files in PI's installation directory. Here's the instructions I used: rikutalvio.blogspot.com/2023/02/pixinsight-cuda.html?m=1 It might look like a lot, but it's actually not bad!

[@lawrencepizzi9068]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Thanks. I discovered it after I asked you. It worked like a charm. I used to be able to grab a cup of coffee and read a chapter or so from a Dickens novel while waiting for Russ's processes to run. Now, 30-50 seconds max. Thanks again.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

The one issue Im having is the SpectroPCC. I sucessfully gave the image the coordinates. When I open the Spcc process and apply the triangle I get an error stating "database files not available for Gaia DR3/SP Catalog." I did download the small set from the PI distribution center. I have no idea how to point PI to use them if thats what I need to do? Thanks for your time.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Open the "Gaia" process in Pixinsight (Process > Astrometry > Gaia), then select the data release "Gaia DR3/SP". Click on the little wrench in the bottom right corner of the process, then at the bottom click Select and point it to your downloaded Gaia files location. This should fix it. Hope that helps!

[@bradabongr32]

Great video , thank you for sharing!

[@repunzelk3015]

whats your pc specs? it takes at least 10 minutes to do one action for me idk if my pc is not good

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

I've got a reasonably good PC. If you're talking about NoiseXterminator and BlurXterminator, you can utilize an NVIDIA GPU graphics card to speed it up. Once I enabled it, my BlurX process went from 10 minutes to just 1 minute. It's a real time saver. I have the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 - it's very much worth this investment.

[@TimothyManley-qs4wp]

Asiair

[@TimothyManley-qs4wp]

Asiair

[@TylerSchlittPhotography]

Top tier video here, I'm no beginner but I do struggle with processing galaxies which is why I don't photograph them much but your video was fantastic. Easy to work with, just loud enough to follow along and you went nice and slow. This video deserves more views for sure. Keep up the good work.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Tyler, I appreciate it. Galaxies are definitely tricky to process. I hope you get some clear skies this galaxy season and plenty of data to practice with!

[@MarvelousLXVII]

It's funny--last year I quit imaging galaxies because I was having trouble processing them and bringing out the beautiful color. I have gone back and am amazed what I can now do with the techniques I learned in this video. I even went as far as cancelling my photoshop license lol.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

@@MarvelousLXVII haha, I never could use PS for astro - somehow, PI seemed way more intuitive for me.

[@CAPAstro]

What an awesome video !

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thank you. Great channel name! 😉

[@CAPAstro]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 haha yours too !

[@Zealor365]

What the HELL is up with the Volume? Your intro doesn't need to be heard 3 blocks away!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Appreciate the feedback. Still learning the ropes of video production, but I'll take your comment into consideration on the next one.