BlurXterminator, but FREE?! Installing & testing Cosmic Clarity by SetiAstro (vs BlurXterminator)

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My Patreon: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek My Merch Store: cuiv.myspreadshop.com/ Cosmic Clarity website: www.setiastro.com/cosmic-clarity Cosmic Clarity PixInsight repo: raw.githubusercontent.com/setiastro/cosmicclarity/main/ Seti Astro Cosmic Clarity videos: Intro video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaSXkqyYppKba5Y Ready for prime time: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnymaqaBrNCKirs Denoising: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYvKdn1mfch9laM Linear data support (and 16 bit tifs): kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGesfpSMr8yZbdE Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/49XTx01 Agena affiliate: bit.ly/3Om0hNG High Point Scientific affiliate: bit.ly/3lReu8R First Light Optics affiliate: tinyurl.com/yxd2jkr2 All-Star Telescope affiliate: bit.ly/3SCgVbV Astroshop eu Affiliate: tinyurl.com/2vafkax8

[@smilingdeath-e1x]

GraXpert's team just announced that they will release a deconvolution AI in the following weeks too. First a non-stellar deconvolution and then a stellar deconvolution with correction of stars aberrations. I cannot wait the stellar deconvolution. Finger crossed.

[@dmitrypichugin7121]

Wow! Where can I find out more about this?

[@samwarfelphotos]

Where do you get that news?

[@kiranaor5402]

Was announced in Dark Matters Discord.

[@Кирилл-р6я2ж]

@@dmitrypichugin7121 here’s the announcement itself: We will have two distinct models to handle separately stellar and object deconvolution. The first model that I am going to release is the object deconvolution. After some feedback I can start training the stellar deconvolution. All the code is already ready, but I still never trained stellar deconv. Object deconvolution can handle: defocus, seeing effects small tracking errors. It will affect everything except stars. Stellar deconvolution will correct any optical aberration non just seeing. Probably the first version will covert a subset of aberrations. Models are going to be a lot faster than denoise. This is particularly true for macos.

[@dmitrypichugin7121]

@@Кирилл-р6я2ж спасибо!

[@setiv2]

Thanks for the great video Cuiv! The latest versions are out too and I will be updating and improving! The new version fixed a bug where nonstellar features werent getting the full sharpening. That is why you werent seeing much improvement in your heart or heart nebula. It was trained to correct some stellar aberration but it is not yet to the gold standard of BXT :) for my free stand alone tool i think it does an amazing job if you dont already have PI, BXT, and NXT. 🎉

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Dude you are awesome, just saying :) I'll test the new version, and fully agree - this is great for anyone who doesn't have PI/BXT/NXT!

[@setiv2]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek lol thanks cuiv. I just remember my DSS days and I wouldve killed for something even remotely like this. Hope people get some use out of it!

[@jesusbilbao]

Thanks for the interesting video and script however, I have tried installing several times the Mac version and it fails to process standalone or in Pixinsight. No errors. It opens and I can see it in the processing console of Pixinsight and does nothing. Any ideas?.

[@moschop72]

Franklin arrived into this hobby like a brilliant comet. Amazing set of tools

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Absolutely!! Incredible tools!

[@dwaipayansinha]

Never clicked a video so fast

[@Thomas-dm3cf]

Aha lmao same, I’ve been waiting for something like this for so long

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hope it was worth the fast click!

[@dwaipayansinha]

​@@CuivTheLazyGeek for your videos it always is

[@hoomea]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Cuiv. Your videos are always the best!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks! I'm glad you found this useful! And of course all credit to Seti Astro!!

[@marvinwhisman3333]

OMG. Your selling the white cosmic clarity joke was hilarious. Still laughing although I am a little worried it was to believable. The work from SetiAstro is changing the way some of us process our images. And all of his work is free.

[@makrospex]

Even if he would charge for his scripts in the future, it would be worth it, i guess.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks Marvin! I was a bit worried about that joke haha! It was actually inspired by the movie "Minority Report", where they picture (in passing) a drug that they nickname "Clarity"!

[@AstroEssentials]

Wonderful video as always. Thanks for all your help Cuiv!!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks! I'm glad you found it useful!

[@ColeDedhand]

Best astrophotography channel on YT.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you!!

[@AstroDanno]

My first initial attempt with Cosmic Clarity stand alone wasn’t very great. I’ll be trying again after watching this video. Thanks, Cuiv!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I think it's improved a lot since original release!

[@anthonyt4622]

Thanks again for the great tips. Using it as a stand alone and what a difference it has made. Very impressed.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad you are liking it!

[@ziyadel-ghazi7755]

Thanks a lot Cuiv, Always following the one and Only Astro Geek

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you! Although I'd argue Seti Astro is a greater Astro Geek than me, providing so many amazing tools for free!

[@thewarhenk]

Cuiv, Warren Keller here; you are a wonderful presenter.

[@gumtuu]

Cuiv, you made a comment that suggested perhaps Cosmic Clarity might be doing a better job on broadband vs narrowband. That would be an interesting follow up test.

[@MichaelGoldstein-jb4ti]

Will definitely give this a shot. I do high quality EAA, and I'm usually enhancing "saved as adjusted" images from SharpCap, which means the images are already stretched. For my own website, I do light processing in Affinity Photo 2 using the James Reston macros, and I can usually make a significant improvement. That said, I think the sharpening and denoising tools in Affinity are the weakest aspects of the Reston suite. So I expect this will fit very well in my workflow. Thanks for giving such a clear explanation!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That's right down your alley, I'm so glad there is now a standalone tool that can do this :)

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

@@MichaelGoldstein-jb4ti I use the same software as yourself including the JR macros and I have just used Cosmic Clarity on three images, the difference to the stars was amazing. It works well with the none stellar too. This was a quick test and my images ended up a bit over processed but it's just a question of finding the best settings etc. I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

Thanks Cuiv, I shall be downloading this as soon as I've finished watching this video.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hope it works out well for you! Seti Astro just released a new version that should perform even better!

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks Cuiv. The version I downloaded was 5.2.1 For a quick trial I used a final image of the Crescent Nebula that I produced last month and got similar results to yourself. I also processed two other final images which were in some ways improved. All three images although sharpened with better stars now look a bit over processed. It's going to be a case of experimenting to find out where In the workflow to use this very useful tool. It does take quite a long time to process the image even though I have a relatively new laptop with quite high specs but I can live with that. The Denoise program works well too. I think this is going to be a very popular piece of software, particularly for those who don't use PI. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention

[@San-yo1xy]

Thanks a lot, Cuiv! You are great as usual. And my greatest respect to the developer of the software who delivers it to us for free

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Absolutely! Seti Astro is amazing!

[@madsfjord-elsvaag497]

Will absolutely try it, have been considering buying PI with BE and NE and now, that decision is postponed

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Enjoy testing and comparing!

[@tjedwards38]

Thanks as always! Will try this out

[@lukomatico]

Great video mate!! Interesting stuff 👍👍

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks Luke!!

[@cizirf143]

Hi Cuiv, did some similar tests, (between linear/streched images) and got to the same conclusion, in most cases, applying Cosmic Clarity on streched images gives slightly better results. Idem for GraXpert denoise vs CCdenoise... Cosmic clarity may not be yet to BlurX level, but anyway it is far better than any of the deconvolution tools that we had before.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad to see independent confirmation of what I saw, reaching the same conclusions! Thanks!

[@fmsilva11]

very good video, thank you mr. Cuiv

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad you liked it!

[@NikonJax]

💫💫💫💫😂OMG I'm seeing stars! Love the video Cuiv :)

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hahaha you got a good dose of cosmic clarity ;)

[@sianikolaou5440]

Might have to try this out, thanks Cuiv!

[@Scdouglas]

always cool to have more competition, as a blurx owner I hope this just means Russ is more motivated to improve blurx even further (not that I thought he was slacking lol). This definitely seems like it isn't quite ready yet. The sharpening looks good but honestly one of the biggest selling points of BlurX is the correction since I really can't replicate that in any way and this doesn't offer that (yet). The noise reduction feature seems to be very good though, although graxpert denoise is already free so not as big a deal.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep, sounds like a good summary, and it's good that it keeps Russ on his toes ;)

[@arielarias9074]

1:50 haha I wasn't expecting that, I laughed so hard. Nice, I'm keen to try this tool, just emptied my wallet for my first astro rig so I'll have to wait a bit to get the paid software

[@StuartAnderton]

At one point 19:39 Cosmic Clarity seems to have transformed what in the Bx is a bit of nebulosity onto a double star! (Just over half way up, slightly right of the very bright star). In fact there are a couple of places where orange clouds in one is a star in the other

[@Astro_Shed]

Great video, and the Setti Astro tools are superb, with cosmic clarity being no exception, but BlurX it is not, yet !, but for a tool that is free that does similar things, then I can’t fault it…

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It's advancing quickly though, likely keeping Russ on his toes ;)

[@SpyeBlack]

OK, I just downloaded this and will try it, but I have I'm curious as to why not treat stars and targets separately? I work in Siril, and after the initial gradient reduction and PCC/Remove Green Noise, the first thing I do is run Starnet. To me, there's no point in processing stars and targets together in this day and age. It seems to me you would get better results processing them separately. The only caveat is if the models will recognize such process data. I guess I will find out, but it will be a drag if the AI models don't recognize stars-only or targets-only. Thanks for this video Cuiv.

[@Dennis-tf2cs]

Cosmic Clarity - can't gripe about the price for sure. I'm sure it will evolve.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That's for sure!

[@ssrattus]

Thanks Cuiv.

[@AstroIsland]

Great video outlining Seti Astro's new script. I have been working with him in the background to include some additional features (denoising by each RGB channel separately) which has been very helpful. Where can I get some of the cosmic clarity you were selling in the bag? Need to feed the urge to see some stars man. 🤣

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hahahaha unfortunately that powder was seized and used to make pancakes instead! :p

[@michaeledmonds3027]

Thanks for another great detailed video, Cuiv.....But, I finally bit the bullet and bought Pixinsight, and all the RC Astro plug-ins...also for PS. I now have no software excuses. Meanwhile, Im still searching for the perfect Bortle 8/9 LP filter for my 60mm and 80mm refractors with my ASI533MC PRO. I watched both your and Luke's videos on the Altair TRI RGB (vs my Svbony 220). I've considered the Svbony 240, as I mentioned before, but the Altair TRI sounds better with additional coatings... And now I'm seeing that Altair has a QUAD filter. Seems like you're not a fan of 4 band filters, as they block so much light that your gear struggles to find star paterns. Your thoughts, please.... New patron Michael

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks for the support Michael! So that's a tough one. I'm personally in favor of keeping things simple: imaging a galaxy or reflection nebula? Just go for UV/IR. Imaging an emission nebula? Just go for HaOIII and if possible SiiOIII separate filters. Although I'm currently testing the SV240 (well, trying to, the weather isn't cooperating)

[@michaeledmonds3027]

Thanks, Cuiv....I'll wait for your impression of the 240, but one tester got weird halos around bright stars. So, the Altair TRI RGB claims to have similar results, but with coatings that avoid these halo.

[@barnaclewatcher4060]

Thanks Culv for bringing this new tool to our attention. You probably mentioned this and I missed it, but regarding star amplification when using Cosmic Clearity , would it help to remove the stars before applying this new tool?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I did actually try but it didn't help much!

[@MG-qj2zh]

Nice Video... very nice Software👍

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you! The software is indeed amazing and free and standalone!

[@Room-180]

Funny, I like the left bottom image of the Pleijades most.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That works too ;)

[@flutesofmontereypeninsula4169]

Hmmm. There's an apple variety that's called Cosmic Crisp. It's a great apple.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Now you make me want to find one of these in Japan haha

[@thomassorensen4334]

Looks like there was an update on 11/29/2024. By the looks of it, there is no longer an option to download the AI model (Latest Models google drive folder). I imagine these are now incorporated directly into the Cosmic Clarity Suite file, but I'm not 100% sure.

[@walterbonazzi6179]

hello I still have a problem when the processing starts, the dos window opens but then closes immediately and pixi freezes, do you have solutions?thanks

[@michaeljarvis4612]

Great video as always. Seti Astro scripts are fabulous. I have a bone-headed issue. I cannot seem to download Cosmic Clarity on my M1 MacBook Pro correctly - either as a stand-alone or within PI. I think everyone was unzipped but the script just spins within PI. Any suggestions?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

As a non mac user I have no idea :( But you can try reaching out to Frank he may be able to help!

[@esaviitala6708]

And then there's DeepSNR, which I've also found does a great job. Quite often I find that DeepSNR gives a better result than NXT, but not always. I tend to put these side by side like you did in the video and zoom. In my case, I would say that DeepSNR wins about 75% of the cases (excluding processing time). I usually do this in linear mode after GradCorr, SPCC and BXT. I would like to see you do such a comparison video (DeepSNR, NXT, CosmicCorr). Or maybe one already exists?

[@DeepSkyChronicles-m8b]

I've bee trying to use this scrip on PixInsight (I have the laste version) but have an error message: Attempt to execute a Script instance recursively (view context). Sorry, but this is not supported in current PixInsight versions.

[@donner5545]

Perhaps you comment on it in the video and I just haven't gotten to it yet (don't want to forget!), does resampling your image not undo the drizzling? Or is there some magic pixel scale that you like to work at?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It does undo the drizzling, but it does keep the details we claimed from BXT while the image was drizzled, AND restores our initial SNR. So we get back our initial SNR AND we still have more details (and non-blocky stars) thanks to the resampling algo. It's basically a free lunch!

[@jesusalbertoponcedeleon7124]

Hello Sir, thanks for your excellent video about Clarity. I downloaded the program and tried to give it a start test using the test file, but the antivirus software stops the application because of a non-permitted, unsecured process, and closes the app Clarity. Did something similar happened to you?

[@shubinternet]

@22:10 - interesting! Cosmic Clarity is pulling out more star details in the nebula than BXT+NXT! Look for the faint double or triple stars on the right and try to find them on the left.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Will have a look! I hope it's not stars that are being hallucinated!

[@ArdsleyAstro]

If you are using Cosmic Clarity standalone please remember the file format needs to be 32bit Tiff. It does accept png but tiff is preferable. EDIT. New version 5.3 now accepts FITS

[@KJRitch]

Trying the Mac version on my 2023 M3 MacBook Pro 14". After the initial Terminal window appaeance it takes over a minute for the standalone interface to display. I denoised the input file first then ran the sharpening and that output file lost most of its color. I guess you are supposed to sharpen first then denoise? When's the best time to sharpen or denoise, after you stretch or before? I don' use Pixinsight, Siril. Thanks

[@walterbonazzi6179]

hi, if I do the processing from pixi, I don't understand why at the end of the processing I find the files in the output folder, but the photo in pixi doesn't update and pixi stops. during processing the DOS window is activated correctly and the steps are visible. can you help? Thank you

[@walterbonazzi6179]

risolto, riavviato il PC ora è tutto ok

[@JLCubing]

Man i can't download the script due to signature errors or something 😭 how do i fix that?

[@RedGlu3]

Im having the same issue even getting the link directly from the website. Ill try later

[@setiv2]

You need PI build 1605 or higher

[@RedGlu3]

@@setiv2 ahh thank you! I wondered if that was the case

[@Mr_Glenn]

I don't know how to save to 32 bit float...

[@robj144]

I can't get this thing to work well. It always introduces holes all over my pic even if I put in the lowest settings.

[@waldemarwitt764]

Thanks

[@artyombeilis9075]

What is their license. I see models are pth - pytorch models. Interesting what are the license terms... reuse etc. Honestly I'd rather be interested in something open-source for this purpose. BTW I sent you an email - plz take a look

[@WRX2001]

I've got Topaz denoise it does a great job.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yeah I don't like Topaz Denoise! It doesn't try to do deconvolution, and will completely invent details while denoising. I wish there was a way to tell it to denoise only, and not add squiggles in nebulosity because it looks cool...

[@DB_-ni5lu]

Can not download it as too many users downloaded it at this time?

[@CosmoHammers]

I wish there’s a version for siril or photoshop, as the price of Pixinsight is a bit over my budget

[@hwinangkoso]

there is a standalone version

[@JLCubing]

Stand-alone exists

[@ArdsleyAstro]

Technically it is standalone, There are scripts to incorporate it into pixinsight but is very usable without. The earlier versions you had to apply Cosmic Clarity after the stretch. That changed in Version 4.1 and it now works on linear images, And we Are now on version 5

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It would be convenient to have hooks from Siril or PS, but you just need to save your image, run the standalone Cosmic Clarity on the image, and then reopen it up in Siril and PS! By the way in the long run PS is more expensive that PI ;)

[@shubinternet]

What about runtimes for the -Xterminator scripts versus Cosmic Clarity? Does BlurXterminator+NoiseExterminator take a lot longer to run?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I'd say BXT and NXT are slightly faster (at least with my GPU!)

[@drunk_astronomy]

Don’t overuse it, but the drug reference part of the video generally did crack me up. lol..

[@dennysturcotte3736]

Adding data by AI always felt to me like cheating somewhat, but you mention that this tool works from data within the image. To me this is big thing to know what my image actually contains.

[@polacofederos]

why BlurXTerminator does not have even a stand alone mode or command line mode? thats such a shame. I completely discard the idea of buying pixinsight for just this at this moment.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Not sure, it sure would be nice...

[@xe1zlgg]

I see sharper nebulosity with Cosmic Clarity than Blur Xterminator....

[@MrCookie5555]

J'imagine que c'est la meme chose pour le dwarf 3.....

[@Z3JohnLB]

Closes down without giving you time to see the problem when there is an error, not good.

[@ProfessorMarkLewis]

Mine runs but produces no output. It closes without saying what is wrong. I guess it is the input file format because it works on the test image provided, but I have tried all sorts of bit depths and color modes as well as matching the properties of the test image.

[@ArdsleyAstro]

@@ProfessorMarkLewis Is the file Tiff?

[@ArdsleyAstro]

Make sure file format is 32bit tiff.. Not FITS

[@ProfessorMarkLewis]

@@ArdsleyAstro Yes, the files are 32 bit floating point tif. I convert the 16 bit tif image to 32 bit floating in GIMP, but chose linear light conversion, which seemed to be the problem. Choosing sRGB perceptual gamma appears to make the files compatible. Not sure if they also need to be uncompressed tif.

[@ArdsleyAstro]

@@ProfessorMarkLewis I stand corrected, The new version 5.3 now accepts FITS

[@Alan-vk6bk]

It looks interesting but ive paid for all 3 X terminator plugins so ill continue to use those

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

They're still better - I don't regret purchasing them for sure!

[@MrCcfly]

finally lets pc decide where and how stars look ... cuteee

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eh, that's not quite it - it's more looking at star shapes, identifying a PSF based on that then applying a reverse PSF to the image, effectively seeking what the original star shapes were. So the PC/algo tries to make your image truer to life in effect

[@PaMalacrida]

Am I the only one who is a bit worried about these AI features? If a script goes beyond improving my image but uses other knowledge to add extra resolution or clarity, is that still 'my picture'? It could be clever enough to substitute it with a Hubble's picture as far as we know 😅

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It doesn't though - you can use it without Internet connection, and it's made to approximate a mathematical function (deconvolution)

[@PaMalacrida]

@CuivTheLazyGeek So the 'AI' advertisement is just gimmicks? If it is a purely mathematical deconvolution then I don't see any AI in it...

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

@PaMalacrida No, AI is used to approximate the deconvolution algorithm - you can check the article written by Russ about BlurXterminator to learn more about how those tools work

[@PaMalacrida]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek thanks...I will try and read it 🙂

[@dirkvinkx1597]

Am i wrong to think that the images become "art" , and are no longer "real"? Unusable for anything that needs scientific accuracy ? The A.I. does not mathematically correct the blur , like pure deconvolution does for example, but the AI is "trained" to replaces the blur with data it thinks the image should look like after real deconvolution. hence they loose any scientific accuracy , it is a guesswork. Nice to use if you need something to hang against your wall , but useless for anything that needs any accuracy ?

[@dmccallie]

Or just consider that the AI is learning the deconvolution “curves” and just applying it in a different more efficient way?

[@setiv2]

That can be said for most of our tools. Even stretching ruins the ratios of fluxes in the images. For science data you really only use linear calibrated raw images. Do you not use any BXT, NXT, SXT, Graxpert, the multitude of denoising algorithms or anything like that? They all change the data away from the linear calibrated raw image

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I see Frank already answered what I would have answered :)

[@velaastro904]

Not being a jerk but really getting tired of this same old trope from people who obviously lack any insight into the techniques of how astronomical data is processed, not just by amateurs but by the pros also. So for the last time…. These softwares do not add anything to the image they are only working towards what your image SHOULD look like if not for certain variables (e.g atmospheric blur)

[@dirkvinkx1597]

@@velaastro904 have you tried out these " A.I. image to image" generators online ? Fascinating what they can do with a white circle when you tell them it SHOULD look like Jupiter if not for certain variables like it being it a white circle. But yeah , i cannot judge that piece of software so i will believe you that it does no such things and only used A.I. to enhance deconvolution formulas. 👍

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

AI based being pasting hubble image parts on to your image. Just like pixinsigt blurexterminator does 🤣

[@samwarfelphotos]

Tell me you don’t understand how it works without telling me

[@setiv2]

Not sure what you are referring to here. There is no pasting of some other data over yours.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That is incorrect, obviously. It works on images without any metadata and without a platesolver - so it has no idea of what object or target it's working on. It also works offline. It's deconvolution, which isn't rocket science: estimate a PSF based on star shapes, and apply the reverse operation. AI makes it easier by automating everything.