PixInsight Beginner's Tutorial! - Part 3: S/H/O IC1396 - Free Data Provided

Welcome to the third part of my new series to try and help people get off to a flying start in PixInsight! - Come process along with me during this tutorial and learn by doing.
If you found this useful please consider supporting me and the channel either via KZbin Membership or Patreon! :-)
/ @lukomatico
/ lukomatico
NEW! : Affiliate link for RC astro! - HUGE thanks to Russell Croman! :-)
If you choose to use any of these links you'll be helping me out at no additional cost to yourself!
BlurXTerminator -
www.rc-astro.com/resources/Bl...
StarXTerminator -
www.rc-astro.com/resources/St...
NoiseXTerminator -
www.rc-astro.com/resources/No...
You will need the following -
1: PixInsight (installed & updated)
2: EZ-Processing suite - darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/
3: Either Starnet2 (free)
www.starnetastro.com/download/
or StarXterminator (paid software)
www.rc-astro.com/resources/St...
4: The data and Toolset - drive.google.com/file/d/1xUR0...
Huge thanks to my good friend Bill Blanshan for providing these great tools for us all! - find his channel here - / @anotherastrochannel2173
Thank you!!
AFFILIATE LINKS!!
Topaz Denoise, Gigapixel & Sharpen AI are some of my favorite software to aid in astro and terrestrial image processing! If you buy the software through this link I would receive a commission at zero extra cost to yourself!
Topaz Labs Affiliate Link! - topazlabs.com/ref/1133/
Amazon Affiliate Links! - Anything you buy through one of these links will give me a small commission at no extra cost to yourself!
Amazon UK - amzn.to/3EOCgpV
Amazon US - amzn.to/3quGPlD
High Point Scientific Affiliate Links!
High Point Scientific Affiliate Link - www.highpointscientific.com/?...
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars Affiliate links!
www.pjatr.com/t/R0FHSUdKTEFGS...
www.pntrs.com/t/S0BMQ0pFQEVHR...
www.pntrs.com/t/R0JJSEVIS0ZCR...
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro & Prerequisites
01:02 Tutorial Start
03:14 Cropping
04:20 Background Extraction
09:30 Linear Fitting
10:20 Linear Denoise Phase
11:20 Making Nonlinear (Stretching)
12:00 Channel Combination
12:47 Beginning the edit
18:30 A neat trick..(sacrificial clone masking)
27:47 Credits list!
28:29 End Result

[@BigBadLoneWolf]

Playing around with Luke's tutorials, while the astronomical darkness has gone for a few months, is going to cost me a fortune to transfer to shooting mono from OSC. the difference from my own OSC processed images, to what I as a beginner can do with Luke's data is amazing

[@OutlandishJourneys]

You’ll need to get a T-shirt saying ‘The Go-to Guy for Pixinsight’…😀👍🏻 Your recent tutorial series has been amazing Luke, your efforts and info are greatly appreciated in the community! Keep it up and best wishes!

[@lukomatico]

Haha, you're too kind! :-D Ah mate I'm chuffed you've liked the recent series so far, they've been fun to make! I'm probably going to do maybe 1 or 2 more then leave it at that for now, hopefully the weather gives us all a break soon too, I miss doing actual astrophotography lol! 😅 Hope you have a great weekend ahead buddy! Luke

[@2007gtsc]

Great content! You have made the process into Astrophotography painless. Keep up the great work.

[@lukomatico]

So happy to hear that Randy! - Thank you very much indeed mate :-)

[@dmintz88]

This is a top notch tutorial, Luke! It's going to help out many people including myself! Looking forward to trying it out soon. Thanks!

[@lukomatico]

Awesome, thank you Dan!! :-D Hopefully you find it useful bud!

[@ijontichy7179]

Completed 2 tutorials. Now I can make a bunch of masterpieces! Thanks a lot, Luke!

[@lukomatico]

Superb! Enjoy my friend! :-D

[@chasingghostsphotography4091]

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I feel like I can maybe try Pixinsight now. This series is so good. Clear skies and working gear.

[@lukomatico]

That's wonderful to hear mate!! - I really do hope you enjoy your experience with PixInsight now as it's a wonderful program overall, just not beginner friendly (to say the least!) Good luck bud!

[@astrobri]

Hi Luke, There are many tutorials on youtube and I think I have probably watched them all. Lol, I would like to say Thank you , yours are the BEST..... the way you are showing us how to setup and process is just Fantastic . Looking forward to the next one already . Clear Skies , Brian Nova Scotia

[@lukomatico]

That's fantastic to read Brian!! - I'm so glad you've enjoyed the videos so much, that's extremely high praise my friend!! :-) Hoping you have a wonderful weekend ahead, thank you for watching!! Luke

[@jonbasstro1413]

Hi Luke, a fantastic Pixinsight tutorial for mono processing.There are a few new methods you covered from your early video on mono processing that I have been following, but in time I will be giving these new methods a go, ie, ABE function degrees,linear fit, clone.All in all another brilliant learning experience using Pixinsight. The new imagers to Pixinsight will be eternally grateful to this series you have provided for free. Excellent final image on the Elephant Trunk.Looking forward to your next instalment.Clear skies.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Jon! - That's wonderful mate, so glad my older tutorial had helped and hopefully this one will too going forwards :-) It really does make it all worthwhile after hearing lovely feedback like that bud! Hope you're doing well! - Thanks for watching and clear skies!

[@mrhornerphysics]

As usual, your stuff is AMAZING!

[@lukomatico]

That's so kind of you to say!! Thank you very much indeed, I'm glad you enjoyed :-)

[@secretstill]

This is a really great tutorial, Luke. I've been going back to basics and this taught me loads.

[@lukomatico]

I'm really happy to hear that mate!! :-D

[@beatsntoons]

Luke this was sooooo good to learn from. Thanks a million, mate. You are a king among men. And that data is superb.

[@lukomatico]

Haha!! - I'm chuffed to hear it mate, thank you so much! :-D Really happy you've enjoyed it! Clear skies!

[@stephen.and.the.huskies3741]

Thanks for another great tutorial, Luke! I also like Bill‘s colour masks as they work for OSC data, too. Your OSC Hubble palette video from earlier this year shall be highly recommended 😉

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Stephen! - the tools Bill made have been incredible for sure, I really enjoy using them!! :-) Thank you so much for watching and giving your support!

[@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer]

Great video , love all the tricks you show , probably will not remember much and have to go over it ten times , but like all the tricks ....

[@lukomatico]

So glad you liked all the tricks and tips bud :-D that's superb 👍👍 Thank you for watching!

[@richardstillman9789]

Excellent intro. Thanks... I needed that!

[@lukomatico]

Glad it was helpful my friend! :-)

[@DavesAstrophotography]

Thanks Luke, once again an excellent run through!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Dave!! - I appreciate you taking the time to drop by and give your support buddy!! :-) I hope your skies have been kind to you of late!

[@junnchavez9961]

Thank you very much for this superb tutorial and free files!

[@lukomatico]

It is my pleasure mate, I'm hopeful they were of use to you! :-)

[@marckhachfe1238]

just subscribed and wanted to ay im looking forward to watching your videos this week . cheers mate

[@lukomatico]

Welcome aboard Marc! - Thank you so much for your support my friend :-)

[@othonbenavente1876]

Magnificent. Thank you Luko!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate!!

[@Mel-127]

Hi Luke. Another great tutorial. I have Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom and others of the group, but still I don't get on with it. Probably because all the tutorial ive watched, I ended up falling asleep. It's good how you keep it an interesting video to watch, well done. No, I never fell asleep. Thanks for another brill tutorial. Clear sky's.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Mel! - haha! That's brilliant, thank you for the lovely comment my friend! I'm genuinely happy to hear that you've found my tutorials watchable rather than snooze-inducing!! :-) Thanks for watching & Clear skies!

[@paulholdsworth2502]

Another brilliant video Luke and an outstanding image at the end. I really like the idea of taking a clone to make sure none of the blue gets picked up in the background when doing your blue mask. Also adding a touch of green to the blighter areas of the yellow mask is another great tip. As always Luke great video mate 👍

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Paul mate!! I'm glad you liked that one haha, it's somewhat of a secret weapon of mine! :-D I hope that these vids haven't been too boring of late, I know they'll not be everyone's cup of tea but hopefully will help some folk get going 👍 As always mate, thank you for watching! Hope you have a grand weekend ahead!

[@paulholdsworth2502]

Just tried your "sacrificial clone" to eliminate blue getting picked up in the background. Works brilliantly !! I thought I was half decent at pixinsight processing but would never have thought of this. Definitely adding this to my workflow.......top tip Luke !!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you mate!! - I'm chuffed you like the technique :-D it was just one of those things I came up with as a solution to an issue one day and it worked too well to ignore!

[@Tony-Elliott]

Another excellent tutorial Luke

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Anthony mate!! Hope you are well 👍👍

[@peterlaubscher3989]

Looking forward to watching this. I am having to reload all my astro stuff after a computer crash. More of a hassle than I expected!

[@lukomatico]

Oh man, that can be a real pain in the rear! (to put it lightly!!) I hope you get everything recovered and working again soon mate, good luck! :-)

[@peterlaubscher3989]

@@lukomatico I'm almost there - the guy or gal that designs an astro system that works the first time that you plug all the goodies into the computer will make loads of money...

[@janelubenskyi1177]

Great …thanks Luc❤

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure!! Glad you enjoyed it Jane! :-)

[@vrajeshpatel5026]

Excellent tutorial. I was so afraid download even trial version of pixinsight because it seems so intimidating. After watching your tutorials, I got trial version of pixinsight and was able to process my Heart Nebula to colors I wanted.

[@lukomatico]

Aw mate that's wonderful to hear! - so happy you've had a good experience with PixInsight :-) Thank you for taking the time to comment and let me know how it went!

[@Astrobloke]

Excellent work and video mate. Nice and thorough but explained excellently. Clear skies mate

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much for stopping by and giving your support Glenn mate, I really appreciate it! 🙏 P. S, are you going to the astro show in Oct?

[@Astrobloke]

@@lukomatico you are welcome mate, you are making great content. I will be there on the Saturday. Will I see you?

[@lukomatico]

You will indeed mate!! - I should really make an announcement about it lol, I've still not mentioned to anyone but you just now!

[@Astrobloke]

@@lukomatico iam the same lol. Going stealth

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Brilliant tutorial again mate & the resulting image was pretty darned excellent too looking forward to more Pixinsight processing videos but I really should think about getting a faster pc first before going for Pixinsight as I can my current pc going into meltdown lol.

[@lukomatico]

Haha, 'going into meltdown' 😂 I hear you for sure mate, it's a pretty resource hungry program but well worth it when you do get a system that runs it comfortably! Hope you guys have weathered the storm OK this past day, it's been brutal here!

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

@@lukomatico ​ We weathered it ok mate, it's weird its gone from wearing summer clothes to winter clothes & today its back to summer wearing clothes again, if nothing else about the UK you can guarantee the weather will always be talked about.

[@dummag4126]

Nice, you are an artist that take inspiration from a astrophoto to build a your imagination and interpretation (color reflections shadow contrast hue saturation and more fantasy) of somthing in the sky. but not is a photo, is a paint.

[@lukomatico]

That's a really interesting perspective on things my friend, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! :-) Clear skies!

[@SuperKevinFS]

Great video

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Kevin!

[@Branhil]

Hi Luke, Once again the absolute insanity what you get out of images in an easy to understand way. You are a magician. Could you maybe explain in a tutorial or by answer how you sharpen images of nebulae etc.? that would help me a lot. Thank you and keep up the good work. Cheers mate and cs!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate, haha! :-D I'm really glad you like the results I get from my data! RE: nebula/diffuse object sharpening, I tend to use ADV Sharpening script as a single pass during the nonlinear phase, then range masked applications of 'unsharp mask' carefully applied to brighter/higher contrast areas, with plenty of blending of the mask - that's my usual go-to method, but often involves a little fine tuning on the fly to get things looking right :-) Hope that helps you my friend!

[@travlon5101]

Yes sir, another great tutorial !! I never knew that about using ABE that way. The only thing bad about it on an image I have, is that it brightened the stars considerably. Did you notice that? Maybe I will remove the stars before doing this method. Thanks for the info.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there bud! - that's interesting to hear it brightened the stars! I'll have to keep an eye out for that in the future! Thanks for the heads up 👍 Thanks for watching! (by chance, was it caused by using Abe on a nonlinear/stretched image? - maybe worth looking at!)

[@ericbelanger1262]

Hello :) i just discovered your channel and it is really really helpfull !! You are now my favorite KZbinr for astrophotography. I have a question....i was wondering if is it possible for you to give me all the add-on for pixinsight that you installed ? Like ez suite i think . I just started with pixinsight . Thanks in advance and sorry my english is not perfect . Cheers from Canada 😀

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Eric!! That's very kind of you to say my friend :-) Re: the add-ons I use, if you download the data and tools package from the Google drive link in my video description it will contain many of the tools you need within in :-) The other tools have detailed instructions for installation on their websites, also linked in the video description my friend 👍 Hope that helps! Thanks for watching and good luck with PixInsight! It can be challenging but it's a lot of fun too!

[@heidit1111]

Hello! Thanks for such an excellent tutorial! I have a question as I see you have BlurXTerminator linked above. Where would one use that in this workflow? After Linear Fit but before EZ Soft Stretch? Thanks again!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Heidi! - You've got it!, generally speaking you'd want to use BXT as early in the workflow as possible, and always before you make the image nonlinear by stretching 🙂 I hope that helps!

[@mpk2707]

Ok, so I tried to add a link to my Google drive and noticed that youtube then removed my complete comment 😞 Anyway, back to what I wrote earlier . ABE workflow 🙂 MASKS 🙂,Your Video 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂. I wrote the whole workflow on my notepad to be used on my own pictures. KEEP'EM COMIN

[@lukomatico]

That's just awesome to hear Mark! :-D I'm over the moon to hear you've found it so useful my friend, that's so fulfilling! I'm sorry youtube nuked your initial comment my friend, - I had to set a filter to block out URL's a while back because of spam bots that were commenting but unfortunately it also filters out genuine messages too sometimes like this :-( my apologies!

[@mpk2707]

@@lukomatico I posted my version of your picture on my Instagram profile kubachmark and mentioned your profile and youtube link 😉

[@lukomatico]

Fantastic! I'll be sure to check it out mate :-D! Cheers!

[@ChuckKozlowski]

Fantastic tutorial - I used it for the Eastern Veil Nebula. So it looks like you apply NoiseXterminator multiple times (I think three by my count) - did I track that correctly? I also did a BlurXterminator step at the very end - makes the image really pop and reduces star size significantly.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Chuck! - I've since changed my processing approach slightly, so I'll have to catch up on all this with a new video 👍 Re: BXT as a last step, it does work and looks cool, but it adds some hallucinated detail unfortunately when used nonlinear, it may not matter to most people though but just thought I'd say incase you didn't know 👍 Cheers!

[@yourfavoriteastronerd]

Hey Luke! Studying your video, I am also using more ABE on my images. I had a problem last night on one that has Black clipping on one side, it is the result of bad framing on one night, the data is still great and hate to crop that area. Any settings that helps to fix that? Diana

[@lukomatico]

Hey Diana! - that's a tough one, hmm! I'd like to say if it's not too badly clipped it could potentially be flattened out with ABE/DBE, but if it's literally clipped to black due to a mechanical issue during shooting, like catching part of the obsy dome in the frame then it may be impossible to rescue! If the black clipping is not in all of your frames, you could potentially sort through them before stacking and stack only the unclipped ones too, that's an option 👍 I hope that helps! Thank you for watching and giving your support Diana! 🙏

[@yourfavoriteastronerd]

@@lukomatico yes , it's difficult. I know, I fixed it in the past but can't remember how I did it, I think, I changed settings on the Stat alignment process. Love your videos and workflows.

[@travelanddrones]

Hola Luke and thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and material which is extremely useful, specially to those (like me) who are learning how to use all the processes involved in Pixinsight. I have a question though: 14:20" : is there any clear difference in applying the first saturation on the image and background including stars vs extracting the stars first and then applying the first steps of saturation to the nebula only? (and then saturate the stars only so that they are already saturated when I put them back into the image?) I hope you can understand what I meant. Once again, thks a lot for your very good tutorials! Regards from Chile!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much for the lovely comment my friend! :-) RE: your question, I don't see any harm in saturating everything a little first before star removal and further processing! - I'd say if it fits your workflow better then go for it, 100%! :-) Hope you have a lovely day!

[@travelanddrones]

@@lukomatico perfect 👌, thks

[@petecarpenter1068]

Luke what have you done? Only convinced me that I now have to go mono😢 Thoroughly enjoyed not only the video but also having the chance to try processing with such nice data. I’m sure I heard you say you took the images with a Redcat(51?) and a 1600 mm, if this is the case various suitability charts would suggest that this is not the happiest pairing sampling wise. How much notice should I take of these tables when choosing my next camera? I have a Redcat a William optics flt 91 and a Skywatcher 200 Quattro so I know that there is no one best choice for these. In the frame are a asi 294mm, I have the 294mc pro already or maybe if I risk my marriage a 2600 mm coupled with Antlia 7 nm filters. I’d really welcome your thoughts. Thanks again mate your help is really appreciated.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Pete! - I'm super happy to hear you found the tutorial and data useful! :-) Regarding ideal sampling ratios, it's not something that should keep you awake at night, that's for sure! :-D If I was buying a mono camera and had your scopes, I'd be looking at the 2600 to be honest, - the 294 are good, highly sensitive etc, but quite quirky sensors. Strong amp glow, hard to get certain flats right etc, astronomy can be challenging enough without adding extra difficulty!! - not my cup of tea. I hope that helps mate, All the best and thank you for your support!

[@iansmith3367]

Hi Luke Ive recently started using Pix and have found your vids really helpful. A question if I may, Once you open your 3 pics and tile them, they are all a little too big so I see you click on each image and they reduce allowing all of each image to be seen. How are you reducing the pics?

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Ian! - your mouse scroll wheel should control the level of image zoom on the windows for you 👍 hope that's helpful!

[@iansmith3367]

@@lukomatico aaahhhh but I am using a laptop without a mouse

[@anobodyissomebody]

Sorry, I don't get it! I want to know and learn how to take my black/white photos and print them in color. I have some photos filed on PICTURES. How do I take the photo, color it and then post it in my memoir which I am writting. I have no interest in ET's home!

[@lukomatico]

I'm not sure this is the right video for you my friend, you may need to look into more generalized colourization techniques. Good luck to you, I hope you get your shots finished for your memoir :-)

[@tomtoka]

I struggle with it, I did HA OIII SUR with attila filters M42 and it looks ugly green blue

[@lukomatico]

It can be really hard to balance the colours the first few times you process an SHO image! Hang in there buddy, it gets easier 👍

[@AndyBB777]

Excellent video. I'm a Pixinsight beginner and downloaded the data to work through the tutorial. I got to the part where the script 'CorrectMagentaStars' is used. Ran the script, but it didn't remove the blue/purple colour. I didn't get the grey background. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[@lukomatico]

Not sure what's going on there mate actually! Did you make sure to have the correct window selected before you opened the script window? It might have tried doing it on another window than the main one, worth checking! Good luck!

[@AndyBB777]

@@lukomatico I went back and started again. This time the background was much better after running magenta correction. There was just a bit of colour fringing left on some stars. I found another video that suggested inverting the image, run scnr, then invert again. That got rid of the bit of fringing. Thanks for making the data available. It's been extremely helpful to use it and follow along with the tutorial.

[@scottrk4930]

Good Lord ! I think I'm going to go back to Visual Astronomy . LOL . I know the Software , PixInsight , is relatively expensive but what level of PC do you need to run it ? What do you have ? Does a GPU help with this Processing ? Excellent Series and fantastic final Image . I seem to keep sending other Users over to you channel these days . Well done .Cheers/SRK

[@astrobri]

Hi, all the info is on the pixinsight website i.e recommended PC etc.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Scott!! - Hope you are well my friend, it's always good to hear from you! :-D Re: pixinsight, it's pretty power hungry software if you want to run through a process at an appreciable pace! For reference, I have a ryzen 5 3600x cpu, 24gb ddr4 ram, rtx 2060 graphics card, this rig runs it well enough but I often find myself wishing I had a slightly faster rig for big processing jobs, especially on high megapixel images! GPU acceleration does help for startnet2 and star/noiseXterminator I believe, but it's more just a timesaving thing rather than necessity - I simply have the gpu because I also play video games, so it made sense to use it! :-) I just want to take a moment to say thank you for sending folk my way mate, people sharing the videos is a HUGE help and I really appreciate it! :-) As always, thank you for watching and clear skies!

[@scottrk4930]

@@lukomatico Thanks Luke ! I *know* I can look for the minimum requirements on the PixInsight Site but it is always interesting to see what actual Users are finding works and doesn't work for them . Cheers /SRK

[@Sidecontrol1234]

What does Linear fit do?

[@lukomatico]

Matches the background values of channels to a chosen reference basically!

[@stephane153]

Did you use the Uranus-C for that capture?

[@lukomatico]

Hey Stephane! - this data was taken around 1 year ago with an asi1600mm Pro, redcat 51, astronomik s/h/o 6nm filters 👍 Hope that helps!

[@stephane153]

@@lukomatico thanks, cool tutorials. Side note, are you going to post more data/videos using the Uranus-C?

[@lukomatico]

100%! sorry about the late reply!

[@stephane153]

@@lukomatico no stress. I think I'm 99% sure I'll get the Uranus-C. Unless their IMX571 cooled camera fits in the budget... and as I need to buy two.. will see...

[@anata5127]

Astrophotographers hate green color. I just wonder why?

[@lukomatico]

I guess it's because very little green actually exists in space, I think it can be quite pretty when used in a narrowband image but is really unappealing in broadband shots 👍 Interesting question!

[@anata5127]

@@lukomatico I sometimes use two processing of narrowband pictures: with and without green hue. Judging by liking, it is 70% no green, 30% with green. Yeh, broadband doesn’t look good with green. Green looks like layer throughout entire image. Probably artifact. I cannot decide which is astrophotographers favorite color: blue or red.

[@lukomatico]

Another interesting question!! I personally like blue more in images because of it's relative rarity in space Vs red! :-D

[@anata5127]

@@lukomatico From physiology and medicine perspective, the best color is green, worse one is red. 🤔