PixInsight: Narrow band Colour Mapper Script

[@AdamBlock]

All images must be greyscale - do not convert to RGB. Once one image has been loaded only images with the same geometry (width and height) will be available to load as subsequent layers. No image can be loaded twice - if you want the same image twice for some reason then clone it first. After you have selected an image and set its colour, remember to hit the "Update" button to finish with that layer and enable the "Add" button for the next layer. I hope these comments will help anyone having problems. -Mike Cranfield (developer)

[@melvinatkins3443]

Hi Adam thanks for your time but I think the point of my concern is being missed. Firstly thanks to all at Pixinsight for making it even more possible to make our images better. PI is getting bigger for example let’s say it currently is the size of a football pitch, with all the wonderful processes/ scripts Etc. such as GHS, Fastintigration and NB Colour mapper being added, the eventual size will grow to two football pitches and more so are there any processes/ scripts Etc. that are duplicated so can be deleted?

[@AdamBlock]

​@@melvinatkins3443 I see. I think you need a different perspective. PixInsight is a platform... kind of like a mini operating system. Juan has designed it so that other software can be run on it. These third party scripts are NOT part of PixInsight. Just like the software you use on your computer are not officially WINDOWS (or Mac). They are software that use the operating system...but that is it. So on your computer when you install programs...do you worry your computerscape of software is expanding to the size of football pitches? You are in control of what third party scripts you install just like on your computer. These scripts are not mandatory or officially sanctioned or anything. Now...people like me might convince you that you need and want them... but alas, you are in control here. You are the ultimate arbiter. Let me repeat... the third party software not NOT part of PixInsight. Sometimes the become part of the official distribution and are assimilated. This is rare though.

[@naiteek123]

The fact that the narrowband data can be colorised in natural tones so easily is wonderful…

[@ronronzini7977]

Adam....you've done it again. You are truly Astrophotpgraphy's rock star!

[@randyshivak8785]

I'm new to pixinsight and also narrow band imaging. Spent the last couple of days working on some different color scripts. I like this one. Seems to work well. Straight foreword.

[@patthompson9973]

Wow. Such an intuitive way to color narrowband images. Wonderful addition to the PI suite of scripts.

[@AdamBlock]

Yes... WYSIWYG way...

[@Robservatory]

This is a much more engaging way of doing colour combinations than pixel math. I've been doing my combines in APP because of the more visual interface and hands-on way of manipulating the colours. Between Russel's plugins and this, my wish list is just about empty at this point. Great work on this!

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@rocketcityastro]

I can't wait to play with this one. great job Adam!!

[@paule1984]

In my view this is an exceptional script getting the basic colours right before progressing to more detailed work in the non linear stage

[@AdamBlock]

I agree with your view! :)

[@astrodoc71]

This is fantastic! Thanks for doing this. I, and I am sure many others, have been waiting for something that would allow us to assign specific hues to narrow band filtered images. Up to now we're basically treating them like broadband. Ha is not red. It is a specific hue of red that occurs at 656.3 nm, etc etc. Photoshop has a color picker. PI did not...until now. Adam, I am very grateful to you for your efforts producing this. This is a game changer! Regards, Dave

[@AlpheccaMeridiana]

Another excellent video Adam! I've never processed a true narrowband image (not counting the Hydrogen alpha in a LRGBHa image) and with this script it seems to be much simpler and enjoyable to process than older methods i've seen in different channels

[@peterlaubscher3989]

Absolutely brilliant idea - love it - thank you to everyone who made this possible!

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks for looking!

[@lukomatico]

Definitely going to give this a go! - Thanks as always Adam, and great work Mike! :-D Clear skies!

[@flyingairedale]

So I tried this script on that target we corresponded about earlier. Only used the SHO data and skipped the RGB for now. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I decided to post it as a revision to my original image on Astrobin.

[@AdamBlock]

well..if you can be convinced there is hope!

[@flyingairedale]

@@AdamBlock more like if I can make it work, it must be good. 🙂

[@Xanthus723]

I had dreamed up trying to do a script exactly like this and sure enough Adam and Mike go and make it better than I could have by far. Thanks so much for your work please know that your work for our community is absolutely insanely helpful.

[@AstralviewsUK]

I agree, what makes this incredibly powerful is the UI of the script. Well done, thanks both for your hard work.

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks!

This is nice! I really enjoyed the function in Siril that was mapping the right color (wavelenght) for various narrowband channels, so happy it starts to be possible in PI, too. Just a suggestion, maybe the plugin can also offer a pre-set pallet, with the exact hue for the most common narrowband lines (H-alpha, Oiii, Sii)?

[@normhughes9777]

you guys just keep making PI better. Great video. thanks for sharing

[@davidleejenkins]

Oh wow! This is going to be fun! Thank you!

[@brandlc]

This is a great new utility for PI - very interactive in the visual feedback. Hats off to both Mike and you, Adam.

[@grimbeast]

Really nice!!!! Awesome with the immediate visual feedback in the preview. Love that every time I see your videos - I always pick up little nuggets of gold, when you use other parts of PI that I normally do not.

[@adrianaamez2078]

This is spectacular Adam!!! The work they are doing with Mike is incredible! I'll try it! Thank you very much as always for your clear and explanatory videos! Greetings from Argentina!

[@srikanthmeg]

Always wanted this. Thanks!

[@in2driving]

Absolutely brilliant!

[@pieterstrauss3158]

Wow! Many thanks. Besides the presentation of a new script (uniformly excellent), every time I watch you work in PI, I learn new ways of getting things done. BTW I was confused by the instruction "don't click on the link, see video", because I still needed to click on the link to get the URL to put into my repository. But install was successful.

[@AdamBlock]

Yeah..I am just saying to copy the link... clicking on it will get you a 404 since it isn't really a webpage.

[@michellemastellotto7115]

Thanks Adam. Looks like a great new tool to try!

[@ryanmichaelhaley]

This is really going to up my game, once I master it. Thanks so much for the detailed tutorial! I am now a subscriber ☻

[@AdamBlock]

Lord Helmet...master of hats... I thank you.

[@danjensen9425]

Awesome. I’m reprocessing my favorite images and this will be fun to use.

[@darkmatterastro]

I just tried it Adam, and you are right. It is awesome to use. Many many thanks!

[@dalep2842]

Thanks for this Adam! I’m excited to play with this script!

[@AdamBlock]

Great!

[@egratudo1974]

cant wait to try this. thanks!!

[@philippedurand5537]

Comment tu enregistte nb coloration sur pix?

[@Korvash1]

Awesome 😀

[@IcedReaver]

Hi Adam, in your experience where is the best place in the processing flow to utilise this script? Would you use this on a straight up raw master, or would you best employ this somewhere between background extraction, BXT, NXT, GHS stretching etc.? Any sort of tool which gives you live, visual feedback is welcomed by me!

[@yourfavoriteastronerd]

Great video! Are these images processed first with Dynamic Background Extraction and Linear Fit or can it be done after?

[@in2driving]

Can I make a suggestion? I’d love to see magnifying glasses and sliders in the Histogram adjustment controls instead of using numbers.

[@nickambrose8606]

Very nice ! Going to try this out !

[@scidav87]

Mind blown...

[@MarcelBlattner]

NBF. I love it!

[@jesusbilbao]

Another great tool and instructional video from you. Thank you. Please excuse this question from a beginner “where does this leave SPCC?”. Practically and philosophically?.

[@mikecranfield8546]

SPCC is designed for use with RGB data to achieve "true" star colours. This NBColourMapper script is designed for narrowband data and is not constrained to achieving "natural" or "true" colours - indeed most narrowband images use stylised colour palettes (eg SHO) in any case. So there is no sense in which NBColourMapper is replacing SPCC. As a practical example, you may wish to colourise your narrowband starless images with NBColourMapper and then add RGB stars that have been calibrated using SPCC.

[@jonathanpearceff]

This is really brilliant! Massive thanks to both of you. I only shoot OSC images with a dual narrowband filter, so I guess I could take the Ha and Oiii, make a Sii, and then use these in the script. Or maybe if I use Bill’s NarrowbandNormalisation to make an image, then split that into the three channels and feed them into this script? I don’t know, but I will try and see what I get.

[@leomarchadier1239]

Tha exactly what I want to do shoot sii and dual band, convert each channel to greyscale and combine with this process. But I need data to confirm if it work

[@nikaxstrophotography]

This has potential and will only get better, I do find it a little clunky currently and would love the color sliders to work better. also instead of inputting numbers in the histogram I'd like to see a slider for this as well

[@nightskyimaging]

Thank you Adam - this is going to be a hoot to play with! I think you should rename it "cloudy night fun""

[@nmartin857]

Adam, this script looks like a game changer. Something that really stood out to me is that you don't end up with the purple narrowband stars. How is this producing such natural looking stars? I have exclusively used RGB stars in my NB images, and this method seems to eliminate that need.

[@AdamBlock]

When you choose one of the channels to be an intermediate color of the other two... so a yellow/orange color is going to warm the very blue..and it is going to "cool" the very red in the image.

[@nmartin857]

@@AdamBlock Thanks, Adam. I started playing with this a bit today in processing my image of the Wizard Nebula. It would be great to have some control over how the blend is performed. For example, I've gotten a great red to yellow blend with the Ha and S2, but this overpowers the O3 and moves it toward purple rather than getting the punchy blue, even though I have bumped up the strength in O3 considerably in the histogram tool. I'm going to have to play with this some more to figure out how to get the blue channel to pop more.

[@astrobri]

Thank you

[@flyingairedale]

Sooooo. What do you think about composing RGB channels in this and adding narrowband channels to the RGB channels (six layers in all)? We would probably still need to clean the broadband continuum from the narrow band before adding, but a little more interactive process?

[@AdamBlock]

Already in process, I am ahead of you.

[@flyingairedale]

I look forward to what you find @@AdamBlock

[@JeffHorne]

This is awesome, guys! Thank you! Quick question..do you see this working at all in conjunction with the new Narrowband Normalization script, or is this an alternative to it? Thanks for all that you do!

[@MrGeert1972]

Can I use one off my OSC images split the channels and than use my R G and B channel with this script? Or will it only work with data from a monochrome camera?

[@AdamBlock]

It works on greyscale images... so if you make any image a greyscale image... you can do it. However, soon using color images will be possible as well.

[@MrGeert1972]

@@AdamBlock thx for the fast reply I will get me the script and give it a try. I love the SHO or HOO look of my targets. Puts in a lot more colours instead off only Ha

[@FAstroHD]

Hi Adam and all, I am hoping someone can help me, after having installed and using the script it has now disappeared from pixinsight. I can still see the script within the repository and the files within the pixinsight script folder on my PC, however the script is missing from my menu and no matter what I do to uninstall and reinstall it it just will not reappear. Can anyone provide some help please?

[@AdamBlock]

You can try going under the Menu Scripts->Feature Scripts and then Add. Assuming it opens in the default Pixinsght scripts folder... it will recursively search everything for you and perhaps find the orphan.

[@rutona7617]

Somehow I feel the intensity is changed when the channels are combined. Perhaps it is better if we use lab mode to do the colorization?

[@DSOImager]

Looks like an awesome script. Will give this a try. Thanks for sharing.

[@alexweinstein3041]

Is anyone else having issues downloading the script? I have the repository in (along with several others which all seem to work fine) and it does not appear to download or show up in my scripts anywhere. I even search using the Process Explorer. I am guessing I have a setting turned off somewhere.

[@RLProctor12]

For some reason it will only allow me to have one layer. After doing the update with my HAO3 layer and having it in the layer box. I try and add my SII, which is open on my workspace and it dow not show in the Layer data view mode. I have tried the linear na dnon-linear version, no joy. Ideas?

[@AdamBlock]

I think a screenshot would help here. Not certain...if you are a member of my site, ask on my forum and include the screenshot.

[@jamesbowles2486]

​@@AdamBlock I'm having the same issue stated above.

[@AdamBlock]

@@jamesbowles2486 COnnect with me through my contact page on (one of) my website(s). I would like to see a screenshot that shows the script AND the image on the PI desktop (do not hide it behind the script GUI).

[@josephgiammarco8261]

I'm not even getting to add one layer. I have a BW image, do the convert to RGB, open the script, and the "Layer data - add mode" has in the dropdown. "Add" is grayed out as well. It's a linear image. I'll play with it and see if I can figure out what needs to happen to make it work.

[@josephgiammarco8261]

The image is from WBPP, where I separated R, G, and B. This is the B image. It's a good decent image... Looks okay with an STF temporary stretch. But the ColourMapper can't find it!

[@eurismac]

@AdamBlock now we only need your approach (probably in a Horizons video) about how to achieve the best possible stars only via SHO filters. :-)

[@malcolqwe2]

are the mono narrowband masters linear or stretched when you are working with them in the NB colour mapper script?

[@AdamBlock]

Linear

[@melvinatkins3443]

Hi Adam, thanks for yet another wonderful explanation about a new script but, I am very concerned that with all of the new scripts Etc that I’m adding I’ll soon fill up my RAM. My machine is only an 8 ram so are there any scripts Etc that I can delete in order to help myself future proof against running out of space. I know I could increase the RAM but where do I stop?

[@AdamBlock]

Well..the scripts do not do anything until you run them. So having many scripts at hand doesn't affect your RAM. And you can only run one script at a time. So I think your concern isn't one. That being set ...processing ANY images in any program with only 8 Gb is asking for many problems.

[@ulrikewitturfee3638]

Do you need to have the new version of Pixinsight to get this?

[@mikecranfield8546]

No, it will work with earlier versions, but performance will be better on the latest version (1.8.9-2)

[@stephen2615]

I would have put the finished product(s) at the beginning to tease people about what is going to happen. I found the method a bit slow and my mind started wandering.

[@Robservatory]

Is there a way to use this script without it auto stretching the image? I don't have the STF box selected in the output setting, but it applies an auto stretch anyway. I'd much prefer to apply my own manual stretch if possible.

[@AdamBlock]

You just need to change the STF Target Background. ("0" is effectively no stretch). In general you just need to see the blend of colors looks good for the brightest bits of the image..and the faintest bits. Fine control of STF can be done after you make the color image. (If you still need to adjust...well, just do the script one more time with adjusted colors.)

[@Robservatory]

Thank you. The tool is really quite fun, I have been playing with it all day.

[@neverfox]

Love this script but it causes my PI to become a RAM hog when using it. As you make more and more edits, the memory usage seems to just climb until you eventually run out.

[@AdamBlock]

This is the kind of info Mike Cranfield should know.

[@AdamBlock]

I did connect with Mike and he has made an adjustment to hopefully prevent this issue. The new version has been updated in the repository and the next time you get updates..you should be getting the new version.

[@fannylimhk]

Can this work for RGB OSC image?

[@AdamBlock]

You can load grayscale images from any source... and you can now load RGB images as well. So... you can take it from there.

[@jamesofallthings3684]

Holy octaroon.