The BEST Star Reduction Tool EVER! & It's FREE! For PixInsight.

[@lukomatico]

Hey guys, quick update - link was broken for a few days there it seems but should be sorted (for good!) now! :-) Clear skies!

[@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer]

Yea , I don't think There is hope to get Regulus glare out of the way , is there an email I can send to show you if you don't mind... Not home at the moment in Gettysburg PA. Not sure if you know about Gettysburg, big battle here during the civil war

[@charliewatts6895]

This is a real game changer. I've struggled with star reduction, but this process knock the ball out of the park.

[@lukomatico]

So glad you like it Charlie!! Thanks for the great comment buddy 👍👍

[@josephluciani5531]

As a grateful and dedicated follower of this channel, I felt a need to share my appreciation with the community. When I first started watching Lukomatico (I believe Luke had 184 followers) I was close to giving up astrophotography. There was something about Luke’s videos that keep me going. Perhaps it was his easy going love of this hobby or maybe his simple, hands on instructions, whatever it was, Lukomatico has been and continues to be the very best channel on the Internet. That said, watching this video with Bill is one more reason why I know my continued understanding and growth is guaranteed. Digging deeper into Pixinsight happens to be my current ambition and Luke’s videos (including this one on star reduction), especially his OSC Hubble Palette videos have been simply brilliant. As anyone who has been following Luke will attest, he’s not only dedicated to ‘us,’ but to working tirelessly to provide top notch instruction and perhaps more importantly, ongoing encouragement to us fledgling students of astronomy.

[@lukomatico]

Aw mate, that was really humbling to read - thank you so much Joe, I'm very happy indeed to know you've found so much use from the videos my friend 🙏 Clear skies!!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Joseph!

[@trondasdam6443]

Couldn't agree more

[@tonyclark1504]

Thanks Bill - your time and effort is very much appreciated. Thanks Luke for hosting. Cheers

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure Tony!! :-) Happy to help!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

You are welcome Tony!

[@ClearAmbientSkies]

This is incredible. I need to reprocess all my images! Sincerely. Bill has brought 'the next level' to star processing. Thank you both and especially Bill for sharing this tool for the masses. I hope he will accept donations if he isn't already. Clear skies!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much mate! - I'm glad to hear you like them so much :-) Clear skies!

[@garyanderson6192]

Wow! very useful tools, thanks to Bill for allowing us the use of these and thanks to Luke for hosting.....

[@lukomatico]

Glad to hear you like the look of them Gary!! :-) Thanks for watching!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

You are welcome Gary!

[@malcolmloro4766]

Thank you Bill for sharing your techniques and Luke for hosting. It’s great to have a choice of tools AND understand what’s going on behind the curtain for each. I’m really looking forward to your next - adding RGB stars to narrowband! That plus this star reduction will be a killer combination.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Malcolm!! It's a pleasure to have been able to share this with the community, really happy to hear you like it my friend! :-) Thanks so much for watching and leaving such kind feedback! Clear skies!

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks buddy!

[@damienf4581]

Thanks guys - great collaboration!!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks buddy!!

[@AndreH3d]

Watching Bill’s explanation just opened my mind so much for how to process Astro! Thanks guys

[@lukomatico]

Thank you for watching and commenting mate! Pixinsight is a seriously versatile program for sure! :-)

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Andre!!!

[@simonpepper5053]

Have to say Bill is a god dam maths wizard! Awesome work guys will try this out. Thanks

[@lukomatico]

Haha, agreed Simon! 😅 Hope you like it mate!!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Ha, thanks Simon!

[@christianandres6554]

Thanks a lot for this Bill and Luko! Just tried this out and it worked brilliantly! Absolutely awsome that you guys share this methods for the whole community, Bravo! Clear skies! Chris, Switzerland

[@lukomatico]

Glad it helped Christian!! - So happy to hear you liked it mate!! :-)

[@davidjenkins9065]

Many, many thanks to you and Bill for sharing this. This is brilliant. We we really are very blessed in this hobby that we have so many very clever folks that are so willing to share all their hard work for so little reward. Thanks again.

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks David!!!

[@lukomatico]

Well said David!! - We're very lucky that folks like Bill are willing to share their hard work and expertise! :-) Thanks so much for watching!

[@Astrobloke]

Will definitely be giving this a try Luke. Bill has come up with a brilliant looking tool here. Thank you so much for sharing mate, clear skies

[@lukomatico]

Hey Glenn! - Thanks so much mate, I really do think you'll like them! Great tools 👍 Hope you're getting some clear skies man, it's been bad here lately!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Glen, and let us know how it works out for you.

[@Astrobloke]

@@anotherastrochannel2173 looking forward to using them Bill. Thank you for being so kind and sharing your work. Will let you know how it goes, clear skies

[@AndrewThomas73]

Super keen to get this up and running this evening, thank you both 4 getting this out 4 free, especially as everyone seems to be taking the piss regarding price increases atm.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Andrew!! - hope you are doing well :-) If you get the chance, I'd love to hear what you reckon after you give it a go mate! They really are superb tools in my own opinion 🙏 Clear skies!!

[@Chris_NGC6188Ara]

Thanks Bill and Luke, It's your complete unselflessness that is makeing this hobby grow and grow.

[@lukomatico]

That's very kind of you to say something like that Chris, thank you my friend! 👍👍 Hope you have a superb weekend ahead, Clear skies!

[@jeffhusted6663]

Thanks for sharing this fantastic tool guys! I am amazed at how well Bill's SR tool works. I was having trouble with my star cores turning very dark from some PI processing artifacts, but this took care of that as well as reducing star size. I get very natural looking stars now. I will gladly donate.

[@lukomatico]

That's awesome Jeff!! So glad to hear you like the tool buddy :-) Clear skies!

[@trinigunbankashi8871]

Ty sooo much Luko and bill for sharing knowledge. That is extremely beneficial to what we are just beginning in this world.

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure! - So happy to be able to help somehow :-) I've just noticed you became a channel member, I just wanted to say thank you for joining my channel membership and giving your direct support like that, - genuinely your help is appreciated :-) Clear skies!!

[@eaojnr]

this was great stuff Luk, and thanks to Bill for this. It's fantastic. I'll try it out! very grateful for Bills time to even walk us through this.

[@lynpeterson7468]

Amazing! I gave the tools a shot last night and love the results!

[@lukomatico]

That's wonderful to hear Lyn! - So glad they worked out well for you! :-) Clear skies!

[@AstroPixUK]

How did I miss this video. Excellent tools, thx both (Especially Bill).

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Jim!

[@alainprefontaine6092]

Wow! This really is a game changer. Thank you so much to you and Bill for making these tools available. I've been playing with it for a couple of hours and it's sooooo easy. I'll be using it on a regular basis from now on.

[@lukomatico]

So happy to hear that Alain! Thank you! :-)

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Alain!!!

[@chandrainsky]

This is wonderful. Thanks a lot for posting this and thanks a ton to Bill for creating this amazing tool!!

[@lukomatico]

I appreciate it buddy! - thank you so much for watching! 👍👍

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks for watching, hope this helps 🙂

[@yourfavoriteastronerd]

Wow , I'm glad I found this channel. I love the process and the icons! Definitely checking all of your videos. This is great. Thank you

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Luke is one of the most brilliant and talented people I know in the world of astrophotography. I hope you continue to follow him all the way to the top . Btw, look forward to seeing more of your content too. 🙂 Regards, Bill Blanshan

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much!! I really do hope you enjoy Bill's wonderful tools and the rest of my channel! 🙏 I really appreciate such a show of support!

[@lukomatico]

Aw shucks bro haha, I'll end up trapped in my observatory at this rate if my head swells any more I won't fit through the door! 😅 Thank you!

[@stevehunter6059]

Well, that's the best half hour I have spent in a long time, I followed along in real time and it worked a treat. Many thanks to the pair of you

[@lukomatico]

That's superb to hear Steve!! - Thank you for taking the time to share that it went well for you my friend, it's appreciated!! :-) Clear skies!

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks Steve!

[@mupangamwanakatwe1300]

I have installed and tried the tools out - absolutely brilliant results and a game-changer! Thanks to you both and done to Bill 👍👏👏!!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much for the great feedback my friend!! :-D enjoy!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Awesome, thank you!!!

[@astrobri]

Hi Luko Thank you so much for taking the time to make us aware of this. Also, I would like to thank Bill for the fantastic Star reduction tools you have kindly let us have access to for Pixinsight. Being relatively new to PI ( 6 months or so ) like many others I do struggle with many aspects of the processing, but thanks to you life just became a little bit easier. Brian Nova Scotia Clear skies ……..

[@lukomatico]

That's really lovely to hear Brian, thank you for watching and taking the time to comment! :-)

[@emuhead]

Thanks Bill & Luke for sharing! Always interested to see new & interesting Pixinsight tips explained really well.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much for watching Andy! So happy to hear you found it interesting 🙏 Clear skies!

[@paulbarrett423]

cant thank you enough for this and the colour masks, thank you very much

[@lukomatico]

So happy to have helped somehow Paul! - Clear skies mate! 👍👍

[@MikeTettenborn]

FANTASTIC! This works great and is such a breeze to use. Thanks for creating this Bill and thanks for sharing it Luke. Best star reduction method I have seen.

[@lukomatico]

That's absolutely superb to hear Mike!! So happy you approve of the tools buddy, awesome 👍👍 Thank you for watching!!

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks Mike!

[@Tony-Elliott]

A very nice video Luke and a great tutorial from Bill, Thanks

[@lukomatico]

Many thanks Anthony! :-) Glad you liked it buddy!

[@DamianVines]

Wow! This is mind blowing! Very detailed and great explanation, great job Bill!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks mate!! :-) Glad you liked it

[@rafapliszka2986]

Fantastic tools!Thank you for sharing!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you for watching my friend!! :-)

[@markmuratore413]

Brilliant!!! Thank you Bill for developing these fantastic techniques and thanks Luke for bringing them to us. Cheers!!

[@lukomatico]

Cheers for watching and commenting Mark! :-)

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Mark!

[@davidrousseau8066]

WOW! The only word that comes to mind is: AMAZING!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you David!! - It really does make my day to hear you like the tools mate! :-D Thank you for watching and giving your support!

[@davidleejenkins]

This appears to be a real game changer! Thank you both. I can’t wait to see more of this Pixel Math content.

[@lukomatico]

Great to hear that David!! - Thanks so much for watching mate :-)

[@rogerwilkinson2818]

Can’t wait to try this. Thank you

[@rogerwilkinson2818]

Just given it a go on an old image😮😮😮😮😮 A game changer.

[@lukomatico]

That's just awesome to hear Roger!! So glad you've given it a go my friend :-) Enjoy! 👍👍

[@rogerwilkinson2818]

As you mentioned yourself I have also always struggled with star reduction and never been 100% happy with the results.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Roger! - it's good to know it's not been just us then mate haha! It used to be one of the parts of processing that I dreaded the most but now it's a breeze to get a nice outcome 👌 Cheers!

[@SimonsAstro]

Hey Luke, that was awesome mate, you and Bill are a great team, and a huge thanks to Bill for doing this, great stuff Luke, thanks mate, that will come in handy! I was using Bills colour masks you gave out last time today! Cheers👍 Clear skies!

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks Simon!

[@lukomatico]

Hey Simon!! - Hope you're doing well buddy, I'm gonna catch your latest vid tonight by the way! :-) It's really awesome to read that you've been enjoying the colour masks, I'm sure these ones will become a regular fixture in your processing too as they're just so darn usable! Hope you have a truly cracking weekend mate! Thanks for watching and giving your support!

[@KNMArve]

Wow! This is great! 🙌 Thank you both! 🙏

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Arve!! I'm glad you like the look of them :-D I really appreciate you watching and giving your support, clear skies!!

[@stephen2615]

Just outstanding is an understatement.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you! :-)

[@HogarthsAstrophotography]

Wow, thanks for sharing this Bill and Luke. What a wonderful contribution to the community. 🙏

[@lukomatico]

Hey Nigel! So glad you like the look of them mate, - it's a real pleasure to have shared this! :-) Hope you are keeping well buddy!

[@AntonioPena1]

Luke, thank you so much for presenting this method, you were right, Bill is great and all he explained make sense, definitely will use his tools, agreed best and natural methods. Thanks both!

[@lukomatico]

I'm so happy you found it useful Antonio!! - Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to digest the video and leave a thoughtful comment :-) It's very much appreciated!

[@enriqueboeneker]

Awesome! Period! Got to give this a try! Thanks!

[@lukomatico]

Enjoy Enrique!! :-) Clear skies my friend

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Great job with Pixinsight & the star reduction method so thanks for sharing.

[@lukomatico]

Glad you enjoyed it buddy!! - I hope you are having some clear skies! :-)

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

No chance but at least the wind has died down tonight, I did some tinkering with the camera though as I've had dew problems with it

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Excellent!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Chuck!! :-) Clear skies buddy

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Chuck, hope it helps you get a 100th APOD, lol 🙂

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

​@@anotherastrochannel2173 lol, well done Bill. I tried to click the 'Alert Bell' on your channel, but it doesn't work because the "For Kids' option is selected. Wasn't sure if you know this, but you never want to select 'For Kids'. It puts your channel in safe mode and restricts it too heavily.

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

@@ChucksAstrophotography That's weird, I have the video set to none kids mode. I will check more into it. Thanks Chuck!

[@JoesAstrophoto]

These are some great tools guys, thanks for sharing them with us and for the great explanation of what they are doing behind the scenes. This was pretty cool!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Joe!! Regards, Bill Blanshan

[@lukomatico]

Thank you very much Joe!! So glad you like the look of them buddy! :-D Clear skies!

[@peterraymond3653]

Thanks Luke and Bill, this it just what I needed. I have a bit of camera tilt on my RASA so this has helped no end. Absolutely awesome!. Clear skies.

[@lukomatico]

Spot on Peter! Glad to hear it mate!! :-)

[@steveduffy8726]

Thank you both! This is a terrific build on top of PI

[@lukomatico]

Glad you like it Steve!! :-D Clear skies mate!

[@olly7248]

This is so good, cheers Luke & Bill… thanks for doing this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@billblanshan3021]

You are very welcome! Hope it helps!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Olly!! Genuinely over the moon to have been able to share this amazing work and help in some way 🙏 Clear skies!

[@Mike_Gibbs971]

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you, Bill and Luke! Yet another game changer for the year :)

[@lukomatico]

Awesome to hear that Mike!! :-) glad you like them buddy!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Mike!

[@jonbasstro1413]

Hi Luke, a big thank you, to you for making this video and especially Bill for his time and effort in providing this star reduction tool. Absolutely brilliant there are three star reduction methods to get started. With this tool and the mask tools provided earlier in the year by Bill everyone using them can only see improved results. Clear skies.

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks Jon!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much Jon!! :-) I think you wrapped that up perfectly there mate, anybody using these tools will only benefit from them I believe! Huge thanks to Bill for all his continual efforts, we're all the richer for it! Hope you have a superb weekend buddy, thanks for your support!

[@jonbasstro1413]

@@billblanshan3021 Well deserved Bill.Keep up the great work.👍

[@jonbasstro1413]

@@lukomatico Great video content Luke.Have a great weekend too and hopefully some clear skies.

[@RumourHasitYT]

Wow thanks so much Luke and Bill for making these tools available and the explanation 👍🏻

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Tom!! So glad you like the tools matey! 👍👍

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thank you!!! It was fun to do, cant wait to do more

[@LogansAstro]

Wow, Bill, this is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing these tools with us. Although we spend a lot of time minimizing stars in our images to highlight nebulosity, I personally think the appearance of the stars can make of break an image and having good, natural looking stars is very important. Getting the stars right has always been the area I struggle the most with when processing and these tools will make life so much easier. I am especially excited to hear about your upcoming method to add RGB stars to narrowband. And thanks for Bill's tools Luke.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Logan! - It's my pleasure to be able to share these with people, both Bill and I are really happy to see all these lovely comments from folk who are already enjoying the fruits of his efforts! :-) Three cheers for Bill, haha! :-D Clear skies buddy!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Logan!!!

[@captaincook6666]

Nice one...got a free trial of PI and tbh I was feeling the star reduction available was no better than the free starnet subtraction method I've been using for a while...but this looks like a winner.

[@RigoFromSpain]

Fantastic video Luke, Bill does a amazing JOB !!!! really Wauwwwwwww

[@lukomatico]

Hey there buddy!! :-D So glad to hear you enjoyed the vid!! Bill's tools really are awesome aren't they!! Thanks for watching!

[@sebastianf.3079]

Thanks a lot Bill and Luke for sharing this awesome tool with the community, and cherry on the cake, explaining the ins and outs in details but not in an overwhelmingly complicated way 👍

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks buddy! Hope it helps!

[@lukomatico]

Hey Sebastian! - That's really kind of you to say mate, thank you so much and cheers for watching!! :-)

[@stuartburman177]

After you do the star reduction method, can you further process? Or should this be the last step before calling it done? Thank you! Great video.

[@lukomatico]

Generally speaking mate it should be the last step before saving it out aye, you could maybe do tiny touch-ups without much damage but I'd avoid serious processing 👍

[@RussellsAstrophotography]

Thanks very much for the video Luke, can't wait to try this on some of my images it looks fantastic. Thank you very much for the tools Bill 👍

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure Russell mate!! :-) I'm sure you'll love em! - Thanks so much for stopping by and watching!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

You are very welcome Russ!!

[@terrydanks]

Huge thanks to Bill for these wonderful new tools. I gave up on using PI for star reduction years ago. MT seemed complex to use but, worse yet, very prone to artifacting with anything other than a very modest degree of reduction. I've been using Russell Croman's Starshrink with considerable success since giving up on MT but these tools are even better.

[@lukomatico]

Glad to hear you like them mate, that's superb!! :-) They really are good tools!

[@Astrolavista]

That was great! Thanks both for taking the time. Soo Bill's effectively making a star layer, doing some clever pixel math so the values are not effected, then reducing by de stretching before adding back in. I don't use PI but it's starting to sink in why folks do, I'm starting to witness the power lol Probably better than my GIMP de speckle tool. Fantastic collab both, well done :)

[@lukomatico]

Hey Chris! - Thank you so very much man, I really appreciate you taking the time to watch - that means a lot :-) I'll be honest I put off buying PI for sooo long, and nearly quit during the trial period too, but darn was it worth the time, money and effort to me, I can see why NASA themselves use it haha! :-D Clear skies bud!

[@steverusti1006]

absolutely awesome , thank you guys

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Steve!! :-) appreciate it mate!

[@Mhornfeck72205]

Thanks for the info! Always good to have more tools in the toolbox, especially ones that work much faster than previous methods, definitely a time saver!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Mike!! - great to see you here buddy, really appreciate it! :-D You make a great point by the way, the time savings over other methods are huge!

[@georgehatfield9473]

Excellent video! I tried all three methods on a ASI533mc image of M78. Method 1 reduced the stars the most, but had a bit of a bullet-hole look. Method 2 was better in that regard. Method 3 had the least impact on very faint stars, and although the reduction in size was the least of the three methods, it looked more natural to my eye.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks for the detailed write-up George!! I appreciate that you'd take the time and effort to share that, cheers!! Clear skies my friend :-)

[@DavesAstrophotography]

This is brilliant Luke and thanks Bill! Really need to take these scripts for a spin soon...........I would really love to be able to understand the math and functions not just in these scripts, but in all the various tools and processes, but it is just so deep I think my head would explode! Think it would take years of baby steps to get there.........

[@lukomatico]

Hey Dave! - Ah mate you're not alone, I reckon I can make a pretty picture, but I'll be darned if I know the math behind it lol! I hope you enjoy the tools my friend, they do work well!!

[@DieterWiedenhofer]

Many thanks for this methods! the are really great and make life easier!!!

[@lukomatico]

Glad you like them Dieter!! :-) thanks for watching!

[@anotherastrochannel2173]

Thanks Dieter!!!

[@Brisbane_Astro]

Brilliant!!! very cool and thanks very much. Already added to my workflow.

[@lukomatico]

Awesome to hear that Chris!! - So happy mate :-) Thanks for watching and clear skies!

[@tullyfisher]

Thank you both, Luke & Bill for sharing! Amazing tool and great explanation. I will definitely try this in PI. Cheers mate. :)

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much buddy!! - really hope you enjoy the tool, I really do think they are tip-top quality! :-) All the very best!

[@tullyfisher]

​@@lukomatico I'm sure I will. :) By the way: You have so many well-deserved subs and still, you answer every comment - I really appreciate this very much. Thank you!

[@lukomatico]

Ahh mate it's my pleasure to do so! - Thanks to kind folk such as yourself it's grown beyond my wildest expectations in truth, I'm very thankful! :-)

[@SimjetAU]

Absolutely awesome tool...Thankyou Bill...and Luke for this

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks buddy!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much for watching Mark!! :-) Clear skies mate!

[@astrotimetraveller4622]

Thanks Luke and Bill, just downloaded and tested on Eagle Nebula, works a treat, many thanks for this Bill, kr Ian

[@lukomatico]

Wonderful to hear that Ian!! - So happy you've given it a go and are happy with it! :-) Clear skies!

[@sevenskiesastro]

Thank you Luke and a special thanks to Bill. That guy is amazing and those pixelmath scripts are something else. Clear skies bud.

[@lukomatico]

Agreed mate!! - Three cheers for Bill!! :-D Thanks so much for watching and leaving a lovely comment bud, have a good one! 🙏

[@sevenskiesastro]

I changed my name of my channel. It was Robs_Astrophotography lol. You may not have noticed as of yet. Clear skies

[@lukomatico]

Ahhh Rob!! Good to know buddy, hope you are keeping well!! I've missed out on so much stuff lately lol, my apologies! 👍👍

[@sevenskiesastro]

@@lukomatico haha no worries mate I know your well busy. Keep up the great videos and be well.

[@Wheeljack678]

I've used the "Make Stars Smaller" action in Astronomy Tools v1.6 for Photoshop, but that tends to create "webbed stars" after a run or two. I just tried this method and that was quite the improvement. Someday I will perhaps try to make sense of tweaking it myself, but the 3 pre-programmed (in lack of a better word) seems to cover a lot. Thanks for posting this. Really helpful.

[@lukomatico]

Really glad to hear you like the tools mate! - thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with them! 👍👍 Clear skies!

[@Makrem]

Awesome tool, awesome idea 👏👏🤞Big thanks to Bill and Luke 😍

[@lukomatico]

You are very welcome my friend!! Thank you very much indeed for watching and commenting :-D Hope you have a superb weekend! 🙏

[@2RocknSurf]

Is there a video for how to use Bill's new tools for OSC to Hubble SHO like the one you made using the HOO palette? Thanks.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Gary! - Sorry about the late reply, I got back to your email before this haha!

[@mikepaling4736]

Hi Luke ... this is REALLY impressive and I would very much like to try out Bill's new tools. However I am having trouble downloading the tools from your remote drive ... I just get the text files. Are you able to to tell me how to download them like you show in the video? Cheers Mike

[@lukomatico]

Hey Mike! Sorry about the trouble mate, some people have reported this issue. You should still be able to download it by clicking the save button in the top right corner of the window that pops up with the text in it. Alternatively, you could download this tool, along with a few others all packaged together from any of my recent pixinsight tutorial series 👍 hope that helps.

[@gregmckay666]

Awesome. Can't wait to see his method for adding RGB stars to narrowband images.

[@lukomatico]

You and me both Greg! :-) Thanks for watching buddy!

[@paulholdsworth2502]

What a fantastic video this one is both of you !! I can't wait to try this. I have used morphological transformation for star reduction but have often seen it introduce artifacts especially if I've used more than one pass of morphological. Brilliant video guys and will be downloading it over the weekend. Thanks again 👍

[@lukomatico]

That's brilliant to hear Paul, thank you so much matey!! :-D I'm sure you'll love these tools when you are able to give em' a go, I found the same thing with morphology - stars going a bit diamond for example, not ideal haha! :-) As always I appreciate all the support you've been giving my channel over the last year mate, I always enjoy speaking with you! Clear skies :-)

[@MrBebopbob]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure buddy!

[@douglasestrada26]

Thank you Luke, I really needed this video, I will try to watch it at least 100 times😀. How are you doing with your new Rasa 8?, will you pull the trigger for the 11'?

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Duglas!! - Thanks so much mate, I really do appreciate it! :-D I really love the rasa 8!! Normally by now I'd have found at least one or two things that I dislike about a scope but this little beast is so darned good that I'd forgive it just about anything haha, a real keeper! Regarding the rasa 11 - I'd love one but rather lack the funds!! I've just picked up a used meade SCT though recently so that should help keep me busy, great fun! Clear skies! :-)

[@douglasestrada26]

@@lukomatico Awesome bro! You really doing great job, keep it up!

[@petecarpenter1068]

Thanks so much to Bill for the development and Luke for arranging it..gentlemen and scholars both. A point on using Starnet Luke, using the newtonian I find that Starnet is pretty poor in removing the diffraction spikes on the larger stars. In your experience do you find Starexterminator does a better job?. Thanks again.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Pete! - I'd say if you haven't already tried StarNet2 then give that a go first as you've nothing to lose by upgrading really - well worth a check! - Failing that though, then StarXTerminator in my experience tends to deliver more robust results on average anyway with all types of scope I've tried, it is worth the cost if you do a lot of image processing! :-) Thank you very much for your kind words and support Pete, it's really appreciate mate! All the best, Luke

[@ChristianProulx]

Wow, I'm impressed. Your friend Bill started his presentation using the Unscreen process that Russell Croman demonstrated at AIC a few weeks ago. Excellent tutorial

[@billblanshan3021]

The math is pretty simple and I have been using it for years, mainly to help create better starmasks and also star reduction. I actually have more than 3 methods for star reduction but wanted to keep things simple. Thanks for watching

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Christian! Great minds think alike I guess haha! :-) We've had these under wraps and testing for around 6 months now so it felt good to finally be able to release them! 👍 Thanks for watching!

[@Astro_Shed]

Hi Luke, another great video, and also thanks to Bill… Can I ask Luke, I am new to pixinsight, and downloaded the files in your Google drive, I got the star reduction files, but also got a load of others, one lot with colour masks, and another with Base, and colour masks again, so what is the “base” and how come I got the colours masks twice..?? Mad a bit confused… Cheers Luke..

[@lukomatico]

Hey Stewart! sorry for the confusion there mate, the only file you needed to download was Bill's star reduction :-) it sounds like you downloaded them all instead! I host a few different things on there to help people out, hope that explains it mate!

[@Astro_Shed]

@@lukomatico ok, but is it worth me keeping the other things, would they be useful, the colour masks look good as I saw that video you made too, and are the base icons, just the same as the ones already in PI, are they just some basic ones to get going with some simple processing…?

[@lukomatico]

@@Astro_Shed In my opinion it's worth keeping them yeah mate, if you want to do that then it'd be best if you combine them all into one saved set of process icons though, thats how I currently have my own setup 👍👍 hope that helps mate!

[@lukomatico]

Hey everyone! - Bill's just posted a method of applying this math into Affinity Photo for anyone interested - here's his video! :-) kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYPIaJyGabaIZ80 Clear skies!

[@PaliR78]

Very useful. Well thank you

[@lukomatico]

My pleasure mate!! :-) Clear skies!

[@mickwhitaker4086]

How good is this!!, I use GHS for final stretch and both starnet2 and starX struggle, hoping this will work.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Mick! :-D I genuinely think you'll love em mate, I know I do haha! I really hope you enjoy their use my friend, thanks so much for watching and commenting! Clear skies :-)

[@franlober]

Very impressed with the work to reduce stars. In Spain, Pixinsight with VAT costs more than €300 and not all of us who are starting out can buy this software because we first need to buy a guide tube, a camera, a flattener, etc. Since Siril also has PixelMath, would it be possible to apply this in Siril as well, would it be possible or is it too complicated? I would ask you to consider porting these routines to Siril. Thank.

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! I'm afraid to say I've got no idea if porting to Siril is possible, sorry I couldn't give a more useful answer 🙏 Thanks for watching!

[@TyroTim2000]

Wonderful! Thank you!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks for watching Tim!

[@AstroBackyard]

Fantastic presentation, Luke and Bill! What an asset to the hobby you two are. Thank you!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much mate! :-D Really glad you like the video!

[@jesuspineiro1622]

Hi Luke and Bill. The video looks wonderful. Excellent explanation of the mathematical methods for star reduction, they are fully understood. Unfortunately, many of us use Photoshop and the method would apply differently. Would it be possible for you to make a video to apply these star reduction methods for Photoshop? I suspect that they should be done by applying math to star layers with high-pass filters or the like. PhotoShop users would be grateful. A big hug to both of you and thanks for transmitting your knowledge to the community.

[@billblanshan3021]

I think I could get the transfer method to work in PS or Affinity Photo using blending math and curves but it would be a time consuming process to do, however if this is something you would like to see, I could try.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Jesus! - I hope you are doing well my friend!! :-) I really appreciate you taking the time to watch and leave great constructive feedback too, that's very kind of you! 🙏 - it looks like Bill has already seen this too, awesome 👍 Thank you for watching and I hope you have a great weekend! Hugs! :-D P. S - I've just got a used meade SCT very much like yours Jesus! Thought you might like to know 👍👍

[@jesuspineiro1622]

@@lukomatico Hi Luke. Excellent news that you have acquired your SCT OTA. Soon, I will spend a few months in Spain and I will be planning my future observatory. After many years working I will take a well-deserved break 😁 hehehe.

[@jesuspineiro1622]

@@billblanshan3021 Hi Bill, thank you very much for your response and kindness. I will be following with interest all the advances. A big hug

[@lukomatico]

That sounds wonderful mate, I hope you really enjoy being there in those beautiful skies and surroundings, and most of all take time to soak-in some well earned rest! :-) Good luck with planning the observatory by the way, such an exciting time! Clear skies :-)

[@Sidecontrol1234]

Wow that's really cool.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Mark! Hope you have a great weekend mate 🙏

[@jamesgoodall3818]

Thanks for breaking the great news. Along with Bill's new PixelMath star-reduction I have a request... I'm hoping someone will incorporate into it some star-shape improvements too! Among numerous other scopes I'm using 8" and 11" HyperStar SCT scopes and the 8" + HS in particular is giving me star-shape trouble. Even after a great deal time and effort calibrating I still get corner-stars that have a bit of comet-like distortion with an APS-C ZWO 2600. I have tried to eliminate the issue including adjusting for camera sensor-tilt and also using David Ho's 'Hotech Advanced CT laser calibration tool' but still some star distortion exists - maybe it's a less than perfect HyperStar lens but I'm hoping someone can help solve this with star-shape software. I do not like the results I get with deconvolution. I'm not trying to cheat but I bet there's a bunch of folks that would appreciate this as a Pixinsight addition. I put a bug in Russell Croman's ear, I bet he could figure it out... Keep up the great work!

[@lukomatico]

That would be a pretty cool tool indeed for many users I bet mate!! - I'll mention it to Bill but in the meantime let's hope Russell comes up with something! :-D Clear skies!

[@jamesgoodall3818]

@@lukomatico Thanks for the reply Luke. I'm thinking/hoping Bill's PixelMath Star Reduction version 3 set to 3 iterations and Soft would round up stars a bit. I'll be trying that soon.

[@jamesgoodall3818]

Bummer...unfortunately Bill's star reduction really doesn't fix distorted corner-stars other than tighten and diminish them. But thankfully it does give way better natural looking stars that the old way of combining starless+stars in PixelMath. Now to figure out the best way to do most post-processing and aggressive stretching before using Bill's star reduction. If you figure that out please do a YT video. I used to remove stars early in the processing but now not sure.

[@lukomatico]

Hey James! - you should continue to process your images as normal, exactly as before, just leave star reduction till the last step - that's when it works best I find 👍👍 Hope that helps!

[@seemantadutta]

The main image of the tulip nebula where star reduction is applied is a narrowband image, right? Are those stars narrowband to begin with?

[@galbanese7329]

Thank you gentleman for all your efforts. This video was great [like they all are], Bill, thank you for sharing the tools and the great explanation of how they work. I am sure that the astro community will wlecome them. Bill is a pixel math jedi master...lol. Has Bill done anything for star halos in pixinsight? Still struggling with dealing from halos with the L-Extreme filter......

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks! I do have a plan for star halos, need to do more testing though. Will keep you posted for sure!

[@galbanese7329]

@@billblanshan3021 Thank you, you’re the man!!

[@lukomatico]

Hey there mate! - It's awesome to hear you've been enjoying my usual content and this kind of release too! :-) I see Bill has already got back to you RE: star halo reduction, that's great news! Thank you very much for watching and commenting, clear skies!

[@galbanese7329]

@@lukomatico Hey Luke, Keep up the great work. I became a subscriber from when you first started, thanks for sharing your journey, experiences and expertise with the rest of the astro community. Funny how we all, more or less, follow the same path down this hobby. Regards, Gaspare

[@lukomatico]

@@galbanese7329 Thank you so much my friend!! I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your support over this time, that's just superb to hear! 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend! Clear skies!

[@MartinLeeney]

Hi Luke, what's the spec of your pc? I see you are wearing a scan cap. Looking to setup a pc for PI not sure what's best. 🤔 thanks.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Martin! - my pc is a couple years old now, but it's specs very roughly are these: Ryzen 5 3600x 24gb ddr4 ram Nvidia RTX 2060 If I was building a pc again these days for PixInsight & video editing etc I'd be wanting 32gb ram, faster GPU for gpu accelerated processing tasks (Starnet for example) and a beefier CPU, maybe a 12 core 24 threads offering 👍 Hope that helps!

[@MartinLeeney]

Hi Luke, thank you I'll let you know what I get. Thanks again

[@garyanderson6192]

Just a heads up Luke, the link up there doesn't seem to take me to your google drive.... As a work around I used the link in your video for Bill's colour mask video you listed a while back....

[@lukomatico]

That's a weird one Gary! - so sorry to hear it didn't work for you mate - is it still not working correctly now? All the best, Luke

[@garyanderson6192]

Afraid not Luke, takes me to a text document, on both my laptop and phone

[@lukomatico]

Hey Gary! - I've just had a look again, when the text document opens are you able to download with the button in the top right? it seems to be working for me on both pc's i've checked with but I will go ahead and change the link now - might work better!

[@garyanderson6192]

@@lukomatico Thanks Luke it seems to be working now, straight to your google drive.....

[@MegaDavidmetal]

hello! Thanks for your videos, they are excellent. I have tried to download the tool but I only see a text document. I am doing something wrong? A greeting from Spain!

[@lukomatico]

Hey David! - it should be downloadable from a button on the top right of the screen when viewing the document, let me know if that works for you my friend! Good luck!

[@michaelk2045]

When I press the button, the text is downloaded, but no tool!

[@lukomatico]

@@michaelk2045 Hey there! - It should be fixed now hopefully!! :-)

[@lukomatico]

It should be fixed now David! - Good luck my friend!

[@MegaDavidmetal]

@@lukomatico THX!!!!!!!!

Oh ok.... that is really great!!!

[@lukomatico]

Glad you like it my friend!! :-) Clear skies!

[@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer]

Hey Luke Steve here ,,, Question , I took a bunch of images of LEO 1 a cousin asked me if I can get that galaxy .. The bright star Regulus is there and it is so bright. How do I take care of that star and keep the rest ??

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! sorry about the late reply, that's potentially a tough one! - you could perhaps clone-stamp it out with care but it'll be a scientifically inaccurate image then of course, but it all depends on end goal! :-) another option may be a range mask on the problem star, and targeted de-stretching to kill it a bit! Good luck!

[@sylviavong8727]

Hi where can I download the CloneForStarless thing? thanks

[@lukomatico]

Hey Sylvia! - it should all be included as part of the download, is it not showing up for you?

[@jjaimesmx]

Question is If I remove my stars using any of this methods, Whe are my stars and how to add them back to the image?

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! You can always just recombine as you usually would with stars/starless, nothing will change there 👍 Sorry about the late reply!

[@dougiesmart1623]

Hello again. As per my previous message, that tool sounds amazing 👍. If you could be bothered, would it be possible to use this software on my processed image of the Rosette Nebula? I'd be happy to give you a contribution to your channel if you had the time to do this. If you could manage how can I send my image to you (the photo is around 15MB and in a PNG format)? Hope you can help. Cheers

[@lukomatico]

Hey Dougie! I'm having a bit of 'vacation time' with my other half for the next few weeks so I won't really be able to take on more processing jobs etc, my apologies mate! Best, Luke

[@dougiesmart1623]

@@lukomatico no worries, no harm in asking 😊. Happy holidays 👍👍

[@lukomatico]

Thank you for your understanding mate!! 👍👍 Hope you have an outstanding weekend

[@howardtrottier5470]

These algorithms for star reduction are breakthroughs! Version 1 in particular is very intuitive -- simple and elegant, one of those ideas that makes you think: why didn't I think of it?! Bill mentioned he has a really cool PixelMath algorithm for substituting RGB stars into a narrowband image, which he is planning to share. Can't wait to see that!!!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much Howard, I'm very glad to hear you like the tools! :-) Hopefully Bill will be ready to release his new tools soon! - Clear skies!