RC Astro - BlurXterminator

[AdamJL]

Hi all

Russell Croman seems to be at it again, making awesome one-touch plugins for PixInsight.

YouTuber Lukomatico covers the new release in a recent video and results seem incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwX7WnQQNiY

I'll be purchasing it so I can play around. I've been really impressed with Russell's other software plugins like NoiseXTerminator and StarXTerminator (though wasn't keen on GradientXTerminator)

https://www.rc-astro.com/resources/BlurXTerminator/index.php

Anyone else using Russell's plugins?

[Nikolas]

It's only available for pixinsight with no intention for making it for photoshop, that's a massive disappointment

[Startrek]

Just watched the YouTube clip on the BlurXterminator
Looks impressive from the sample images provided by Lukomatico

Ive used the new Startools Spatially Variant Point Spread Function Deconvolution ( Unique) for the past 4 months with excellent results. It’s based on providing PSF samples across the image ( say 8 to 12 ) which then mathematically applies corrections based on the distortion model created by stellar profiles.

https://www.startools.org/modules/sv-decon

The next ST version 1.9 is under testing and will include a significantly refined SV Decon tool with improved results.
Looking forward to the upgrade ( hopefully before January )

Thanks for posting
Martin

[AdamJL]

He does make mostly PI plugins. Possibly where most of the astro market is these days. But some of his plugins are also for PS



Thanks for the info, Martin. Hope you're feeling better as well.
It's been a long time since I used StarTools (maybe a year) so I'm sure it's improved a lot. I don't remember ever getting results like this in the Decon module though, but I'd imagine it's improved since then

[AdamJL]

Check out Adam Block's before/after on the Pillars (timestamped)


https://youtu.be/_rWEuW4MTrQ?t=708

[Startrek]

Thanks Adam,
Yeh feeling better so going to retest tomorrow and hopefully all clear
I’m sick of looking at 4 walls

I’d say you were using the old Decon ST 1.7 or before , not the new SV Decon which came out in version 1.8 this year
Completely different kettle of fish
The old one worked on singularities where you had to mask all the stars and certain structures to avoid ringing artefacts after applying a synthetic type Deconvolution , it worked ok but had its drawbacks
The new SV Decon in ST v1.8 is totally different animal utilising PSF samples across the image to access , computate and apply corrective measures to distortion based on the stellar profiles of stars and other structures
The process will be even more intuitive and create better results in the next upcoming version 1.9 due out soon

Cheers
Martin

[Muzfox]

Yep I bought it yesterday and had a play through a few images last night. It's really quite astounding what it does.

It's awesome on it's own as a star reduction tool. And what it does for correction, wow. Some of my early images that had very questionable star shapes in the corners, suddenly had round or at least 90% improved shapes. The detail it can pull out in Nebulas is amazing, I was getting dust lanes where I wasn't before and everything is sharper. It's a real time save on top of all of that.

It's a must in my workflow now and worth every penny.

[AdamJL]

Yeah I'm feeling the same way. It really is one of those "wow" moments when you do before/after comparisons.
His most expensive plugin to date though, but worth it. You do get discounts if you've purchased his other plugins.

[Muzfox]

Yep saved a bit, bought StarX a while back, NoiseX last week and now this one came out, discount always good but I've paid a lot more for other software over the years, worth the $$ for Pixinsight and his processes.

[Bassnut]

apparently, BlurXterminator is not available as a PS plug in due to it needs the raw FITs file before any processing. PS cant handle that. Fair enough.
Given his other products are stunning, id actually get PI just for this feature alone if its as good as early reviews say.
No way in hell I would use PI for anything else, the user experience is like stabbing a sharp stick in your eye at least 14 times. I guess he cant make a plug in for every astro app. Although a standalone would be not that hard methinks.
Startools overcame the problem of decon only with raw data as a 1st step years ago, but given this app is only decon, raw data is the only way he could handle it.
BlurXterminator uses AI training based on hubble and JWST images. I can see a shiet storm brewing on ethical processing in the future with this kind of AI influence.

[AdamJL]

haha, it's already begun :D

Personally I couldn't care less whether an image was edited with this software. If it's using Hubble and JST data to train the AI, who am I to complain!

[Camissa]

I played around a bit with BXT and I must say, I like the the software. It can deconvolve an image much better than I can do it in PI.


I love this term.

As long as we are recovering information that is contained in our image, I have no problem with this. But once software f.e. extracts the stars and replaces them with AI-generated stars, I would not regard it as a normal image. This is then a constructed image, like the AI generated "art" that is currently flooding social media. Would I replace a painting in my living room with AI generated "art"? No. But for my desktop wallpaper I don't care.

[toc]

Hmm - when I fired up PI this morning, Blur Exterminator is now gone from the list of processes. Has it been pulled? I can see that PI updated as well.

Edit: deleting the 'updates.xri' and re-adding the repository seems to have done the trick. Strange.

[Stephane]

This once also happened to me but with NoiseXterminator. The same solution was suggested after I reached out for help and did the trick for me also.

Re BlurXterminator, I love how the AI determines the noise floor and sharpens only details far from that noise floor. This way, noise is never sharpened as far as I can see.