does anybody use Pixinsight?

[jimmyh1555 (James)]

I've got a trial 45 day version of Pixinsight and after about 10 hours, I can't even get out of preview mode I have read quite a few tutorials and descriptions and still hopeless!
Is it a programme just for the boffins or something?

[glend (Glen)]

Haha, don't worry, the Cult guys will be along shortly.

[Imme (Jon)]

I found myself lost as well James....so went to Startools.

I have found it much easier to use and more than enough for what I'm doing.

I have no doubt Pixelinsight is an amazing program but for me as an amateur I don't think I need that level of complexity........yet.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Must be the day for it. I just dived into PI too! Got somewhere however but nothing close to a nice image. Googling various instructional videos was hit and miss for me - some things covered well for a beginner like me but also frustrating as I’m trying to process narrowband where some knowledge is assumed it seems. Hm. Could be looking in the wrong spot too. I’m keen to understand the language around image processing and PI so I can begin to make more sense of various forum posts that seem like they might be really helpful....

[sil (Steve)]

Not sure what Preview mode is maybe you're confused with the ScreenTransferFunction, which doesn't do anything to your image file even when you save it, its purely a temporary levels adjustment to help you see features in the image you are working on.

Maybe you don't understand how to apply changes to an image. in the bottom left corner of process windows is a triangle and a square and sometime a circle. If you make your adjustments just click and drag the triangle over onto your image to do the operation on your image. With STF you can drag the triangle onto the bottom border of the HistogramSretch tool and then drag its triangle onto your image to apply the stretch to your image and it'll remain when saved. beware you'll need to reset the stf after you drag its settings to histogramstretch because then you'll have a double stretch on the screen applied but only the single stretch stored in the image .

yes it can be confusing for most people , its not marketed by anyone as a simple tool for dummies. Its a highly complex and powerful package. Startools is not even in the same league, its more the simple solution. AstroPixel Processor seems to fit between DSS and PI. Once you understand how to use PI's interface like a desktop and how to get an image from it then it becomes very very easy to use for common tasks, its capabilities far exceeds ours so it's not a program you'll outgrow. Dont overreach yourself, tke the time to read and follow various simple tutorials on simple workflows (PI doesnt give you a workflow to follow, it gives you the tools to let you work your own way.) APP has power and some handholding I dont have much experience with other commercial packages but no matter what you use YOU still need to do some learning and put in effort. Some guys here get awesome results with basically just DSS which I never could, But I like PI and APP (PI above all by miles). Good results will always take effort.

[speach (Simon)]

try these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIXJJqew6rQ&t=470s
I'm a novice too and they help alot

[kosborn (Kevin)]

LightVortex has great tutorials: http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorials.html


Kevin

[LewisM]

ScreenTransferFunction becomes permanent if you drag the triangle in the bottom left onto the bottom bar of say HistogramTeansform or Curves Transform. I do this all the time

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by glend

Haha, don't worry, the Cult guys will be along shortly.

You rang?

PI is a very capable astronomical image processing package. It does take an investment of time and effort to get started. It does have a GUI that's cross platform and hence looks different to native apps on whatever platform you are using. It does expose a lot of detail that may look scary at first. It doesn't impose an obvious workflow and relies on you to figure out how to put together a sequence of tools that produces the result you want. It doesn't suit everybody, but it can produce fantastic results if you persevere.

Perhaps the biggest complaint about PI is the lack of documentation. That was certainly a problem when I started using it a few years ago. These days there are a lot of good quality resources available. A couple have been mentioned already. I'd also recommend the Inside PixInsight book by Warren Keller and the (paid) tutorials at https://www.ip4ap.com/ and https://adamblockstudios.com/. I haven't looked at them yet but there are some free beginner tutorials here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIXJJqew6rQ&t=470s. Also some good material here: http://pixinsight.com.ar/

Sorry, I'd go on for longer but I'm on holidays and have limited forum time

Cheers,
Rick.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Warren Keller has written a great guide to PI. See here https://www.bintel.com.au/product/in...xinsight-book/ it is also available as a Kindle book if preferred. I used it on Kindle at first but then got the hard copy as easy to sit and read while processing.
It will at least get you started and on your way to processing. The Light Vortex online tutes are also great but I always prefer a book!!

It will take a while but once you start to to "get" PI, it can make your images sing.

Malcolm

[rcheshire (Rowland)]

It's not that difficult to use with a little instruction and a look around under the Process and Scripts menus. It does what any preprocessing tool does with a bit more control. Defaults are OK for starters. BatchPreProcessing or BPP is a good tool for previews. Once you get the order of steps, you can apply that to the standone tools for a hands-on experience.

Post processing is just as easy and there are some very basic work flows to get started.

To begin with, it's steps tools and defaults, with the ScreenTransferFunction (a live preview of the image by any other name). Then play around with the more sophisticated processes. Once you explode the myths and mystique around PI, it's just another image processing program - but pretty darn good...

[LewisM]

My images went from BLECH to just a little dry-wretching using PI.

PI makes processing a DREAM. Once you understand it's WEIRD nuances (like the triangl, open circle, square etc ) it's REALLY easy to use.

Makes PS look archaic.

[jimmyh1555 (James)]

Thanks, guys , for your helpful comments and suggestions! I have now looked up those utubes and a couple of pdf's (will have to re-look a few times). I will perservere with it for a bit longer, although I tried it out on Jupiter from my OSC, and came up with a HORRIBLE result! Omega Cen was a bit better, but so far no better than Star Tools!
I think I am about 1% along the learning curve
My wife hears me muttering to myself and wonders what I am up to, then I tell her "Oh,I'm just learning dynamic crop, histogram ,background calibration, curves transformation, morphology and cosmetic correction - I'm not quite mad yet, but beware............."