A basic PixInsight workflow for LRGB images

[rogerg (Roger)]

To create a preview do I really need to write down the pixel top, left, width, height values or is there some way to select an area of an image to be the preview?

Edit: to clarify: I am going Preview -> New Preview. Other preview options ("New Preview Mode" etc) are greyed out/not available for some unknown reason ...

[DJT (David)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

To create a preview do I really need to write down the pixel top, left, width, height values or is there some way to select an area of an image to be the preview?

Edit: to clarify: I am going Preview -> New Preview. Other preview options ("New Preview Mode" etc) are greyed out/not available for some unknown reason ...

Hi Roger
Click Alt N then you can define the area you want to preview using your mouse.Once you have defined the area, a new preview tab is created in your workspace.

If you want the whole image to be a preview, a quick way is to drag the descriptive tab of the image down below the original Within your workspace and then Let go.

Preview options are greyed out because they only seem to work on preview tabs themselves. If you right click on your preview tab once created you can also get to the options that way rather than through the menu.


This pixinsite stuff is pretty good but takes a bit of getting used to. I learnt the preview stuff just last night using the IP4AP tutorials



Cheers

[RickS (Rick)]

Yep, the quick way to click and drag a preview is the New Preview Mode command: Alt-N as David suggested or the equivalent menu bar icon.

There are a couple of ways to create a new preview using numeric position and size - Preview>New Preview from the menu and the "preview" command in the process console command line.

You can also copy an existing preview to the same window or another window. Select the preview, click on the preview name and drag/drop it on the left hand window bar. I find this really useful for comparing different processing parameters.

Cheers,
Rick.

[rogerg (Roger)]

For some reason Alt-N and the preview menu options are greyed out and unavailable for me. Any idea what criteria make creating a preview available?

The only preview related menu/quick key combo available is the Preview -> New Preview which requires numbers typed in

[RickS (Rick)]

The only time I have noticed the New Preview Mode command icon greyed out is if you don't have a suitable image selected, e.g. if no images are open or an existing preview is selected.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by RickS

The only time I have noticed the New Preview Mode command icon greyed out is if you don't have a suitable image selected, e.g. if no images are open or an existing preview is selected.

Hmm, my suspicion also, but ...

1) LRGBCombination ... which creates a resulting image.
2) Save resulting image as .FIT
3) close all files
4) open LRGB .FIT file
... no preview options available

[RickS (Rick)]

Roger,

Some people have reported problems with Alt-N not working reliably on OSX. If you're using Alt-N have you tried the New Preview Mode icon instead? View>Tool Bars>Mode to display the group of icons that include it.

Cheers,
Rick.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Roger,

Some people have reported problems with Alt-N not working reliably on OSX. If you're using Alt-N have you tried the New Preview Mode icon instead? View>Tool Bars>Mode to display the group of icons that include it.

Cheers,
Rick.

Toolbar icons, and menu options are greyed out. Try clicking them anyway and nothing happens, and no evidence of them accepting the click.

Ok, seems we've tried the obvious "how it should be done" so I'll mess around more tonight with more different formats of file and the like, see if I can find any reason the preview functionality isn't working.

Computer is a PC, a recent and well spec'd 64bit one.

Thanks.

[RickS (Rick)]

Might be worth a post on the PI Forum if you run out of ideas: http://pixinsight.com/titles/pixinsight_forum_title.png

[Octane (Humayun)]

Apologies for the thread necromancy.

Roger, are you still having this issue?

I was having the preview (Alt/Option+N) issue on my MacBook Pro.

I thought I'd try and find out what was causing it.

I hit the Caps Lock key once, and, then, it started working. You can then disable Caps Lock, and, it should work as per normal.

Small glitch.

H

[rogerg (Roger)]

Thanks H.

I ended up solving it by a PC reboot. Not sure exactly what the root cause was.

Since then I gave ended up sticking to using CCD Stacker for LRGB combining just because it is simple and straight forward.

Roger.

[Octane (Humayun)]

PixInsight just looks scary. It's pretty intuitive after a little while. And, surely, the results are worth it.

H

[rogerg (Roger)]

I find it good for various things, like reduction/calibration of CR2's, aligning of CR2's, and DBE. But still find it more fiddly than others for other tasks.

I quite like CCDStack for a few reasons - the most notable is probably it's visual representation of sigma clipping. Being able to preview what data is being rejected very quickly and easily rather than having to do lots of trial and error with sigma values and waiting for image proessing in PixInsight.

There's pro's & cons.

Intuitive certainly isn't a word I'd associate with PixInsight, with it's unique use of buttons/icons, problems working with dual screen, and other usability issues

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

I quite like CCDStack for a few reasons - the most notable is probably it's visual representation of sigma clipping. Being able to preview what data is being rejected very quickly and easily rather than having to do lots of trial and error with sigma values and waiting for image proessing in PixInsight.

It takes longer to do a careful integration in PI but it's the only amateur package I've used that shows you SNR measurements and let's you maximise SNR by varying algorithms and rejection parameters. Not good for instant gratification but nice to know you're getting the best possible result from the data.

Originally Posted by rogerg

Intuitive certainly isn't a word I'd associate with PixInsight, with it's unique use of buttons/icons, problems working with dual screen, and other usability issues

That's partly the price that has to be paid for cross platform support. I quite like the PI UI but I have used some shockers

Cheers,
Rick.