Pixinsight tutorials

[SB (Chris)]

Hi Everyone
Looking for recommendations for beginners tutorials for Pixinsight. I think I have pushed other processing software as far as I can but not getting as good images as those using PI. Plus the ability to use Blur Exterminator is a big drawcard. I’ve been put off PI by the style of UI but perhaps I have to live with that.

Many thanks

Chris

[joshman (Josh)]

Hi Chris. I was initially put off by the PI UI, but after using it for a while, I've grown to like it, and really appreciate it for what it is.
I prefer to think of PixInsight not as a "program". but a rather as a sandbox full of toys. and people can add to this and improve upon it ad nauseum. I find some of it a little confounding at times, and there's some room for improvement, but on the whole, its pretty good.


as for beginners tutorials. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Adam Block's fundamentals series. The full course does cost money, but his free stuff on youtube is good enough to try out to see if you like his style enough to pony up for the paid stuff. He's very casual, and very informative.


The official Pixinsight youtube channel might also be a good place to start.

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Agree about the sandbox analogy etc. It took me ages to get to grips with it. I'm still learning and there's always new stuff coming out
- Tutorials - light vortex astronomy is really good. This is where I basically learnt PI
- I got the Warren Keller book Inside Pixinsight. Great if you know nothing about PI
- And on cloudynight cforsterstars has been evolving a manual on how to use PI (theres a pdf you can download somewhere).
All heavy going but well worth going through

In PI I have setup with a bunch of separate projects (basically workflows) which do stuff like make calibration files, integrate lights, and several different parts/types of processing. Each project contains a bunch of processes that have all the variables set up, and I have piles of comments on what works or doesn't work and potential changesbto variables. So when I come back to do something, it switches on the dim light inside my head

[g__day (Matthew)]

There are a bunch of basic OSC LRGB, and narrowband tutorials on the Website - and Youtube is your great friend here!

Once you get the hang of stacking (WBPP), Stretching - Histrogram Transformation / Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch (amazing) or Statistical Stretch script from Seti Astro - you are away.

The Automatic Dynamic Background Extract (a free Seti Astro script) and/or Gradient correction are brilliant.

Watch online beginners tutorials - capture the workflow and its steps and learn as you go or do an Adam Brock master course.