Hugonweb | Pixinsight Workflows

Hotkeys and Getting Around

Screen Transfer Functions and Color Spaces

Ctrl-A turns on the auto-stretched screen transfer function (STF); this doesn't affect the actual image, just the screen view.
F12 toggles the STF on/off
Ctrl-F12 resets the STF
Image -> Color Spaces -> Convert to Greyscale, but usually better to split out RGB channels in Process -> ChannelManagement -> ChannelExtraction

Zooming and Panning

To Zoom:
- Use the mouse wheel
- Ctrl + mouse wheel to zoom centered on the cursor may not need Ctrl to do this anymore
- Ctrl + Spacebar to draw a zoom in window rectangle
- Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar to draw a zoom out window rectangle
To Pan:
- Hold Spacebar and click and drag with the mouse
- Click and drag with the middle mouse button

Creating Previews

Press Alt-N to go into preview creation mode. Click and drag a box on the image.
Press Alt-E to go into preview edit mode. Click and drag the corner of a preview to resize or the middle of a preview to move.

Calibration, Alignment, and Stacking

Use the Script -> Batch Processing -> WeightedBatchProcessing (WBPP) to do everything up to and including stacking images, for all filters at once.

The "Grouping Keywords" section of WBPP window can be used to group targets or parts of a mosaic. The file names must all have the same keyword before the target/part name, each separated by an underscore. For example *_target_M1_** or *_part_x1y2_.

Image Inspection

Process -> ImageInspection -> SubframeSelector
- Eccentricity goes up (bad) as FWHM goes down. Less than 0.42 is considered round on the PixInsight Forums
Process -> ImageInspection -> Blink
Script -> Image Analysis -> ImageSolver plate-solves an image
Script -> Image Analysis -> AberrationInspector zooms in on the center, edges, and corners of an image
Script -> Image Analysis -> FWHMEccentricity
- Must be grayscale images
- Click Support to see how they vary over the image

Background Extraction, Deconvolution, and Noise Reduction

BlurXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator are AI-based paid plugins from RC Astro

DynamicBackgroundExtraction: auto-generate points and then add/subtract points as needed
BlurXTerminator: make sure to create previews so you can test out settings quickly with the sliders; I like the defaults
NoiseXTerminator: make sure to create previews so you can test out settings quickly with the sliders; I like more noise than the defaults

Color Correction

Process -> Color Calibration -> SpectrophotometricColorCalibration is the state of the art (Official Documentation)

Make a preview of the background, and put it into the region of interest box
Make sure the QE curve and filters match the imaging hardware (or are close)
- Use Ideal QE Curve for Bayer-filter cameras
Update the White Reference to taste--this is the desired white balance of the image

Process -> Color Calibration -> Background Neutralization may also be helpful; use the background preview as reference

Process -> Color Calibration -> Color Calibration is the oldest option. It calibrates the image to a spiral galaxy, or similar 1. Use the background preview as the background reference 2. For the white reference use - A preview of a spiral galaxy in the image - The whole image (all of the stars approximate a spiral galaxy)

Cosmetic Processing

(Optional) Create a star mask
Use Process -> IntensityTransformation -> CurvesTransformation to tweak the colors
Use Process -> IntensityTransformation -> HistogramTransformation

Preparing for presentation

Process -> Geometry -> IntegerResample or Resample to scale down
Process -> Image -> SampleFormatConversion to convert from float32/64 to uint8 or uint16
File -> Save As

Mosaics

Stack each panel then combine mosaic

Do Weighted Batch Processing Script for each panel
Project each image file onto the mosaic: Script -> Mosaic -> MosaicByCoordinates
Integrate image files into a single mosaic file: Process -> ImageIntegration -> GradientMergeMosaic
Cosmetic processing

Stack in Mosaic

Calibrate images
Plate solve images files: Script -> Image Analysis -> ImageSolver
Project each image file onto the mosaic: Script -> Mosaic -> MosaicByCoordinates
Integrate image files into a single mosaic file: Process -> ImageIntegration -> GradientMergeMosaic
Cosmetic processing

Saving and Reusing Processing Steps

To save:

Click on History Explorer in the bottom left of the window
Select an image to make active at the bottom of the History Explorer
Drag the little triangle in the bottom left of the History Explorer out into the workspace

To reuse:

Drag the process container onto the image you want to process with those steps

Downloading and Installing Catalogs

Login at https://pixinsight.com/dist/browser.php to access catalog downloads
Download:
- Gaia DR3 for plate solving, only the first (or maybe first few) are really needed
- Gaia DR3/SP for SpectrophotometricColorCalibration, only the small set is needed
- APASS DR10 for photometry
Open the Gaia process, click on the wrench in the lower right corner
- With Gaia DR3 selected from the drop down, select the locations of the downloaded DR3 files
- With Gaia DR3/SP selected from the drop down, select the locations of the downloaded DR3/SP files
- Click OK, and Gaia catalogs are properly installed
Open the APASS process, and do the same as above