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