Image Processing

My latest Cygnus Loop, Lion Nebula and Caldwell 9 images contain data from multiple sessions. Since I don’t wanted to use my old combining method, I tried a new approach (and maybe a better one…) which is suggested in various PixInsight forum threads. So far, it seems to work pretty well. Nevertheless, there are various […]

Drizzle was originally developed for the NASA’s Hubble Deep Field observations. It provides a flexible and efficient way of combining dithered data, preserves photometric and astrometric accuracy, optimal signal-to-noise ratio and approach the best resolution that can be reached with linear reconstruction. (from “A method for the Linear Reconstruction of Undersampled Images” by A. S. Fruchter […]

In PixInsight 1.8.8 a few new features are available for image stacking. Since I’m using flats now, its time to update my previous Stacking in PixInsight tutorial. All following CFA settings are suitable for CMOS sensors like in my Canon EOS 70D, using the Bayer matrix filter (RGGB). Select the proper settings for your camera […]

I was asked a few times to show how I process my images. So here is my (current) workflow which I use as basement. I created it over the last 2 years with many help from other people on AstroBin or tutorials in the internet. At the bottom of this page, you’ll find my real check […]

This tutorial is for the old PixInsight version 1.8.5. Click here for the latest PixInsight version 1.8.8-7 tutorial. After posting my recent M57 image on Astrobin, I received a feedback regarding Drizzle (thanks Marcus!). I never drizzled before since I thought it’s very complicated… It is not! Drizzle was originally developed for the NASA’s Hubble Deep Field […]

To stack 41P comet I used for the first time PixInsight. Unfortunately (or fortunately?;-) DSS failed to select the comet on a single frame, so I switched to PI. Finally after several hours try & error and many tutorials I was able to manage the comet. See here the used processing steps:   Comet Processing […]

First, there are 2 possibilities for a comet animation: Static comet or static stars. I’ll show here both ways since they are very similar. Note: these are very quick processing ways. They are surely improveable 😉   Static comet Run BatchPreprocessing Open Process – CometAlignment with registered images (c_d_r files can be found in subfolder “registered” […]

Reducing star size can helping highlight the main object like a Galaxy or a Nebula. PixInsight offers herefor a process called “Morphological Transformation”. On some images, I use it twice (example: Cygnus Loop). Note: Create every time a new Star Mask! Do not use the same mask for iterative transformations!   Step-by-step M33 Triangulum Galaxy: StarMask […]