New Tools in PixInsight

Hello and welcome to my latest rambling astro thoughts.  In this first post for 2023 I reveal the first of my recent YouTube videos looking at a basic processing workflow using PixInsight, but first I take a look at some new scripts and tools that I have started using within PixInsight.  And the best thing about them is that they are totally free!

Recently, my social feeds have been full of pieces about people trying out the latest paid for tools in PixInsight, and it must be said that some of the results coming through from people using them are pretty remarkable.  Personally though, I have to be really convinced of a tool's worth before I part with my money for it.  I can fully understand people wanting to take that decision, but for me, I always like to explore what's possible for free.

As well as news about the latest paid for tools, there has been a little bit of noise made about advances in some of the scripted tools for PixInsight.  In particular those that have been written with colour CMOS cameras in mind.  With more people learning about them, and with some brilliant input from the original authors of these tools, there are tutorials popping up around the internet on how to use them.

The first set of these tools has actually been around for quite a while, but they are new to me, so they earn their place in this post!  This particular toolset is called the EZ Processing suite, and is available via a repository which can be added into PixInsight:  Just search for EZ Processing suite to find the repository link.  I've just started my journey using some of the scripts in this set so I am in no way qualified to give any sort of tutorial on them.  But, what I can say is the EZ Denoise script does a very good job at noise reduction.  In fact, it does in only a matter of a few minutes, what I can take over half an hour to do manually, and it does it better.  A very easy win indeed.  

The second set of these tools are a bit newer and first started becoming better known about only in recent months.  Luckily for me and others like me, several very well known YouTubers have embraced these tools and along with the author have put together some excellent tutorials about them.  For me, these best thing about these tools is that I can now take the data collected using my Altair OSC camera and process it to produce something akin to a Hubble palette image in a fairly straight forwards series of steps.

For more info on these tools, check out the following channels:

Shawn at @VisibledarkAstro VisibleDark - YouTube

Bill Blanshen (author of these tools)  AnotherAstroChannel - YouTube

lukomatico on lukomatico - YouTube who has put together some excellent tutorials.

And finally, worthy of a nod is the new SpectroPhotometricColourCalibration tool which come with a recent PixInsight update.  Shawn at VisibleDark has a great tutorial on how to use it and another on some trouble shooting steps if it fails.  Jason over at Jason Coon - YouTube has also done some sterling work on putting together specs of filters to use with the new SPCC tool.

And now to my YouTube channel.  It's safe to say that it's been loitering around in the ether feeling unwatched and unloved for some time.  But recently, I've kind of been shoved into action and decided to put together short(ish) video on processing.  Having found all these wonderful new tools and scripts, I thought it a good idea to try and put them together in some sort of new workflow specifically for emission nebulae processing.  It's not a tutorial video, but I do get asked by friends from time to time how some of my images are produced.  So, a bit of music, a bit of jiggery pokery and a bit of rough editing have allowed be to cobble together this.  Enjoy, and until the next time, clear skies 😁

YouTube Link