M64 - My First Attempt with PixInsight

[Roy]

Being stuck in doors I decided it was the ideal opportunity to download PixInsight as a trial and have a go. The best data I had which was acquired at the 2019 StarParty at Kelling was of M64 the Black Eye Galaxy located in Coma Berenices, but it was still not perfect (very slightly oval stars). So here is my first full PixInsight process attempt. I have to say PixInsight is totally awesome, far, far better than I imagined, and 'Yes' I will be buying it.

Roy

[ApophisAstros]

Great image Roy, i am yet to master the full version of PI, its there like a sleeping dinosaur,
Roger

[Carole]

Looks great Roy, I have never bothered with Pixinsight having seen 3 demonstrations and still came away wondering what on Earth was going on.  Since I am happy with Photoshop, didn't see the point in changing, putting myself through the learning curve and paying for the privilege.  From what I hear it is a lot of scripts. 

Carole 

[NoelC]

Very good Roy
It's come out well.
How are you learning - Youtube or have you got a book?

Noel

[JohnH]

Roy,

I am envious!

I have been using "Inside Pixinsight" to guide me through the labyrinth but I am finding tough going.

JohnH

[Roy]

In reply to the last two posts, firstly I've worked my way through a series of 12 Youtube videos by a chap called Mitch which are aimed at 'absolute beginners' (i.e. me!) and here a link to the first of his videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIXJJqew6rQ

whilst at the same time processing the M64 set of data which I knew was of reasonable quality. That said having worked my way through all the videos, I then went back and reprocessed the data to produce the image. In parallel with the above I'm also reading the acknowledged Bible on PixInsight, 'Inside PixInsight' by Warren A Keller.

Roy

[Roberto]

Roy

You have done very well.  Having used PxI now for a number of years, I could not go back to another processing software.  I started out with Harry Page's videos (Harry's Astroshed https://www.harrysastroshed.com/), then moved up to Warren Keller's tutorials (https://www.ip4ap.com/).  I haven't tried Adam Block's yet but they are said to be superb.  PxI necesitates a (very) steep learning curve but it is 1000x more powerful than traditional image editing software such as Photoshop.  It is written for astrophotography (and microscopy) and used and updated by astro-imagers all the time.  Well worth the time to learn if you are serious about acquiring and processing images.

Roberto

[RobertM]

Very nice image Roy, it's been over 10 years since I imaged that one !  I think Pixinsight will suit you well given your Scientific background.

Robert

[MarkS]

That's come out really well.  You did a good job on processing it.  PixInsight takes a bit of getting used to at first.

Mark