New Pixinsight tool , Photometric color calibration - Forums

Topic starter

Aug 26, 2017

Hello everybody ,
I just figured out that there was an update for pixinsight , and it comes with some interesting news.

But when I tried to look for a tutorials, i couldn't find anything helpful yet.

I'm using following equippment for my last imaging,
TS INED 70, DSLR Canon 1000d modded , Heq5 mount + guiding with alccd5iic

Maybe there are more information necessary, just ask

So my first try was to use the Photometric color calibration , but as expected nothing works,

can anyone help to get the right settings for me ?

I don't know if this tool helps but I wanted to try it if there could be an improvement in colors later ,

Thank you for all your help ,

Regards
Dennis

jeff

Aug 27, 2017

Hi: I've had luck with it but I use a CCD, so not exactly sure with DSLR capture..assuming by the time you are doing Photometric colorcalibration you've translated your raw files over.

Best to start with image master that has had DBE/ABE applied.

In the PCC tool, you need to set your pixel size and focal length. I've used it on standard targets (M51, NGC5907), so I entered those in PCC and hit "search coordinates" and found RA/DEC…it can try and derive the RA/DEC from FITS header, and you can run the platesolve script to set the FITS RA/DEC as well. I used average spiral galaxy as white reference, CDS Strasbourg France as database server. best if you click background neutralization at bottom..it can use entire image, or you can also click the region of interest box and click and set a preview on the image..when doing it this way..seems to work. When I start with a master RGB, and do background neutralization separately, then do PCC without background neutralization within PCC, I get a bad background color..but using background neutralization a second time after clears this. But seems easier just to do PCC with background neutralization.

Not sure if you are having trouble with plate solve?

couple of tutorials: Kayron Mercieca's LigthVortex Astronomy tutorials: http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-colour-calibrating-images.html

astroimaging channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdEwGHZkwgI

jeff

Helpful

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Aug 27, 2017 · Edited: Aug 27, 2017

Hi Jeff !
Thank you for your help, yes I think the problem was the plate solving, Never heared of it before and never used that.

But thanks to your help I could get it working. I'm not sure if it helped me getting a better result though.

Am I right using the PCC after DBE ? i have to find the right workflow with this now again.

If someone could get me a hint or something ? Maybe I just stay with what I got so far before the update

Regards ,

Dennis

Frank Breslawski

Aug 27, 2017

Hi Dennis, PCC after DBE is correct. You can use PCC as a Substitute for Color Calibration and Background Neutralisation. Rest of your Workflow should be as usual. BR Frank

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Aug 27, 2017

Hi Frank , okay ill try that ans compare both ways.

Thank you

Frank Breslawski

Aug 27, 2017 · Edited: Aug 27, 2017

Can you then please give a short feedback about your results / experiences? I used PCC here http://astrob.in/309178/0/ for the first time. In my opinion the new PI tool made a good job :-)

Frank

SJK

Aug 27, 2017

I am also using it.

And also the Local Normalization. Its seems to preserve detail and leave less noise.

I this example I skipped DBE, BN and CC

http://www.astrobin.com/306085/D/?nc=user

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Aug 27, 2017

Thanks for sharing your experiences. When I'll get my picture done , I'll post it to my Cirrus, the latest image I have done here.

and I'll let you know if it helped me, but for me it seems now more complicated somehow,

i also haven't tried the normalization tool yet.

thats my next thing after learning about pcc

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Aug 28, 2017

Yesterday I tried to do the same picture again, and I couldn't get any better results, because after all my other processing, I also use the color transformation , the picture looked almost alike the old one,

but then i applied the tool again , on my last step , and now it looks different , not sure if it is how it should be but I think it looks okay

tell me what you think all,

HG731GZ

Aug 30, 2017 · Edited: Aug 30, 2017

Do you all think it is very good…?
I dont think it is easy to use or it does a good work…perhaps it is because i m not very skillful with this process.
i tried it several times but none of them gives me a good result.
someone told me that K0IV calibration's result is similar to the human eyes' feelings,and it seems right,i use this mode most and its results are acceptable.
but i still prefer to BN with CC…and Maxim DL's Color Balance.

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Aug 30, 2017 · Edited: Aug 30, 2017

I can't tell if it's very good yet. I've only tried it once and hoped for it to work the first time

I got a whole new set of raws of NGC 7023 though but messed up with the flats. The camera hit the pillar and loosent it. I'm not sure if it turned the whole corrector with it.
So I hope that doesn't affect the result so much, if it does I'll have to wait for next new moon and find the correct position of the last camera setting and get new ones.
I'll tell again what I'm thinking of it then.

I guess it worked fine, but I also only tried the average spiral galaxy white reference,

maybe i also should try different ways there.

Gary Plummer

Sep 4, 2017

Don't know if you found this yet but Lightvortex have updated their tutorials for the new features in 1.8.5 and they work a treat.

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/blog/updated-pixinsight-tutorial-for-colour-calibrating-images

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Sep 4, 2017

Thank you a lot , I just followed this
tutorial , also for the local normalization ,

And for now, I only could get the pcc working, I still have trouble with the other tool.

It's like my laptop stops working. I let it run now for 2 days, and it finally finished the process. All the other processes work fine.
acceptable working speed. But LN does absolutely not work well.

But thank you for telling me about this tutorial.

Dennis

Dennis Kaiser

Topic starter

Sep 30, 2017 · Edited: Sep 30, 2017

Hello again, I was wondering if or how I proceed for different exposure times.
I got two sets of andromeda last week. One with 360 seconds and one with 20 seconds,
I'm now about to do local normalization for those.

Can i use the same reference image also for my 20 second pictures ? Or do I mess them up then ? Should I pick one out of them separately ?

I nowhere find help for that question.

Maybe someone one can help me ?

Best regards .

Dennis

Gary Plummer

Oct 1, 2017 · Edited: Oct 31, 2017

Hello again, I was wondering if or how I proceed for different exposure times.I got two sets of andromeda last week. One with 360 seconds and one with 20 seconds,
I'm now about to do local normalization for those.

Can i use the same reference image also for my 20 second pictures ? Or do I mess them up then ? Should I pick one out of them separately ?

I nowhere find help for that question.

Maybe someone one can help me ?

Best regards .

Dennis

Howdy, I've just finished a similar project and just created a master from each of my subs of different exposure times, 60sec, 120sec & 300sec. Added them all to SubframeSelector and calculated weights for them. Obviously one of the 300 second subs came out on top and was used for the reference image in each stack. Then combined to RGB, added Ha then L and continued along the workflow from Warren Keller's book "Inside Pixinsight" and the LightVortex tutorials (Y).
Going to add some more exposures and re-do it as I'm not 100% happy with the Ha blending! But my best effort so far! :-)
My result so far:- http://www.astrobin.com/312733/B/

Just finished another couple of targets that I used Photometric color calibration on. One is on the site here:- www.astrobin.com/318542
And one I haven't uploaded yet:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/garphoto/38005709102/
Very happy with the results; I've also updated my M31 image:- http://www.astrobin.com/312733/C

All 3 processed with Pixinsight 1.8.5 Photometric color calibration.

Regards
Gary

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Nathan Campbell

Dec 2, 2019

I was having trouble for around half an hour on my first attempt and then I remembered that I drizzle integrated 2x. So I needed to divide my pixel size in half. Plate solving then worked like a charm.

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