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Pixinsight--Is it worth the £££

JohnSadlerAstro
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ecuador
ecuador

+1 for that. StarTools is free to download and try for as long as you want with all features - only save is disabled (screenshots work) - and if you end up buying it, it is very cheap. When you get us

alacant
alacant

Having tried my PI trial alongside StarTools I was happy to allow it to expire. Without having to jump through time consuming hoops, I couldn't find anything in PI as efficient and straightforward as

JohnSadlerAstro
JohnSadlerAstro

Hi, So this is a comparison... no prizes for guessing which is 8-bit!!! Interestingly, 8 bit is 1.2 MB, 16 bit is 10.4 MB! (both have slight sharpening applied). The halos on the 16bit are a resu

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cuivenion

cuivenion

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10 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

How do I download this? Just click on the Latest  ".md5" file? 

Download the gimp-2.9.4.tar.bz2 file and open with 7zip or similar. Then open the .tar file with the same; that will give you a

2.9.4 folder. I think this is the Windows version, there's no installer that I can see so I think you have to compile it yourself. I unfortunately don't know how to do that.

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ecuador

ecuador

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Why don't you also review the trial of startools £34 Pryce for startools or there abouts

+1 for that. StarTools is free to download and try for as long as you want with all features - only save is disabled (screenshots work) - and if you end up buying it, it is very cheap. When you get used to it, it takes 10 minutes to give a good result on an image, when it took me over an hour with other software for similar (or worse) results.

Edit, oh, I forgot, you might want to check out this quick tutorial I made recently for my astro club.

Edited by ecuador
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bottletopburly

bottletopburly

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4 minutes ago, ecuador said:

+1 for that. StarTools is free to download and try for as long as you want with all features - only save is disabled (screenshots work) - and if you end up buying it, it is very cheap. When you get used to it, it takes 10 minutes to give a good result on an image, when it took me over an hour with other software for similar (or worse) results.

Edit, oh, I forgot, you might want to check out this quick tutorial I made recently for my astro club.

+1 for Startools and also +1 Ecuadors tutorial ,excellent startools guide , Ivo jager  the developer of startools rates pixinsight pureley on it`s stacking capabilities  alone .

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ecuador

ecuador

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

+1 for Startools and also +1 Ecuadors tutorial ,excellent startools guide , Ivo jager  the developer of startools rates pixinsight pureley on it`s stacking capabilities  alone .

Yeah, I'd actually appreciate a cheaper stacking/registering-only PI version to replace the free DSS ;) 

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SilverAstro

SilverAstro

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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Also, is there actually a 16-bit version of GIMP available?

Yes, GIMP 2.9.x will do 8bit, 16bit and 32bit, there are ready compiled portable (no installation needed) versions available for Windows,

2.9.5 portable for Win64 is here : https://www.partha.com/ (right-hand panel down the bottom)

I am Win32 and have 2.9.3 portable, but I dont have the download link to hand at the moment, I'll have to do some digging if you want it for Win32

Edited by SilverAstro
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alacant

alacant

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Posted (edited)

Having tried my PI trial alongside StarTools I was happy to allow it to expire. Without having to jump through time consuming hoops, I couldn't find anything in PI as efficient and straightforward as the StarTools wipe, noise tracking nor the simple manner in which masks and layers are handled. There's a 16-bit windows gimp build v2.9.5 here which compliments ST well. But what do I know? I'm only a year in to processing. Just my €0.02 anyway. HTH.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Posted

Just think about what your imaging hardware costs. It's a lot. Now think abut how much of the final image quality comes from processing. It's also a lot! It's more than a lot, it's going to be something like 80%. You can't process rubbish so the hardware is very important, but a good capture is no more than the collection of good raw data. You still have to do something with it. My captures are no better now than they were ten years ago but my processing is a lot better.

DBE in Pixinsight has no rival of which I'm aware. I still think the software giants are PI and Ps. Look at the images 'out there' which you like the most and see how they were processed.

Olly

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ecuador

ecuador

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

DBE in Pixinsight has no rival of which I'm aware.

Eh, I assume you haven't tried the "Wipe" module? I had first tried the DBE module of PI (trial) and loved it (coming from Photoshop). When I switched to StarTools with its wipe module, DBE actually felt like a chore ;)

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SilverAstro

SilverAstro

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Posted
52 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

DBE in Pixinsight has no rival of which I'm aware.

IRIS maybe ? http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

specifically  http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/iris/tutorial4/doc14_us.htm

I dont have PI so I cant say*  but the method that I have seen described for PI looks very similar

* I'm not picking a fight / arguing :) !! just for info for John OP, who was looking for alternatives to PI

The rest of IRIS may be suitable for anyone who has mastered the learning curve of GIMP and is looking for more, err, excitement :)

 

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SilverAstro

SilverAstro

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1 hour ago, SilverAstro said:

Yes, GIMP 2.9.x will do 8bit, 16bit and 32bit, there are ready compiled portable (no installation needed) versions available for Windows,

2.9.5 portable for Win64 is here : https://www.partha.com/ (right-hand panel down the bottom)

I am Win32 and have 2.9.3 portable, but I dont have the download link to hand at the moment, I'll have to do some digging if you want it for Win32

Still not found where I got the Win32 portable version of 2.9.3 but at this site :-

http://nightly.darkrefraction.com/gimp/

there are nightly builds for both Win32 and Win64, but they may be installable versions ??

Being the latest in the 2.9.x development they may have an as yet undiscovered bug, so  make regular interim backups of your work in progress in case of unexpected crashes ! :)

 

 

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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22 minutes ago, ecuador said:

Eh, I assume you haven't tried the "Wipe" module? I had first tried the DBE module of PI (trial) and loved it (coming from Photoshop). When I switched to StarTools with its wipe module, DBE actually felt like a chore ;)

As I said, I'm not aware of anything to beat DBE. That means what it says - I'm not aware of it. I don't claim that it doesn't exist! I'm not in the business of trying every new bit of software that appears on the market and I suppose that I'm mainly motivated to try new software when I see an image that breaks new ground. If I think, 'How did he or she do that?' then I'll be in there, full of curiosity. I'm hardly a PI evangelist, I'm manly a Ps imager, but DBE is profoundly impressive. If you have an alternative, tell us about it. Give us some demos. I'm all ears, I promise. If there is something out there which is more sophisticated than DBE - great.

Olly

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JohnSadlerAstro

JohnSadlerAstro

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My HAPPIEST post ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):);) 

I have 16-bit GIMP now!!!!!! :):D:) Thank you so much for the links to it. It's amazing! I could see the difference as soon as I did the 1st stretch!!! Now I know why my photos were looking bad!!!!! 

Ha Ha, beat ya, noise!!!! :D:):D  I am soooo excited right now.......... :D:):D 

Also Gradient...It melts away with discerning use of the Curves function!!! :D 

Before the background looked like.....a typical 'clear' night in the South-West, ie., muddy puddle... :D 

I will look into the trial versions of the £££ software, and see how they compare, and perhaps buy one one day........ (Though it seems unjust to ME for me to have to spend my MEAGRE pocket money on a COMMERCIAL license :D, but then.....)

John

Edited by JohnSadlerAstro
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