astro pixel processor ??

[iwols]

hi guys just wondered if anyone had tried the new software from aries and what your thoughts were cheers

[swag72]

Thanks to your reminder with this thread, I went to download it and give it a go.

The first and only test so far has been stitching together a 6 pane mosaic with only 1x600s per pane as I wanted to make sure that it all stitched together before I continued to get data. There were some teething problems for sure, but the forum was a great place for help. In the end, I got out of it a perfectly acceptable mosaic. There were no joins and it all matched up better than when a friend of mine did it in PI.

I will certainly try it again for mosaic stitching when I get the data.... it looks like a MUCH easier process than PI once you get an idea of what to press!!! 

[swag72]

I'm enjoying working out this software..... I've just done a video on how to create a BPM 

 

[jarbi]

Hi,

Just to say I started to work with this program as well a week ago, it looks very promising. I have processed some images with it my Canon DSLR and the ASI071MC, I find it user friendly. Learning curve is much less steep than in Pixinsight, but to be fair PI is a complete package until final processing. The goal of Astro Pixel Processor is a good preprocessing as I see, but that part is done in very detailed way with advanced options,

 

cheers,

Janos

 

[swag72]

I've done a video that probably should have been the first one! Giving an overview to the APP environment - I'd like to say that I am not affiliated to APP in any way, but I rate the software highly so far and would like to make it easier for people and a reference for me too!!

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by swag72

[Gasman]

I keep trying to load AstroPixel processor but it asks for login/licence details I haven`t been given yet?. I assume the author has to sanction its use first as its a beta?

cheers

Steve

Edited June 12, 2017 by Gasman

[steppenwolf]

1 hour ago, Gasman said:

I keep trying to load AstroPixel processor but it asks for login/licence details I haven`t been given yet?. I assume the author has to sanction its use first as its a beta?

You don't get an immediate response from their server most likely for the reason you suggest - leave it for another 12 hours and hopefully you will get your notification.

[Gasman]

Guess I was just being impatient, got the email now

thanks

Steve

[Gasman]

Right guys can`t access the manual  or the forum at the moment as the server is down so thought I`d plod on and try and figure the workflow out for myself but I appear to have hit a snag.

I`ve set the working directory ok and all my lights,darks,flats and bias files all seem to have done their thing but Im going through what I assume is a step by step process following the 1-6 buttons at top left but I can`t get past no3 `ANALYSE STARS` button as it says `no lights are available`. Now I think what the problem may be is that my images are not the normal astro shots that maybe this software was designed for, a typical spectrum I take is like this -

so as you see not much of a star to analyse (ignore the hot pixels) so until I can access the APP forum could anyone advise if that is the case please?.

thanks

Steve

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by Gasman

[swag72]

I would think, from the limited stuff I know, that APP will not analyse stars on that type of image.

[Gasman]

Think you might be right Sara but it seems a pretty good application and thought I`d give it a try!.

cheers

Steve

[swag72]

I've found it to be a fairly easy and very effective application

[fwm891]

On my second run of the APP trial, I like being able to load all the files in their respective slots and go through the stages to integration. After integration with APP I find further processing awkward with results looking quite 'muddy' with lack lustre colour. What I do find now is that I'm using APP to the integration stage saving that image and then continuing to work forward with PI.

I've had problems with PI and amp glow from my ASI294MC Pro, with PI there always seems a slight residual amp glow as the image is stretched. APP however using the same file sets removes the amp glow completely. with nothing showing in subsequent processing. Need to read and watch the videos that are beginning to appear on APP.  I'm trialling this with an CMOS/OSC camera so probably need a different routine to CCD/Mono users?

Attached is an APP/PI processing combination. 30 lights, darks, dark-flats, flats and bias frames used.

Francis

[bottletopburly]

@fwm891Nice image  , is that a meteor bottom left ? 

Edited October 2, 2019 by bottletopburly

[fwm891]

2 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

@fwm891Nice image  , is that a meteor bottom left ? 

I don't think so too even both sides of the 'flash'. My guess is a rotating satellite brightening and fading.

[eshy76]

To chime in here, I switched to APP for all my preprocessing (ie stacking) about 6 months ago and have not looked back! I still use PI for post-processing though.

I had forced myself to learn PI's integration workflow and got quite good at it - DSS and PI's own batch preprocessing tool were too limited for me, I don't think I could rank subs by quality and so on. The full PI workflow was time consuming however as I had to sit at the computer for much of the process. And that's before image editing!

APP is a joy - it's pretty intelligent in terms of loading the subs and can read the fits headers to put subs of the same filter together automatically. The individual preprocessing tabs are flexible - I can choose rejection algorithms, drizzle and crucially to me, how to rank the subs for stacking. Best of all I can just press "integrate" and go to bed! And wake up to all the integrations done by filter - the results look pretty good to me!

APP is like an up-to-date Deep Sky Stacker which gives you some of the power of PI in your stacking.

It's also pretty amazing at mosaics too!

[dazza1639]

I have given APP a go and found it to be really good and quite straight forward to use, however, when I enlarged my M27 image I found what appears to be a hot pixel stacking artifact. I don't know where I went wrong. I followed  Sara's tutorials, I think I must have missed something. I think I need to do another trial.