EP15 - Sunday, 16th August 2020 7:30pm BST - Ikarus Observatory Public Data Pixinsight Workshop by David Wills - Pixel Skies

[Grant]

This week is something a little bit different - to coincide with the first public release of data from the Ikarus Observatory project we are pleased to be joined by David Wills of Pixel Skies which is where the Ikarus Observatory is remotely hosted.

Dave is an expert astrophotographer, you can see some of his work here and has had several of his images published in magazines such as Astronomy now and BBC’s Sky at Night and various AAPOD’s. He will be taking us through a full work-flow in Pixinsight using around 100 hours of Narrowband (Ha, OII and SII) data taken of M16 from the Ikarus Observatory setup. This will start from the raw data that is being released which will already have been stacked and calibrated ready for processing.

This won't be a full Pixinsight workshop as that's too much to cover in one session but, it will give you a tour of what Pixinsight can do and how you can put a workflow together. As the data will also be provided afterwards you will be able to follow along on YouTube yourself and have a go at following Dave's process or tweaking it to see what results you can achieve. We will also be announcing an image processing competition whereby we will be picking a winner of our favourite processed version

I will also be giving an update on progress with the Ikarus Observatory project and an overview of what it's all about and how SGL members can get involved.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP15 - Sunday, 16th August 2020 7:30pm BST - Ikarus Observatory Public Data Pixinsight Workshop by David Wills - Pixel Skies
Time: Aug 16, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95946328998?pwd=a2E4bU1OWWEyL0JNTTRKYVVORDM3Zz09

Meeting ID: 959 4632 8998
Passcode: 908939

[barkis]

I am in Awe of D.W's Images. Makes me wonder If I could ever aspire to such Creational Heights.
 I'm barely over the doorstep, but I can't even visualize producing work of that quality.
Nevertheless, I will be glued to the Zoom screen on Sunday to see how Dave works his magic.
Ron.

[Grant]

Just a reminder that this talk is in a couple of hours

[andrew s]

Having watched Dave's talk I am sure glad I do spectroscopy and not imaging. Far too hard.

Great talk David.

Regards Andrew 

Edited August 16, 2020 by andrew s

[DaveS]

I was scared of PI before the talk, now I'm terrified!

[DaveS]

Great talk though, and very informative.

[newbie alert]

Great talk even thou I don't use PI, thanks guys

[Tenor Viol]

Well... I think it convinced me that whilst PI is powerful, it is very evidently a complex product and one which requires a highly structured approach to learning. The 'download and play around with it' methodology isn't going to cut it.

It's on my long term list of things to do, but I think not just yet - not until I have a better grip of imaging in general. I think I need to find some serious training materials I can view online.  

[tomato]

There are a wealth of on-line tutorials available for PI, both video and text based walk throughs, as well as a couple of good books on the subject.
I think Dave covered a lot of ground in the time available, as I think his brief was to show how he had processed the M16 data collected from the IKI rig, rather than give an introduction to PI.

I’ll keep working away at it, for sure if it is just using my own data, the  pace is going to be quite leisurely.

[Richie092]

Couldn’t make this one but looking forward to seeing the re run. Have just started with PI so help with creating a workflow would be really helpful. Especially as you can use the same data set. 

[barkis]

Apologies from me, I was unable to make it to this one, and  I was so looking forward to this topic. I hope to watch the replay though.

Ron.

[skyrunner]

Interesting talk. I mainly use PI for processing so I was comfortable with the tool. But I've just picked up on the StarNet module in the last few days so it was great to see how Dave uses it for creating masks. I was also interested to see how he uses a lot of Unsharp Masking and SCNR in his processing workflow.

Gordon

[TerryMcK]

I enjoyed it but realize that with such a complex piece of software I have only scratched the very top surface of a fine program. I am part way through my 45 day trial and will be buying it at the end.

[Scott]

7 hours ago, barkis said:

Apologies from me, I was unable to make it to this one, and  I was so looking forward to this topic. I hope to watch the replay though.

Ron.

when it's uploaded, there will also be data to work through with the replay