Multi-night PixInsight Nebula Tutorial (Patreon Bonus Video, July 2025)
Added 2025-07-11 16:05:01 +0000 UTCFor the July 2025 Patreon bonus video, I am processing the Blue Horsehead data taken with my stock Canon DSLR using PixInsight, and a number of added scripts (links below). One thing I cover in this tutorial is how to use the 'grouping keywords' feature of PI's WBPP script to handle multiple nights of data automatically with just a couple clicks! The key to that is just having your folders and data set up and named a certain way. I also compare NoiseXterminator (paid) and DeepSNR (free), although more rigorous testing is still needed as the results were similar. Please add your processing suggestions, feedback and questions in the comments!
Software links:
PixInsight - https://pixinsight.com/
RC Astro - https://www.rc-astro.com/
Starnet - https://www.starnetastro.com/
DeepSNR - https://www.deepsnrastro.com/
Cosmic Photons - https://cosmicphotons.com/scripts/
The free software version of this tutorial is available on YouTube now: https://youtu.be/950gSFvNfaU
~Nico
Comments
1. Yes, the L-Pro is a gentle light pollution filter so you can just use PCC normally, and it should still work well for correcting white balance. 2. I would close the aperture unless you are seeing star trailing when you zoom in. If you see star trailing, lower the exposure time to 90s. Total time matters much more than anything else. I would stick with ISO1600 minimum on the EOS R. At 800 and lower, I find that model shows more horizontal banding.
Nico Carver
2025-07-29 15:24:51 +0000 UTCVery helpful tutorial, thank you. I downloaded the trial version and will try to get some results with it. I went out last night, managed to get 2 min exposures on my MSM Nomad with a 100mm lens - but after 10 exposures clouds came in, resulting in a thunder storm which is absolutely unusual for Namibia this time of year. I wanted to capture the Antares region (including the Horse Head), but I'll have to wait for another day to get more data. I have two questions: 1. I did use an Optolong L-Pro filter on my stock EOS R. Will SCC take care of that? 2. I am not sure when I take 120s exposures, whether I should I keep the ISO at 1600 and close the aperture (which I did) or lower the ISO.
Murmel Clausen
2025-07-26 05:28:24 +0000 UTCAwesome learning experience, thank you for this video.
Del W
2025-07-23 18:29:32 +0000 UTCThanks Nico! This video is a real winner, very nicely done. I've been trying to keep up with the Deep-Sky Imaging Primer's PixInsight info, but your walk through really made the software click as an end-to-end process.
James Gillham
2025-07-13 10:18:48 +0000 UTCAre you saying it sorts the data correctly (matching flats and lights by date) using the +directory button without using a grouping keyword? Are you using ASIAir or something else? I have found with data taken with Sequence Generator Pro, the file/folder organization can be anything I want, because all the data needed to sort things is in the FITS headers, but I know many use ASIAir which doesn't seem to do that. I think that is one of hard things about making tutorials about WBPP. How 'automatic' it is depends on many factors.
Nico Carver
2025-07-12 20:32:40 +0000 UTCI knew from doing the free tutorial (https://youtu.be/950gSFvNfaU) that the data didn't need color calibration, as I did run SPCC there in Siril and it produced no change to the visual look of the picture. So here I skipped it. I have found when using a stock camera (not astro modified) and daylight white balance from a Bortle 3 site, that the colors come back perfect (identical to SPCC with G2V star white balance), after background extraction. But yes, in general, I do use either PCC or SPCC in my color workflows, usually right after background extraction. It's important to do those when the data is still linear.
Nico Carver
2025-07-12 20:27:50 +0000 UTCMy workflow is much more complicated than yours so that I can get results close to yours. I suspect that's because my data isn't as smooth from the start. I have to say that I really learned a lot from your tutorial. I really appreciate that you are willing to share your expertese with us.
Robert Ostrander
2025-07-12 17:49:01 +0000 UTCWhen you used BlurXTerminator, you lowered the stellar sharpening a lot, which I understand given your data. I, fortunately, have a Canon 75-300mm zoom lens which I used on my AP camera (ZWO ASI6200MC pro) which resulted in stars that were not anywhere as good as yours. I had to use 0.60 for stellar sharpening and -0.25 for halo reduction. After BlurXTerminator finished, my stars were still not quite as good as yours, but there was a huge improvement. You also used an unlinked stretch to do some color calibration. I've seen you do more of that later in your workflow, but I use SPCC for color correction before doing BlurXTerminator. It uses all the stars in your pictures to give you true color. I suspect you already know this, but wondered why you don't use such a powerful tool more? And, of course, as soon as I restarted your video after this comment, you said you didn't use a color calibration tool because the unlinked stretch seemed to do a good job. At the end, however, you did a SCNR invert to remove the magenta, but I wonder if that would have already been gone with SPCC up front. On the other hand, I have to use some SCNR corrections about 30% of the time even with SPCC up front.
Robert Ostrander
2025-07-12 17:19:59 +0000 UTCWhen I use WBPP, I use subfolders for my own sanity. So, inside the main folder IC4592, then inside I make date folders (or you could name them Session_1 and Session_2. Inside the session folders, I put folders like bias, flats, darks, lights. When using a cooled camera, you can use the same darks for about 6 months. Put the master dark in the IC4592 folder, which for clarity now contains folders Session_1, Session_2, and MasterDark. Files inside the folders must be correctly names or WBPP will put them in the wrong tabs in WBPP. Once, I named both my flats and my bias as flats. You have to go into a program (I used PixInsight) and opened all the bias files. You use the FITSHeader process and edit the line that says Flat changing it to Bias. Then you have to change the file names to Bias.
Robert Ostrander
2025-07-12 16:48:47 +0000 UTCThanks Nico...it was very helpful to see the end-to-end process.
John MacDougall
2025-07-12 14:58:38 +0000 UTCI've seen some forum posts indicating they got this to work, but following their instructions to the letter, it didn't work for me. Whenever I tried to combine filter name and multiple dates into the folder structure or file naming using the keyword grouping strategy, it failed. The only reliable way I've gotten WBPP to group everything correctly by filter is to use FITS keywords. Many capture programs will put these keyword pairs (e.g. FILTER = BLUE) into the FITS header for you, but in the case of ASIAir, it only does it if you are using a filter wheel. If you are using an astro camera, you can use Mike Cranfield's BatchFITSKeywordEdit to inject the correct filter names into the FITS files before running WBPP. It's an extra step, so I am not sure if it would actually be faster than your current method of using the add custom feature in WBPP itself. But if you are interested in trying it the BatchFITSKeywordEdit script repository link is: https://www.cosmicphotons.com/pi-scripts/bfke/ Just copy-paste that into your repositories and update and you will have the tool. Adam Block has a video on the script here: https://youtu.be/fuyI0_FHQmI and the top comment is calling out how it would be useful for this exact purpose.
Nico Carver
2025-07-11 20:32:02 +0000 UTCWas just starting to work on this in a PI. Do you know if there is a way to group by filters with this same process. Currently I've been using the add custom feature.
ael5029
2025-07-11 19:42:00 +0000 UTCA brilliant tutorial, I have been looking forward to something like this, thanks Nico. Great timing as I am about to start my second night of imagining for my first ever multi night project.
Shaun Carter
2025-07-11 18:01:49 +0000 UTC
