A method for debloating and tightening up stars (using Pixinsight)

For this video, I'll show you a method I've been using to "debloat"
problematic stars. The example image in this video was captured using 7nm SHO filters from my bortle 8/9 backyard. In conjunction with poor seeing conditions, this led to star bloating (and overall soft stars).
If you'd like to practice this method, you can download the necessary files from my blog.
Blog post: www.ancientpho...
Website: www.ancientpho...
Acquisition details for image:
Bortle 8/9 Washington DC area
TS-Optics 94EDPH with 0.8x reducer
ASI183MM, gain 111 -10°C
ZWO 7nm SHO filters
iOptron CEM26
ASIair Pro
Ha = 48 x 300s (4 hours)
OIII = 75 x 300s (6.25 hours)
SII = 71 x 300s (5.9 hours)

[@WiseEyez]

Very well done, subscribed! You've got an excellent voice for these kind of videos, but maybe you could tune the background music down a bit (could be just me) ;)

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Haha, thanks for the feedback. Hopefully I've fixed the background music in my most recent videos!

[@ClearAmbientSkies]

Thank you for a great tutorial on cleaning up star shapes and their associated bloatware haha. I'm eagerly following your channel as I've just begun using PI in the last few months. I will certainly try this on my images. I anticipate reworking every image I've ever done now. I learned Adobe PS many years ago and stars and their associated issues have always been a problem for me. Thanks again Chad!

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Ha - bloatware indeed! PI definitely has a different workflow than PS and can be a beast to adapt to. Glad you're joining the club - it has a ton a great tools. Thanks for the nice comment, and I hope this helps you tame some stars!

[@ClearAmbientSkies]

I will follow-up with a before and after somehow. TH-cam doesn’t allow URLs outside of TH-cam anymore. Thanks again. Your knowledge sharing is much appreciated.

[@Mr77pro]

Love the tutorial…but the music is really distracting and too loud.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks for the feedback - will definitely reduce the amount of background music-

[@paulhumberstone5784]

Absolutely superb video. Many thanks.

[@CAPAstro]

Great video ! You have a new subscriber. I thought I recognized your voice as Chad from Patriot Astro too

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thank you. Must be a different Chad over at Patriot Astro - I'll have to check out the channel!

[@CAPAstro]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Oops sorry my bad just sounds alike to me lolz !

[@noreaction1]

This is great! Instant subscribe for me

[@Sidecontrol1234]

Ace I've been looking for a good way to tighten up the stars without having to rely on morphelogical transformation.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

MT tends to make the stars a bit soft. I think this method helps them have more definition.

[@robb7342]

Thanks for sharing this technique, definately a great sollution that I'll be trying out.

[@yangyunbo1]

hello APA ！sorry for short calling. do you know how to reduce the bright stars hallo in pixinsight？thank you！

[@Artsmitica]

Great tutorial. Thank you.

[@mpressprich]

Thanks for the excellent lesson. I just subscribed and look forward to trying these techniques and studying your other posts. Does your bloat reduction method leave non-spherical small galaxies morphologically uncorrupted?

[@universaltimewithpaulowen1083]

Hello there, great video, just a quick question. Are you doing all the steps in this process in non-linear ? Thanks

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Correct - everything is non-linear.

[@Neph-v5r]

Thanks for this, i'll be trying it out later on a couple of images I have that are slightly spoiled by star bloat. Before I do though, just one question, does your method work with OSC data? Thanks

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Hi Steve - it should work just fine. You'll have to split the RGB channels and see if any of the three channels display better, smaller stars. If so, choose that channel and work with it. If the channels are all similar, you can still separate the stars from one of them and create a binary mask to apply (inverted) to your full RGB star image. Then, use the Curves Transformation process to decrease bloat just like the video. In this case, getting the mask just right will be helpful.
I hope it works well for you - let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

[@Neph-v5r]

@@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999 Thanks for the reply. Red (which I use as H when splitting channels) is always the best with Blue always the worst. I'll try what you have suggested & let you know how I get on 🙂 I just subscribed to your channel.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

@@Neph-v5r thank you! Yes, please let me know how it works out-

[@dovber90]

Fantastic and really useful video. thanks

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks Robert 🙏

[@kevinkurtz6005]

That's a great technique, definitely going to play with it on my next data set

[@jameswoods1939]

Just found your channel and it's great that you're not showing what you've done with some pointers but how exactly it's done. there are a ton of tutorials that kind of skip through the process and these tutorials actually teach. Pixinsight can and well still is a bit intimidating when you want to go deeper into the processes and your videos certainly help make it a bit less daunting. Thanks for sharing.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Thanks James - I appreciate that. In my experience, I've found that it's nice to have a write-up of the process as well, which is why I've made these videos as supplements to my blog posts.
Pixinsight is definitely a complex software - every time I work on a project, I learn something new!

[@GrimArchon]

A great tutorial, clear and straightforward. You have inspired me to rework my NB images.

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

Glad you found it useful. This technique works well on NB

[@brianmckennamusic9434]

Is this RuneScape music in the background?

[@ancientphotonsastrophotogr6999]

No - it's all original music.