I totally agree! I hate using PixInsight for stacking; it's slower than cold molasses. APP works like a charm, and even free options like Siril and ASIAir Studio put PixInsight's stacking to shame. For the amount of money PI costs, its stacking capabilities are unacceptable-it's only good for post-processing. My personal experience with the Pleiades Astrophoto team wasn't good either; they were quite arrogant and too proud of their product to care about a single user. After that experience, I regretted wasting €300 on PI and decided to support and donate to other companies instead. Siril, APP, GraXpert, and GIMP do the job really well once you learn how to use them. In my opinion, unless you make money with astrophotography-which is a small number of users-spending the time required to learn and use PI makes no sense. It becomes more like work than fun.
Your point about testing the two programs on poor data, not perfect data is excellent! Great analogy with automobile tests! More reviewers need to adopt that attitude.
Totally agree. I always use APP for stacking (only); do not use any other processes after the subs are stacked. The sweet thing about APP is that it is very easy to integrate multiple sessions, even from various optic trains. Then all other processing done in PI
Hoi Sascha, vielen Dank für diese Gegenüberstellung. Es war für mich das wichtigste alle deiner Videos, denn ich verwende nun auch APP statt PI für das Preprocessing. Ein weiterer grosser Vorteil ist, dass APP für Anfänger viel einfacher zu lernen ist. Ich empfehle APP für Maturaarbeiten zu nutzen, denn PI und auch Siril ist mehr oder weniger schwierig zu lernen. Darum ein grosses Dankeschön aus der Schulsternwarte in Langenthal.
I am so glad I found your channel, and this video in particular! I have often found that when PI fails to stack my images (or rejects far more than it really needs to), if I put them into APP i will get a much better result, which I then further process in PI without any issues.
Hello, I’ve managed to star align your three images in PixInsight - Star Alignment parameters adjusted star detection section Detection Scales 8 Noise Reduction 2 Log -2.00 star matching section RANSAC Tolerance 8.00 everything else defaults (reset to defaults before starting with above)
First of all: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You are the first one who cracked this - amazing!!!! I was able to reproduce it. I tried most of the things but not Noise Reduction, so this seemed to be the secret. Now, from my point of view, that you were able to align it speaks more for you than for Pixinsight, because if it needs so many tries until finally someone figures it out it is still not really optimal.......
I got them to stack without any problem, with a little tweak of the parameters in StarAlignment. The only tweaks I made to the default settings were to set detection scale to 8 and to allow clustered sources...all other parameters were left at default. (I'm running PI 1.8.9-1)
Thanks for the review. I have always used APP for integration and at some point i did buy and learn PI for post. Today I was wondering if I should swap out APP entirely, so I tried starting a session if WBPS and searched TH-cam while I waited. In the time it took (and it's not complete yet!) i found and watched your entire video started this comment and started preparing stacking again in APP and it's still not done in PI. 😂 So at least on my box APP seems but the more reliable and faster option. Clear skies.
Very interesting video. Out of curiosity did you by chance try stacking in deep sky stacker which is free of course? That's what I generally use as pixinsight does drop plenty data. I've no experience of APP so cant make a comparison. Keep up the good work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks a lot for the encouraging feedback! I could not test it with DSS, as I stack on a Mac - but yes, would be interesting how DSS would handle this kind of data.
Thanks for your excellent video. I'm looking at AAP as an integrated do-all astro imaging software suite. Is this true: Great stacking, de-noising, gradients and sharpening? Star removal and replacing? Thanks for your thought, Michael
You can use APP like this and Ryan from Darkrangers Inc. recently published some videos which explain how to best do that. That all said, compared to PixInsight, APP pales completely when it comes to processing. Color correction is done by random in APP, deconvolution like BXT not possible at all.... If you only want to go with one software, chose PixInsight - overall it is the much better solution!
hello, thanks for this video, I try also PI with those settings from french youtuber explore astro Detection Scales 8 Noise Scales 2 Noise reduction 8 Log (Sensitivity) -3 Peak Response 1.0 Maximum distortion: 0.27 and Ransac tolerance : 8 (not in his video). and it do the job
I love PixInsight but I religiously stack in APP first. It blows PI out of the water for stacking. I get the same result, in about half the time with half the filesize explosion, flawless mosaics, and no tantrums.
Thanks you for providing this challenge. I was curious how a free app would stack up to these expensive software. It might be interesting to know that SiriL also had absolutely no problem stacking... some of the stars came out oval but otherwise kinda nice. It would be nice for you to compare the free SiriL software against APP and PI seeing as Siril offers both Ha and OIII extraction, generalized hyperbolic transformation, PCC, pixel math and a few other things, is multiplatform and doesn't cost a dime
Siril has one VERY HUGE issue, which is is does not work on a Mac ;-) That said, I would also do not go down that road and test software I do not fully understand, but I hear very good things about SIRIL so I can image it is a good alternative.
@@viewintospace Hi Sascha! Thank you for your reply. I completely understand but I feel I must correct you. SiriL as far as I know has always been available for Mac - I am a Mac only user myself and have been using the Mac version of SiriL for almost 2 years. It’s actually been a godsend as one of the only full featured astrophotography pre/post processing software available for free on the Mac. I urge you to try it out - it may surprise you :).
Bit late to the plate! Literally buying this just to stack... pixinsight's WBPP is taking 40 hrs at the moment with no GPU support. Im worried my CPU is going to melt lol! Not so practical...
@@viewintospace Yeh. I could feel that you are actually beginner and don’t know clear what to advise. Experienced astrophotographers always advise on combination of mount-scope-camera.
![ILLSLICK - THE KING'S LANDING [Freestyle]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/feIJJnNkTfk/mqdefault.jpg)
APP is way better at stacking than any program and the fact you can separate channels while stacking is brilliant
I totally agree!
I hate using PixInsight for stacking; it's slower than cold molasses. APP works like a charm, and even free options like Siril and ASIAir Studio put PixInsight's stacking to shame. For the amount of money PI costs, its stacking capabilities are unacceptable-it's only good for post-processing.
My personal experience with the Pleiades Astrophoto team wasn't good either; they were quite arrogant and too proud of their product to care about a single user. After that experience, I regretted wasting €300 on PI and decided to support and donate to other companies instead. Siril, APP, GraXpert, and GIMP do the job really well once you learn how to use them.
In my opinion, unless you make money with astrophotography-which is a small number of users-spending the time required to learn and use PI makes no sense. It becomes more like work than fun.
Your point about testing the two programs on poor data, not perfect data is excellent! Great analogy with automobile tests! More reviewers need to adopt that attitude.
Totally agree. I always use APP for stacking (only); do not use any other processes after the subs are stacked. The sweet thing about APP is that it is very easy to integrate multiple sessions, even from various optic trains. Then all other processing done in PI
Hoi Sascha, vielen Dank für diese Gegenüberstellung. Es war für mich das wichtigste alle deiner Videos, denn ich verwende nun auch APP statt PI für das Preprocessing. Ein weiterer grosser Vorteil ist, dass APP für Anfänger viel einfacher zu lernen ist. Ich empfehle APP für Maturaarbeiten zu nutzen, denn PI und auch Siril ist mehr oder weniger schwierig zu lernen. Darum ein grosses Dankeschön aus der Schulsternwarte in Langenthal.
I am so glad I found your channel, and this video in particular! I have often found that when PI fails to stack my images (or rejects far more than it really needs to), if I put them into APP i will get a much better result, which I then further process in PI without any issues.
Hello, I’ve managed to star align your three images in PixInsight - Star Alignment parameters adjusted
star detection section
Detection Scales 8
Noise Reduction 2
Log -2.00
star matching section
RANSAC Tolerance 8.00
everything else defaults (reset to defaults before starting with above)
First of all: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You are the first one who cracked this - amazing!!!! I was able to reproduce it. I tried most of the things but not Noise Reduction, so this seemed to be the secret. Now, from my point of view, that you were able to align it speaks more for you than for Pixinsight, because if it needs so many tries until finally someone figures it out it is still not really optimal.......
@@viewintospace Do I win a special prize ? 🥳
@@HogarthsAstrophotography Well, the confidence that you never have to pay another $160 to buy APP 😉
I got them to stack without any problem, with a little tweak of the parameters in StarAlignment. The only tweaks I made to the default settings were to set detection scale to 8 and to allow clustered sources...all other parameters were left at default. (I'm running PI 1.8.9-1)
Thanks for the review. I have always used APP for integration and at some point i did buy and learn PI for post. Today I was wondering if I should swap out APP entirely, so I tried starting a session if WBPS and searched TH-cam while I waited. In the time it took (and it's not complete yet!) i found and watched your entire video started this comment and started preparing stacking again in APP and it's still not done in PI. 😂 So at least on my box APP seems but the more reliable and faster option. Clear skies.
It's a rather old video, but it is still fully valid!!!
Very interesting video. Out of curiosity did you by chance try stacking in deep sky stacker which is free of course? That's what I generally use as pixinsight does drop plenty data. I've no experience of APP so cant make a comparison. Keep up the good work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks a lot for the encouraging feedback! I could not test it with DSS, as I stack on a Mac - but yes, would be interesting how DSS would handle this kind of data.
Thanks for your excellent video. I'm looking at AAP as an integrated do-all astro imaging software suite. Is this true: Great stacking, de-noising, gradients and sharpening? Star removal and replacing? Thanks for your thought, Michael
You can use APP like this and Ryan from Darkrangers Inc. recently published some videos which explain how to best do that. That all said, compared to PixInsight, APP pales completely when it comes to processing. Color correction is done by random in APP, deconvolution like BXT not possible at all.... If you only want to go with one software, chose PixInsight - overall it is the much better solution!
hello, thanks for this video,
I try also PI with those settings from french youtuber explore astro
Detection Scales 8
Noise Scales 2
Noise reduction 8
Log (Sensitivity) -3
Peak Response 1.0
Maximum distortion: 0.27
and Ransac tolerance : 8 (not in his video).
and it do the job
I love PixInsight but I religiously stack in APP first. It blows PI out of the water for stacking. I get the same result, in about half the time with half the filesize explosion, flawless mosaics, and no tantrums.
100% agree!!!!
Thanks you for providing this challenge. I was curious how a free app would stack up to these expensive software. It might be interesting to know that SiriL also had absolutely no problem stacking... some of the stars came out oval but otherwise kinda nice. It would be nice for you to compare the free SiriL software against APP and PI seeing as Siril offers both Ha and OIII extraction, generalized hyperbolic transformation, PCC, pixel math and a few other things, is multiplatform and doesn't cost a dime
Siril has one VERY HUGE issue, which is is does not work on a Mac ;-) That said, I would also do not go down that road and test software I do not fully understand, but I hear very good things about SIRIL so I can image it is a good alternative.
@@viewintospace Hi Sascha! Thank you for your reply. I completely understand but I feel I must correct you. SiriL as far as I know has always been available for Mac - I am a Mac only user myself and have been using the Mac version of SiriL for almost 2 years. It’s actually been a godsend as one of the only full featured astrophotography pre/post processing software available for free on the Mac. I urge you to try it out - it may surprise you :).
Well done!
Bit late to the plate! Literally buying this just to stack... pixinsight's WBPP is taking 40 hrs at the moment with no GPU support. Im worried my CPU is going to melt lol! Not so practical...
This is also the only reason to buy APP - to stack! But I never regreted buying it and I still exclusively stack in APP!
@@viewintospace Thanks for the useful videos :) Will be a lot more practical 👌
Pixinsight. There is detailed video on this. Next.
For PixInsight, start here: th-cam.com/video/P6AVQo9a0dA/w-d-xo.html
@@viewintospace Interesting and complicated. So, what is your choice for mount and telescope?
@@viewintospace I mean comparison of Pixinsight with other software. There is very good videos, more detailed then presented. For example, by Carver.
@@anata5127 I have a CPC-800 on a wedge. Would I recommend that as a beginner scope? No. Did it teach me a lot of good lessons? Absolutely ;-)
@@viewintospace Yeh. I could feel that you are actually beginner and don’t know clear what to advise. Experienced astrophotographers always advise on combination of mount-scope-camera.