Keith Mombourquette:
As usual, I'm late to this party. While I am truly amazed at the efficiency with which Frank has developed his software, he lost me when he moved to a stand-alone application. I use many of his scripts within PI quite routinely. However, I have no interest in exporting image files from one good application to another in order to do something that I can already do in the first app. At my advanced age, learning new software does not come as easily as it once did, so I need to see a distinct benefit to learning a new way to do something to justify that effort, especially given that I already have a lot more to learn in PI. I am certain that I am not Frank's intended audience. What he is doing will likely contribute greatly to the community, and I wish him well. However, I will continue to invest my learning expenditure towards better PI skills, while casting an occasional glance at what Frank is doing, just-in-case he adds that one new thing that makes the investment in learning his application worthwhile. I don't think he's doing it for people that are already using PI, it's for everyone who isn't.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
Tony Gondola:
Keith Mombourquette:
As usual, I'm late to this party. While I am truly amazed at the efficiency with which Frank has developed his software, he lost me when he moved to a stand-alone application. I use many of his scripts within PI quite routinely. However, I have no interest in exporting image files from one good application to another in order to do something that I can already do in the first app. At my advanced age, learning new software does not come as easily as it once did, so I need to see a distinct benefit to learning a new way to do something to justify that effort, especially given that I already have a lot more to learn in PI. I am certain that I am not Frank's intended audience. What he is doing will likely contribute greatly to the community, and I wish him well. However, I will continue to invest my learning expenditure towards better PI skills, while casting an occasional glance at what Frank is doing, just-in-case he adds that one new thing that makes the investment in learning his application worthwhile.
I don't think he's doing it for people that are already using PI, it's for everyone who isn't. For sure, @Tony Gondola - I believe Frank himself said so very clearly. And I'm also mostly with you, @Keith Mombourquette - especially about the cost of learning new tools that significantly increases with age. That said, the new blink-like functionality Frank has added a few weeks ago is the one exception to the rule: it has quickly become my goto tool for culling images first thing in the morning after a night of backyard imaging...
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
I have been using ASI studio to cull my subs. I like the fact that I can easily and quickly go back and forth between subs, and I can delete bad subs directly without having to move them to a different directory.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
Keith Mombourquette:
I have been using ASI studio to cull my subs. I like the fact that I can easily and quickly go back and forth between subs, and I can delete bad subs directly without having to move them to a different directory. You can do the same in Seti and with subs that are flagged as bad you can delete them or have them moved to a different directory. You can also further automate the process by choosing a feature that will look closer at the subs and display graphs of FWHM, number of stars, background brightness and eccentricity. For each option you can select the cutoff and the software will flag those subs. It's really very well though out.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
TBH, I haven’t tried it yet. Started with Astrophotography 1.5 years ago, but did mostly planetary stuff - so AS4 and Registax became important to me.
I was always struggling with finding the right Deepsky processing software. Ended up with Siril after a few attempts. It’s powerful, but I still can’t handle everything. PI seems to be a killer, but also in costs. I’m afraid of spending a few hundred bucks for a software I don’t understand. Of course, it’s a learning process. I consider myself still being a beginner, so I will try to learn with the free stuff first. The more used I get to it, the easier I can adopt to a more complex suite. At least I think that’s the case!
And it seems to be the best time to give Seti a try!
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
The better your data is, the less processing you need.
But of course if you are the type who just wants to image all the time even in very bad weather conditions… then you will definitely need all kinds of tools and advanced techniques and so on.
One thing I have learned over the 8 years I have been in this hobby is to wait for better weather conditions for imaging.
Patience will be rewarded.
For me, SIRIL and SAS is everything… for now.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
Maybe I will think so too after 8 years 😉 Every night out there teaches me a lot. So I take any chance I get, even if the conditions are not the best. Last time I did 100 Minutes of Narrowband for the trash, cause they were not sharp enough. With limited time and clear skies that hurts. But next time I’ll be more careful with focusing. Again something learned!
But in general you are right. The best software can’t compensate bad guiding for example. And clouds are clouds, no matter what kind of filter you are using.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
To answer the original question: yes, in fact PI has only become more relevant.
Frank is doing amazing work on his PI scripts and his SAS suite. And having so much easy to use processing power available at no cost will make astrophotography accessible for a lot more people. Together with much more affordable and even automatic imaging setups one can only imagine that the number of astrophotographers will further increase.
For anyone interested in 'growing' further into this hobby there are plenty of options in buying bigger, fancier and/or more diverse hardware. And with PI there is a clear upgrade path in software use as well for those that want it. In fact, with some experience in astrophotography under the belt, one may be more successful in climbing the PI learning curve and less likely to dropout disappointed. More likely one leverages and appreciates it for the solid industry standard that it is.
As far as price goes, the cost of PI is trivial compared to the hardware we're using, and PI's value greatly exceeds its cost.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
It is great to have free options available, as this lowers the barrier for young people to enter the hobby, which I believe is essential for its evolution. Regarding whether PI is necessary, the saying 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' captures the essence of the matter. If PI weren't that good, no one would mimic it or name their tools after it. On the other hand, I wish that PI would imitate others, as some free tools have taken inspiration from and evolved the tools that PI offers.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
I don't think PI is going anywhere regardless of other softwares. I have been a PI user since it was launched around 2011 or so. There are just too many developers and contributors that are constantly working to improve and update it. Back in the day I had to pay for a CCDStack subscription for preprocessing AND a photoshop subscription for post processing. Those both required additional payments for updates. When PI came along I saved a ton! Not to mention how comprehensive and effective it became. The learning curve was steep in the beginning years but not so much now as many have stated. I think there are a ton of folks who are long time PI users and we have already paid our initial subscription a long time ago. Those folks are not going anywhere and neither is PI.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
Dave & Telescope:
I don't think PI is going anywhere regardless of other softwares. I have been a PI user since it was launched around 2011 or so. There are just too many developers and contributors that are constantly working to improve and update it. Back in the day I had to pay for a CCDStack subscription for preprocessing AND a photoshop subscription for post processing. Those both required additional payments for updates. When PI came along I saved a ton! Not to mention how comprehensive and effective it became. The learning curve was steep in the beginning years but not so much now as many have stated. I think there are a ton of folks who are long time PI users and we have already paid our initial subscription a long time ago. Those folks are not going anywhere and neither is PI. As I've mentioned before, I don't think Frank has created SetiAstro Suite for long time PI users but rather for people who aren't. I can't imagine that a long time PI user would switch from PI to Seti but for people who aren't, the gulf is narrowing. Especially when you consider the latest upgrades to Siril. For myself, the only reason I would go for PI these days is the ability to run BlurX for which there really isn't an alternative .......yet.
|
You cannot like this item. Reason: "ANONYMOUS".
You cannot remove your like from this item.
Editing a post is only allowed within 24 hours after creating it.
You cannot Like this post because the topic is closed.
Copy the URL below to share a direct link to this post.
This post cannot be edited using the classic forums editor.
To edit this post, please enable the "New forums experience" in your settings.
