I recently came across the 'Cosmic Clarity' software from Seti Astro (cosmic clarity — Seti Astro). This is a freely-available tool that provides AI-based sharpening and noise reduction features for astronomy images. Usefully for those of us that haven't made the transition to PI, it comes in a standalone version although a PI integration is also available.
My initial impressions are quite favourable, although I had to dial down both the sharpening and noise-reduction levels from their defaults to minimise artefacts. There does seem to be a slight tendency to 'invent' stars from clumps of luminosity in DSO images, although reducing the sharpening level does reduce this. The tools also seem to increase saturation and mess with colour balance a bit, although both effects are easily handled with a quick curve adjustment after processing.
I've posted a couple of examples where I've reprocessed some of my earlier images:
NGC5189 - the Spiral Planetary Nebula (James Tickner) - AstroBin
Centaurus A (Caldwell 77, NGC 5128) (James Tickner) - AstroBin
In both cases significant extra detail can be seen, and comparison with images taken with larger scopes/Hubble suggest that this is 'real'.
All-in-all, worth a look as a free alternative. I'd be interested to hear of others' experiences as well.
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