Pixinsight LE

Pixinsight LE: A Free Image Processing Software for Astrophotography

If you are interested in astrophotography, you may have heard of Pixinsight, a powerful and versatile image processing software solution created by Pleiades Astrophoto with the help of a team of world-class astrophotographers. Pixinsight is designed to handle complex and demanding tasks such as calibration, registration, integration, deconvolution, noise reduction, and enhancement of astronomical images. However, Pixinsight is not a free software, and it requires a license to use its full features and capabilities.

Fortunately, there is a free alternative for those who want to try out some basic image processing with Pixinsight: Pixinsight Limited Edition (LE). Pixinsight LE is a freeware subset of Pixinsight Standard that allows you to perform some basic image processing and is also an introductory preview to the full standard edition. Pixinsight LE includes the same IEEE 32-bit floating point processing engine, the same powerful, object-oriented user interface, and some of the high-precision fundamental processing tools implemented in Pixinsight Standard.

Pixinsight LE

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What can you do with Pixinsight LE?

Although Pixinsight LE is a limited version of Pixinsight Standard, it still offers some useful and effective tools for astrophotography. Here are some of the features and processes that you can use with Pixinsight LE:

Noise reduction: Pixinsight LE is focused on noise reduction, including a new, highly improved implementation of the SGBNR (Selective Gaussian Blur Noise Reduction) algorithm, which is widely used by astrophotographers to reduce noise without blurring details. Pixinsight LE also includes optimized implementations of the median and erosion/dilation morphological filters, and the addition of the SCNR (Subtractive Chromatic Noise Reduction) algorithm, which can remove color noise from images.

Multiscale processing: Starting with version 1.0.1, Pixinsight LE includes the full ATrousWaveletTransform process that can be found in the standard edition of the application. This is an extremely powerful and versatile tool for multiscale processing, with outstanding performance for the tasks of image restoration, detail enhancement and small-scale noise reduction. You can use this tool to adjust the contrast and sharpness of your images at different scales.

Pixel-level operations: Pixinsight LE also includes PixelMath, a flexible process to perform pixel-level operations between images. PixelMath can handle an unlimited set of images to apply a comprehensive set of arithmetic and logical operators. You can use this tool to create masks, combine images, apply filters, or perform any custom operation that you can define with a mathematical expression.

Histogram manipulation and curves adjustment: Pixinsight LE allows you to manipulate the histogram of your images using the HistogramTransformation process. You can use this tool to adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma of your images. You can also use the CurvesTransformation process to apply curves adjustments to your images. You can use this tool to modify the tonal range, color balance, and saturation of your images.

Geometric transforms: Pixinsight LE includes the whole set of geometric transforms of Pixinsight Standard, such as rotation, scaling, cropping, flipping, resampling, and distortion correction. You can use these tools to align, resize, crop, or correct your images.

How to get Pixinsight LE?

Pixinsight LE is available for download from the official website of Pixinsight. You can choose from different versions for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. The download size is about 40 MB. To install Pixinsight LE, you just need to unzip the downloaded file and run the executable file. No installation or registration is required.

Conclusion

Pixinsight LE is a free image processing software for astrophotography that offers some basic but effective tools for noise reduction, multiscale processing, pixel-level operations, histogram manipulation and curves adjustment, and geometric transforms. It is also an introductory preview to the full standard edition of Pixinsight, which has many more features and capabilities. If you are looking for a free and easy way to process your astronomical images, you may want to give Pixinsight LE a try.

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