Resources, processes used, history and credits
In short: background on AutoIntegrate: other resources, the PixInsight processes it uses, history and credits.
There are a huge number of videos available on PixInsight. A few that I have seen often recommended are Visible Dark on YouTube or Adam Block on YouTube or on his website.
Written information on PixInsight may not be as up to date as videos but they are still worth a check. At least the book Inside PixInsight by Warren A. Keller is good.
Below are listed PixInsight processes that may be used by AutoIntegrate script with default LRGB processing. AutoIntegrate writes processing output to the Process Console window and to AutoIntegrate.log file. Details of processing steps can be found from the header block of the source code.
I started astrophotography with remote telescopes in 2017 and soon found that processing in PixInsight involved many repetitive steps. In 2018 I started writing a script to automate them. The files from remote telescopes were already calibrated, so the first version only handled the steps around ImageIntegration, which is where the name AutoIntegrate comes from. Since then the script has grown to cover the whole workflow from image calibration to post-processing.
Many thanks to Jean-Marc Lugrin for contributing brilliant Crop to common area code.
Many thanks to rob pfile for contributing the very useful Window name prefix and icon column position code. They are a great help when working with multiple images or multiple image versions.
Jean-Marc Lugrin has also created a great TestAutoIntegrate tool that automates testing. You can find it at GitHub. I have a slightly modified version of that code that works with the latest AutoIntegrate version.
Special thanks to Norman Hamann, Garth Hunt, Erik Westermann, Glenn Newell and Jari Backman for new ideas and testing different versions of the script.
Thanks to Ric Anderson for pointing the banding reduction performance problem.
VeraLux Hypermetric Stretch is based on the original Python version implementation by Riccardo Paterniti.
YouTube channel Seti Astro by Frank Marek has been a great source for new information and ideas on PixInsight and astrophotography. It has been an inspiration to several improvements done in AutoIntegrate. I highly recommend checking that channel.
AutoIntegrate Normalization option uses similar PixelMath expressions as Bill Blanshan in his Narrowband Normalization using PixInsight Pixelmath script. See more information in his YouTube channel AnotherAstroChannel.
Star Reduction equations using PixelMath are created by Bill Blanshan. For details see this YouTube video
Foraxx and Dynamic palettes, credit The Coldest Nights.
The PreviewControl module is from Andres del Pozo.
Banding reduction code is from CanonBandingReduction.js by Georg Viehoever.
Routines ApplyAutoSTF and applySTF used by AutoIntegrate are from scripts that are distributed with PixInsight. Routines for Linear Defect Detection are from PixInsight scripts LinearDefectDetection.js and CommonFunctions.jsh that are distributed with PixInsight. Linear Defect Detection code is using the code from Vicent Peris.
PixInsight scripts that come with the product were a great help when developing this script. The website Light Vortex Astronomy was a great place to find details and best practices when using PixInsight. Unfortunately that site is no longer available.
This product is based on software from the PixInsight project, developed by Pleiades Astrophoto and its contributors (https://pixinsight.com/).