Help and troubleshooting

Getting help

Ask questions on forums.ruuth.xyz or Discord. Source code and releases are on GitHub.

The AutoIntegrate.log file in the AutoProcessed directory shows all processing steps and is useful when looking for the cause of a problem.

Known problems

• PixInsight strange errors.
  Sometimes you may get strange errors or warning messages that look like references to undefined variables. These messages may point to the AutoIntegrate script or to internal PixInsight JavaScript classes. In that case you should reset the PixInsight JavaScript engine by giving the following command to the Process Console:
  
  run --reset
  
  
• AutoIntegrate does not show up in the Script/AutoIntegrate menu.
  If AutoIntegrate does not show up in the Script/AutoIntegrate menu you can try to reinstall scripts by deleting the updates.xri file in the PixInsight application folder. Or you can try to repair the PixInsight installation, check for updates, close PixInsight to install updates, and restart PixInsight.
  
  
• AutoIntegrate dialog does not fit on the screen.
  AutoIntegrate dialog is quite large so in some cases it is possible that it is not fully visible on the screen and you cannot access the bottom row. In this case the problem can be the preview window size. It is possible to change the preview window size or disable preview in the Interface / Interface settings section. Note that some buttons like Exit and Run are duplicated at the top part of the dialog.
  
  On MacOS if the PixInsight is not set to full screen mode part of the dialog may not be visible. In that case setting the screen to full screen mode helps.
  
  
• include file not found: ../AdP/CommonUIControls.js
  Starting from AutoIntegrate version 1.56 there is a dependency to ImageSolver script in the PixInsight distribution. This means that ImageSolver files must be in the ../AdP directory relative to AutoIntegrate directory. If you have manually downloaded AutoIntegrate from GitHub you need to create ../AdP directory and copy the contents of Pixinsight-install-directory/src/scripts/AdP there. In Windows the default installation path to AdP is C:\Program Files\PixInsight\src\scripts\AdP.
  
  
• Error Zero or insignificant PSF Signal Weight estimate
  In some cases like when using starless images you may get an error "Zero or insignificant PSF Signal Weight estimate" in the AutoIntegrate log files. You may get rid of this problem by using an option ImageIntegration use ssweight in the Settings / Image processing parameters section.
  Very bad input image can cause the the problem. In that case you should filter out bad images.
  Another reason can be too small image size caused for example by cropping or binning.

Problems already fixed

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration - fixed in PixInsight version 1.8.9-2 build 1601
  Using SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (SPCC) will mess up with the dialog window. Everything still runs fine. This seems to be a problem in the SPCC process. If you use SPCC during processing you need to close the dialog from the upper right corner close button. Using that button is not normally recommended as it does not save session settings. But in this case it is the only way to close the dialog.
  
  
• StarXTerminator File I/O error when using an old version - fixed in August 2023
  When using an old version of StarXTerminator you may get a File I/O Error and stars are not removed from the image. This error is already fixed in later versions of StarXTerminator (August 2023). When using an older version the fix is to manually start and stop the StarXTerminator process once. After that StarXTerminator works also from AutoIntegrate script.
  
  

Some tips for using AutoIntegrate script

• Very often you get good results by running the script with default settings and then continue processing in PixInsight.
• Always before running the script you should check the quality of the data using the AutoIntegrate preview functionality or using a separate Blink process. You should remove all files that have movement like wind effect or bad clouds.
• If your data quality is not the best you may want to increase noise reduction.
• When processing bright galaxy data the image may come out too bright. You can try using MaskedStretch or reduce STF targetBackground value.
• When processing nebulosity data you can try using Histogram stretch.
• With enhancements options it is possible to do basic enhancements like remove stars using StarNet2 or StarXTerminator, increase contrast, run HDRMultiscaleTransform, LocalHistogramEqualization and make smaller stars automatically.
• When removing stars you often get better star color with unscreen option. When combining stars and starless in PixInsight or Photoshop use the screen option.
• Automatic cropping is very handy. But check LowRejectionMap_ALL and verify that the crop is ok.

See also tips for processing OSC or RAW files.

Release notes

v1.87 - MLDenoise
v1.86 - V8 JavaScript engine
v1.84 - Calibration updates
v1.83 - Simple and expert modes
v1.82 - Standalone tools, MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch
v1.81 - VeraLux HyperMetric Stretch
v1.80 - Process icons
v1.79 - Tutorials
v1.78 - Small updates and fixes
v1.77 - Find files recursively from a directory

For more details on versions see GitHub page or forums.ruuth.xyz or Discord