New Foraxx script for PixInsight
One of the nice aspects of PixInsight is the many engineers developing scripts, plugins and complex PixelMath expressions. These add-ons can often make life of the hobby astrophotographer a whole lot easier and the output of our work a whole lot better. Recent examples are the AI-based plugins developed by Russell Croman such as BlurXterminator, the Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch tool developed by Mike Cranfield and Dave Payne, and the HOO scripts for OSC images written by Bill Blanshan.
A new script has now been released by Paulyman Astro, that automates the process of creating narrow-band images in Foraxx palette. The Foraxx palette makes use of so-called dynamic narrowband combinations, as published by The Coldest Nights. Compared to Hubble palette images, Foraxx images have their own look with often more bronze-colours in them, and less dominant blues.
The script works for narrowband images from monochrome cameras, as well as OSC cameras with dual-band filters. It requires the stars to be separated from he nebulosity, so star removal is a prerequisite. This is typically a one-click operation using tools such as Starnet2 (free) or StarXTerminator (paid).
Paulyman Astro makes the script available for free. Just add https://foraxxpaletteutility.com/FPU/ to the repositories in PixInsight, run ‘check for updates’ and upon closing of PixInsight, the script will be installed. When installed it can be found under Scripts > Utilities > ForaxxPaletteUtility.
31 August 2023 Update:
When upgrading PixInsight to 1.8.9-2, the script will disappear from the menu and the repository url will be removed from the list. Adding the url back into the repository list and running the update process should bring the script back again. As of this writing, version 1.15 of the script is compatible with Pixinsight 1.8.9-2.