One of the challenges of using PixInsight is the need for masks for various processing techniques. There are various ways to produce and use a mask in PixInsight, making mastery of the subject difficult for new users.
One of the more common needs for a mask is boosting areas of faint signal in your images. Faint signal is defined as a region that’s of low contrast, often just above the image’s noise level. Regions of faint signal are common in astronomical images where the subject matter is dark on a dark background. Getting at these precious pixels has often been a hit-ot-miss cycle of using a star removal process like SarNet, StarNet v2, or StarXTerminator to highlight the faint nebulosity in an image and then use it as a mask to further boost the areas of faint signal – the process is energy- and time-consuming.
Fortunately, there’s an easier way to get at the faint parts of an image using the ArcsinhStretch or GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch processes using PixInsight. This article goes into detail and provides you with a sample download to try out the technique on your own astro images.
