Getting Started

Installation Guide

Follow these steps to install BB-Astro scripts in PixInsight and set up necessary dependencies.

Available Scripts

Script Description
LAcosmic Cosmic ray removal using L.A.Cosmic algorithm (van Dokkum 2001)
DeepCosmicRay Deep learning cosmic ray removal using DeepCR (Zhang & Bloom 2020)
CosmeticCorrection Hot and cold pixel removal with visual validation

Installation

Step 1: Add Repository

  1. Open PixInsight.
  2. Go to Resources > Updates > Manage Repositories.
  3. Click Add...
  4. Enter this URL:
https://bb-astro.github.io/BB-Astro_Repository/

5. Click OK.

Step 2: Install Scripts

  1. Go to Resources > Updates > Check for Updates.
  2. You will see the BB-Astro scripts listed.
  3. Select the scripts you want to install.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. Restart PixInsight.

After restart, find the scripts in: Script > BB-Astro

PixInsight Script Menu Location

Python Setup

CosmeticCorrection works immediately - no additional setup needed.

For LAcosmic and DeepCosmicRay, you need Python. When you first run the script, it will check for dependencies and show you exactly what to install.

LAcosmic Dependencies

Open Terminal and run:

pip3 install astroscrappy astropy numpy

DeepCosmicRay Dependencies

Open Terminal and run:

pip3 install deepcr torch xisf numpy astropy

Note: This downloads approximately 2GB (PyTorch is large). The first run will also download the DeepCR model weights (~100MB).

Python Not Installed?

macOS

brew install python3

Linux

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip

Windows

Download from python.org

Updating

PixInsight will automatically notify you when updates are available.

To manually check: Resources > Updates > Check for Updates

Troubleshooting

  • "Python packages missing" error
    Run the pip install command shown in the error message, then restart PixInsight.
  • "Python not found" error
    Install Python 3.8 or later using the commands above.
  • DeepCosmicRay is slow on first run
    This is normal - the model weights (~100MB) are being downloaded. Subsequent runs will be faster.
  • Scripts not appearing in menu
    Make sure you restarted PixInsight after installation.