Hi, I’m Mike Cranfield.
I’m an astrophotographer with a particular interest in developing tools that help us turn those dim cosmic photons into inspiring images of our awesome universe. My astro processing programme of choice is PixInsight. As such my tools have been designed as script and process plug-ins for this software.
In the PixInsight section of this site you will find details of my tools and how to obtain them. All of these tools are offered free of charge and I hope you will find them useful. If you do, and you publish your images, please make reference to any tools you use and to this website so we can spread the word to others.
Over time I intend to add more content to this site, so do check back from time to time to see what’s new!
In the meantime, I wish you clear skies.
What's new?
Collaboration with Adam Block – new NBColourMapper script
Adam Block is an award winning astrophotographer (including 100 APODs) working at the Mt. Lemmon SkyCentre in Arizona. He is an acclaimed public speaker and his tutorials are held in high regard across the astrophotographic community. He is also a PixInsight Ambassador.
Adam and I have been working together over recent weeks to create a new script, NBColourMapper, designed to allow narrowband greyscale images to be colourised and combined interactively with a preview facility.
On his website, “AdamBlockStudios”, Adam provides an extensive suite of training videos in which he brings his analytical presentational style to bear on a huge range of astrophotographic topics, including videos covering the new NBColourMapper script.
Collaboration with Bill Blanshan
Bill Blanshan has produced some powerful and original approaches to some key aspects of astronomical image processing. He has gained a justified reputation for making sophisticated techniques available to a wide audience by packaging them into easily applied PixelMath scripts.
I am pleased to have been working with Bill over recent months, developing the ideas behind his techniques and implementing them using straight forward user interfaces. Over the coming months we will be releasing a number of the resulting scripts/processes.
Bill runs the YouTube site: AnotherAstroChannel. Please do visit and subscribe to his channel.
NarrowbandNormalization process
The NarrowbandNormalization process, which derives from my collaboration with Bill Blanshan, helps to balance the intensities of the three channels in a narrowband image. Instructions for downloading this script can be found in the PixInsight section of this site. Bill provides a video explaining how to use it on his YouTube channel.
ScreenStars script
The ScreenStars script, which derives from my collaboration with Bill Blanshan, facilitates screening and unscreening stars from images and includes an innovative reverse stretching technique. Instructions for downloading this script can be found in the PixInsight section of this site. Bill provides a video explaining how to use it on his YouTube channel.
StarReduction script
The StarReduction script, which derives from my collaboration with Bill Blanshan, implements some of Bill’s innovative techniques to reduce star sizes in astro images. Instructions for downloading this script can be found in the PixInsight section of this site. Full documentation is available from within the script and Bill provides a a comprehensive video run trough of how to use it on his YouTube channel.