About
PIPP (Planetary Imaging PreProcessor) is a free, dedicated image pre-processing tool built for amateur and semi-professional planetary astrophotographers. Before stacking software like AutoStakkert! or RegiStax can produce a sharp final image, raw video frames need to be sorted, stabilized, and trimmed — PIPP handles all of that automatically. The software accepts a wide variety of input formats including AVI, SER, BMP, FITS, TIFF, PNG, and JPEG files, making it compatible with virtually all popular planetary cameras. Its intelligent frame quality analysis ranks frames by sharpness and allows users to discard the worst percentage before stacking, dramatically improving the final result. Key capabilities include automatic planet/object centering, frame cropping to reduce file size, aspect-ratio and size normalization, RGB channel splitting, and batch conversion between image and video formats. PIPP also supports FITS header editing, making it compatible with scientific workflows. The tool is especially valuable for high-frame-rate planetary imaging sessions where thousands of frames need to be rapidly triaged. Its GPU-accelerated processing (where available) keeps turnaround times fast even for large SER video files. PIPP integrates seamlessly into a typical planetary imaging pipeline: capture → PIPP pre-process → AutoStakkert! stack → RegiStax/ImPPG sharpen. It is completely free to download and use, with no licensing fees or usage limits.
Key Features
- Frame Quality Sorting: Automatically ranks video frames by sharpness and allows users to discard the worst frames before stacking, improving final image quality.
- Automatic Object Centering: Detects and centers the planetary or lunar disc in every frame, compensating for atmospheric drift across long capture sessions.
- Multi-Format Support: Reads and writes AVI, SER, FITS, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and JPEG — compatible with virtually all planetary cameras and downstream stacking tools.
- Batch Cropping & Resizing: Crops frames to the smallest bounding box around the object and normalizes resolution, reducing file sizes and speeding up subsequent stacking.
- RGB Channel Splitting: Splits colour video into separate R, G, and B channel sequences for lucky-imaging workflows or atmospheric dispersion correction.
Use Cases
- Sorting thousands of raw planetary video frames by sharpness before stacking to maximize final image quality.
- Converting SER or AVI captures to TIFF or FITS sequences compatible with advanced stacking and processing software.
- Centering and stabilizing a drifting planetary disc across a long high-frame-rate capture session.
- Splitting colour video into individual RGB channel sequences for atmospheric dispersion correction workflows.
- Reducing large raw capture file sizes by cropping frames tightly around the planet before archiving or sharing.
Pros
- Completely Free: No cost, no subscriptions, and no usage limits — making it accessible to hobbyists and students worldwide.
- Seamless Pipeline Integration: Designed to slot directly into the standard planetary imaging workflow alongside AutoStakkert! and RegiStax.
- Wide Format Compatibility: Handles nearly every image and video format used by popular planetary cameras, removing conversion bottlenecks.
Cons
- Windows Only: PIPP is a Windows desktop application with no native macOS or Linux version, limiting accessibility for non-Windows users.
- No AI-Assisted Analysis: Quality sorting relies on traditional sharpness metrics rather than machine-learning models, which can miss nuanced frame quality differences.
- Dated Interface: The UI is functional but visually dated, with a steeper learning curve for users unfamiliar with astrophotography workflows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PIPP used for?
PIPP is used to pre-process planetary and lunar image sequences before stacking. It sorts frames by quality, centers the object, crops, resizes, and converts between formats to prepare data for stacking software like AutoStakkert! or RegiStax.
Is PIPP free to use?
Yes, PIPP is completely free to download and use with no licensing fees or usage restrictions.
What file formats does PIPP support?
PIPP supports AVI, SER, FITS, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and JPEG formats, covering the vast majority of outputs from popular planetary cameras such as ZWO ASI, QHY, and Celestron NexImage series.
Does PIPP work on macOS or Linux?
PIPP is primarily a Windows desktop application. macOS and Linux users may be able to run it via emulation (e.g., Wine), but there is no official native build for those platforms.
How does PIPP fit into a planetary imaging workflow?
PIPP sits between the capture stage and the stacking stage. Typical workflow: capture video with a planetary camera → pre-process and quality-sort in PIPP → stack best frames in AutoStakkert! → sharpen with RegiStax or ImPPG.
