Just got Siril, this will help so much. It is Nov 2024, I haven't touched my ZTF data, or my neowise data....or now my Tsuchinsan-ATLAS. Got some stacking and processing to get too.
Thanks! Yeah I went through them all too, trying to find the best one. I think you're right, it just depends on the data. I've heard MAD gives some people really good results.
Thank you for this! Used GIMP at the end instead of Photoshop, but was able to easily figure it out. I watched another large channel Siril comet tutorial and he was definitely missing steps.
I have the same setup! But I'm using a Ioptron Pro mount. I'm new at this and I havent had the chance to go out yet due to the weather and I'm still waiting on my RedCat 51. I went a little overboard. I should of bought a astro camera but instead I bought a used T7i Rebel lens combo. Thought I could use that to learn how to use a Canon camera also. If i'm gonna do astrophotography, then I need to learn photography also right. I bought a Samyang 135mm for the camera. Well now that we all know that I know how to spend money, I'm hoping videos like this will help me use these bad boys. I've always been into space and now I'm at a part in my life where I can take pictures of the heavens. Good informative video! P.S If you don't hear back from me soon, then my wife found out all the money I spent.
Man fantastic tutorial. By chance I had a few stacks of this exact comet laying around my hard drive for over a year because I had no idea about stacking then (but still prepared). But I have now. Unfortunately no preprocessing for me (You could still recreate the necessary files I assume?) but it came out much more decent than any single exposure I could have taken otherwise.
@@DeepSpaceAstro Would it be reasonable to make flats, darks, bias picture files after the fact for preprocessing purposes for these old comet pictures? Assuming I recreate the colder outside conditions (we are well into autumn after all) - even tho they wont be exact to the °C obviously.
OMG this is good stuff ! I’ve got to start putting all these items in a doc or pdf . All I need now is for you to do a review of the new StellarMate and I’ll be set for the foreseeable future . LOL . Cheers and thanks again .
First I want to thank you Rich so much for doing this video that any beginner like me can follow without any problem. Siril is a great program and I have used it a lot in my own workflow together with DSS, I like both results and I combined always both for get the final image (I know is a double work...). With comets, when we have a project with this special sky target is always been a headache the star trail left in the comet only stacking and for the first time you are proposing a fair and magnifique way to deal with it. I follow step by step your workflow and I have some questions: Background Extraction 1) When is generate the grid in the first frame of the sequence, that grid is moving accordingly to the position of the comet in the next frame? Because if the comet is moving 'fast', more than the half of the sequence will get a grid point over not only in the head of the comet but also in the tail, and that maybe will affect some information of the comet?. Maybe, the area where the comet will move could be left free of grid points that more or less I know the comet will be moving. But If this is right, there is a problem if I'm not doing the Background extraction in that moment and do it later when I have the final starless stack? 2) Is a problem if I do not want to do a Photometric Color Calibration in my comet frames? 3) Why is been doing an export of files mtf_bkg_pp_light and not just get those files directly to the python script? Is around two days (since I discovered your video) I'm testing this workflow for several reason: ** in the stack starless comet, the head of the comet present a 'line' and is not pinpoint as should be. In fact also the tail is more thick than should be. Which meant sadly I'm not getting a defined structure of the entire comet and several details are getting blurred. ** When I check the comet.seq and _s.fit frames I noticed that several frames are jumping around but 'close' to the comet reference position that became the first frame ?, and is not the reference frame selected previously in the workflow (bkg_pp_light). 10 out of 40 frames are over the comet head of the new reference frame. Other 11 frames match same position out of the reference frame, other 7 out of the reference frame, and the rest 'close' around. I did the same box position in the first frame and look each frame of those sequences. I would show you my results of this situation compared for example the stack comet result with the same frames done in DSS. DSS ask mark the comet position in 3 frames, the first, one of the middle also as reference frame and the last. Not sure that this allow that program get better pinpoint result in the comet final stack. Other thing to get into account is that the data of the comet I have, the comet was moving fast so each frame of the sequence there is a noted displacement of the comet, but this was not a problem in the stack comet only result of DSS. In the tests I have done I could not improve the stack in the starless comet, doing the box more little, around the head comet, changing method, etc I always note that the frames jumps around of the reference frame. Also I do not understand why in the exported and converted starless frames, the reference frame is changed and if this is maybe part of the problem. I guess that this kind of problem isn't noted also if the data is taken with scopes focal lenght under 400mm. Our data come from a session done 29/1 with a Newton 200-800mm 30sec exposition ISO 2000 Canon Ra. I will continue to test this workflow and if you have any suggestion I will appreciate. Many thanks again for this effort and the very informative and formative videos you are doing and for your attention CS, NC
1) Yes that is a correct assessment and one that I did not consider. Another viewer commented on that and suggested running the background extraction from Siril's command line in the console screen instead of the way I showed. The command he suggested is seqsubsky pp_light 1. I have not yet tried this myself. 2) No it's fine to not do the color calibration if you do not want to. 3) If you used those files you'll not have the comet alignment data. I'm not sure about the frames jumping around. Are they in the correct order that they were taken in? Siril will select what it believes to be the best reference frame. If it's not the reference frame that you selected previously, you'll need to set it back to the one you selected. Also, my comet data was taken with a 250mm scope.
@@DeepSpaceAstro Thank you so much for your reply. I will trying to continue to test it. This 40 frames I'm testing is only the first part sequence of 350 of a session divide in 3 mayor sets because scope reposition due the fast moving of the comet. Those frames are progressive in time, maybe there is a gap between them because a frame presented a satellite, or movement etc. and was discarded.
Hi Rich, just realize that this comment is in the wrong video (should be in the starless comet workflow) sorry my bad. In the other hand, this exercise with your starless workflow, help me a lot to get use of the Histogram T and Background Extraction and really give me an excelent final image even if I did not use the starless part for the issue I encountered. Now Siril released an extraordinary update version with a lot of things implemented and revisited that seems very promising.!!
Thank you for this tutorial. I’ve been using Siril for a long time and I’ve come across something new I was wondering if you could help me with. When I do the background extraction, when it comes time to be more specific and deselect some red squares where the comet tail may be, as soon as I right click on a square Siril just closes. I’ve never had this happen before. What is going on here? I can’t find any other way to deselect any red squares.
The only software that worked for my long exposures comet stack was ASTAP. I was guiding on comet but the guiding got affected by passing stars, so I ended up with the comet in four different positions. I selected the object to be center of the comet for each photo and the end result was bot bad😊
I took 3 min subs of comet by tracking on comet so stars are super trailed. I am having a heck of a time processing the image. I also tracked on stars and did 3 min subs so comet is trailed. Any pointers on trying to stack these? DSS not really doing a good job on it. I wonder if this workflow in Siril would do the trick.
I did the same thing for another session on the comet. I took 2 min subs tracked on the comet, and then 1 min subs tracked on the stars. I first stacked the tracked comet images, stretch, etc, then exported as a TIF. Then I stacked the tracked stars images, stretch, etc., then exported that one as a TIF. Took them both into Photoshop, but them each on their own layer and blended. FYI. I also released a new video today on another way to cleanly stack the comet if you had any left over star artifacts in your comet images. Good luck!
@@DeepSpaceAstro You sir are a gentleman and a scholar! I will see what I can do and I'll be sure to check out the other video. I'm actually ok with the star trails because I think it gives the comet a look of moving through space. Just can't seem to get it to stack the way I would like. I'll keep at it and see if your workflow does the trick. Thanks!
Hi!I have imaged the comet using Explore Scientific 127mm achromat and NIKON D5300. When I get to the point where I have to fill the focal lenght and pixel/chip size i dosn't let me continue. An error about these specs comes out. :/
If your RA/Dec coordinates, focal length, and pixel size are all correct and it's failing, I'm guessing it can't identify the stars possibly. Does it say what the issue is in the console? You could skip the color calibration if you keep having issues with it. Not being color calibrated wouldn't have an affect on the remaining steps.
Before I get too far in the video - I only have lights and darks. Can I still use this process as long as I create the relevant folders? (16GB M1 MacBook Air. I don’t have Photoshop and I’ve never used GIMP.) Thank you.
Nice video. & Thanks. You have good star data without trailing. Is there not a way to copy/ paste just the comet into the star image so there is no trailing? Maybe by free hand selecting comet with feather mode on and copy paste? Ill try this once finished with siril processing (it's taking forever! ).
You could but I don't think it would look right. I have a new video that I'll be releasing soon that shows another workflow for stacking that eliminates those trails.
Thank you for the tutorials. They've been really helpful. For some reason, whenever I try plate solving my photo always becomes super lime green and I'm not sure why. I'm wondering if I have too much magnification (my setup consists of an 8" SCT w/ a f.6 reducer and a planetary camera). Going to keep messing around w/ different settings and seeing if I can get something to work.
You mean it's green only after color calibration, not before? Hard to say without seeing the stack. If calibration is what's causing it, maybe verify your pixel size and focal length. Your focal length should be the length with your reducer, not the scopes native length.
FWIW I watched 18 minutes of this before you mentioned Photoshop, which I don’t have. Is there a free alternative to PS that would cope with those steps? 🇬🇧
Just got Siril, this will help so much. It is Nov 2024, I haven't touched my ZTF data, or my neowise data....or now my Tsuchinsan-ATLAS. Got some stacking and processing to get too.
I can't thank you enough. You're the best on the internet explaining siril thoroughly. God bless you man !
Wow, thanks!
I’m late to this video, wanted to try out comet pics with tsuchinchan atlas and it’s my saviour I could not have done this by myself thank you
Great to hear! Thanks!
Cannot believe I finally just processed my Comet images from Feb 10, thank you very very much from Sydney Australia.
How did it turn out? So cool having viewers from around the world!
It turned out OK, thank you again
You speak quickly for a French speaker but if we stick with it we learn a lot of things.
Thank you so much !
I know. Sorry about that. Glad they've been helpful. I wonder if slowing down the playback speed of the video would help you all? Thanks!
Nicely done! I tried all the pixel rejection methods for the comet stack. Maybe it's just my data but MAD rejection gave me the best result.
Thanks! Yeah I went through them all too, trying to find the best one. I think you're right, it just depends on the data. I've heard MAD gives some people really good results.
Great tutorial, thanks to you I've processed my photos of Nishimura comet :D
Thanks! Great to hear the video was helpful!
Thanks you much. It gave great results for my NeoWise and Tsuchinshan-ATLAS pictures
Awesome to hear, glad it helped!
Thank you for this! Used GIMP at the end instead of Photoshop, but was able to easily figure it out. I watched another large channel Siril comet tutorial and he was definitely missing steps.
Awesome! Thanks for the great comment!
Dude you are the best! I really enjoy your tutorials. Please do not stop making them! My comet picture turned out fantastic!
Hey thanks so much for that! Glad they are helpful! More to come!
Very good ,easy to follow video. Thanks for showing me how to process comets in siril. Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this great tutorial. Yeah, it is daunting but I'm gonna give it a try!!
Yes at first it can be, but you'll get through it. Good luck!
I have the same setup! But I'm using a Ioptron Pro mount. I'm new at this and I havent had the chance to go out yet due to the weather and I'm still waiting on my RedCat 51. I went a little overboard. I should of bought a astro camera but instead I bought a used T7i Rebel lens combo. Thought I could use that to learn how to use a Canon camera also. If i'm gonna do astrophotography, then I need to learn photography also right. I bought a Samyang 135mm for the camera. Well now that we all know that I know how to spend money, I'm hoping videos like this will help me use these bad boys. I've always been into space and now I'm at a part in my life where I can take pictures of the heavens. Good informative video! P.S If you don't hear back from me soon, then my wife found out all the money I spent.
Thanks! Yeah I'm always getting the side-eye from my wife too!
Thank you so much mate. Much appreciate.
Man fantastic tutorial.
By chance I had a few stacks of this exact comet laying around my hard drive for over a year because I had no idea about stacking then (but still prepared). But I have now.
Unfortunately no preprocessing for me (You could still recreate the necessary files I assume?) but it came out much more decent than any single exposure I could have taken otherwise.
Thanks! Sorry I don't understand your question about creating the files?
@@DeepSpaceAstro Would it be reasonable to make flats, darks, bias picture files after the fact for preprocessing purposes for these old comet pictures?
Assuming I recreate the colder outside conditions (we are well into autumn after all) - even tho they wont be exact to the °C obviously.
OMG this is good stuff ! I’ve got to start putting all these items in a doc or pdf . All I need now is for you to do a review of the new StellarMate and I’ll be set for the foreseeable future . LOL . Cheers and thanks again .
Haha. I mean if you want to send me one! 😂 Thanks!
Thanks Rich. You're the best!
Thank you! 👍
Wonderfull job 👍
Thanks!
Great photo, i have a lot to learn👍
Thanks! You can do it!
First I want to thank you Rich so much for doing this video that any beginner like me can follow without any problem. Siril is a great program and I have used it a lot in my own workflow together with DSS, I like both results and I combined always both for get the final image (I know is a double work...).
With comets, when we have a project with this special sky target is always been a headache the star trail left in the comet only stacking and for the first time you are proposing a fair and magnifique way to deal with it.
I follow step by step your workflow and I have some questions:
Background Extraction
1) When is generate the grid in the first frame of the sequence, that grid is moving accordingly to the position of the comet in the next frame? Because if the comet is moving 'fast', more than the half of the sequence will get a grid point over not only in the head of the comet but also in the tail, and that maybe will affect some information of the comet?.
Maybe, the area where the comet will move could be left free of grid points that more or less I know the comet will be moving.
But If this is right, there is a problem if I'm not doing the Background extraction in that moment and do it later when I have the final starless stack?
2) Is a problem if I do not want to do a Photometric Color Calibration in my comet frames?
3) Why is been doing an export of files mtf_bkg_pp_light and not just get those files directly to the python script?
Is around two days (since I discovered your video) I'm testing this workflow for several reason:
** in the stack starless comet, the head of the comet present a 'line' and is not pinpoint as should be. In fact also the tail is more thick than should be. Which meant sadly I'm not getting a defined structure of the entire comet and several details are getting blurred.
** When I check the comet.seq and _s.fit frames I noticed that several frames are jumping around but 'close' to the comet reference position that became the first frame ?, and is not the reference frame selected previously in the workflow (bkg_pp_light). 10 out of 40 frames are over the comet head of the new reference frame. Other 11 frames match same position out of the reference frame, other 7 out of the reference frame, and the rest 'close' around. I did the same box position in the first frame and look each frame of those sequences.
I would show you my results of this situation compared for example the stack comet result with the same frames done in DSS. DSS ask mark the comet position in 3 frames, the first, one of the middle also as reference frame and the last. Not sure that this allow that program get better pinpoint result in the comet final stack.
Other thing to get into account is that the data of the comet I have, the comet was moving fast so each frame of the sequence there is a noted displacement of the comet, but this was not a problem in the stack comet only result of DSS.
In the tests I have done I could not improve the stack in the starless comet, doing the box more little, around the head comet, changing method, etc I always note that the frames jumps around of the reference frame. Also I do not understand why in the exported and converted starless frames, the reference frame is changed and if this is maybe part of the problem.
I guess that this kind of problem isn't noted also if the data is taken with scopes focal lenght under 400mm.
Our data come from a session done 29/1 with a Newton 200-800mm 30sec exposition ISO 2000 Canon Ra.
I will continue to test this workflow and if you have any suggestion I will appreciate.
Many thanks again for this effort and the very informative and formative videos you are doing and for your attention
CS,
NC
1) Yes that is a correct assessment and one that I did not consider. Another viewer commented on that and suggested running the background extraction from Siril's command line in the console screen instead of the way I showed. The command he suggested is seqsubsky pp_light 1. I have not yet tried this myself.
2) No it's fine to not do the color calibration if you do not want to.
3) If you used those files you'll not have the comet alignment data.
I'm not sure about the frames jumping around. Are they in the correct order that they were taken in?
Siril will select what it believes to be the best reference frame. If it's not the reference frame that you selected previously, you'll need to set it back to the one you selected.
Also, my comet data was taken with a 250mm scope.
@@DeepSpaceAstro Thank you so much for your reply. I will trying to continue to test it. This 40 frames I'm testing is only the first part sequence of 350 of a session divide in 3 mayor sets because scope reposition due the fast moving of the comet. Those frames are progressive in time, maybe there is a gap between them because a frame presented a satellite, or movement etc. and was discarded.
Hi Rich, just realize that this comment is in the wrong video (should be in the starless comet workflow) sorry my bad. In the other hand, this exercise with your starless workflow, help me a lot to get use of the Histogram T and Background Extraction and really give me an excelent final image even if I did not use the starless part for the issue I encountered.
Now Siril released an extraordinary update version with a lot of things implemented and revisited that seems very promising.!!
Thank you for this tutorial. I’ve been using Siril for a long time and I’ve come across something new I was wondering if you could help me with. When I do the background extraction, when it comes time to be more specific and deselect some red squares where the comet tail may be, as soon as I right click on a square Siril just closes. I’ve never had this happen before. What is going on here? I can’t find any other way to deselect any red squares.
You're on Mac? If so it's a known bug and should be fixed in the next release
The only software that worked for my long exposures comet stack was ASTAP. I was guiding on comet but the guiding got affected by passing stars, so I ended up with the comet in four different positions. I selected the object to be center of the comet for each photo and the end result was bot bad😊
Yeah this one was definitely tricky to process.
I took 3 min subs of comet by tracking on comet so stars are super trailed. I am having a heck of a time processing the image. I also tracked on stars and did 3 min subs so comet is trailed. Any pointers on trying to stack these? DSS not really doing a good job on it. I wonder if this workflow in Siril would do the trick.
I did the same thing for another session on the comet. I took 2 min subs tracked on the comet, and then 1 min subs tracked on the stars. I first stacked the tracked comet images, stretch, etc, then exported as a TIF. Then I stacked the tracked stars images, stretch, etc., then exported that one as a TIF. Took them both into Photoshop, but them each on their own layer and blended. FYI. I also released a new video today on another way to cleanly stack the comet if you had any left over star artifacts in your comet images. Good luck!
@@DeepSpaceAstro You sir are a gentleman and a scholar! I will see what I can do and I'll be sure to check out the other video. I'm actually ok with the star trails because I think it gives the comet a look of moving through space. Just can't seem to get it to stack the way I would like. I'll keep at it and see if your workflow does the trick. Thanks!
@@joshuacarter3478 Stack the comet in ASTAP
Hi!I have imaged the comet using Explore Scientific 127mm achromat and NIKON D5300.
When I get to the point where I have to fill the focal lenght and pixel/chip size i dosn't let me continue.
An error about these specs comes out. :/
If your RA/Dec coordinates, focal length, and pixel size are all correct and it's failing, I'm guessing it can't identify the stars possibly. Does it say what the issue is in the console? You could skip the color calibration if you keep having issues with it. Not being color calibrated wouldn't have an affect on the remaining steps.
Before I get too far in the video - I only have lights and darks. Can I still use this process as long as I create the relevant folders?
(16GB M1 MacBook Air. I don’t have Photoshop and I’ve never used GIMP.)
Thank you.
You can but watch my video on stacking without calibration frames before you start here.
Nice video. & Thanks.
You have good star data without trailing. Is there not a way to copy/ paste just the comet into the star image so there is no trailing? Maybe by free hand selecting comet with feather mode on and copy paste? Ill try this once finished with siril processing (it's taking forever! ).
You could but I don't think it would look right. I have a new video that I'll be releasing soon that shows another workflow for stacking that eliminates those trails.
The skymap coordinates on my end siril says unable to plate solve despite the coordinates correctly
Try nova.astrometry.net/upload Upload one of your images, and it'll plate solve, and give you the coords.
Thank you for the tutorials. They've been really helpful. For some reason, whenever I try plate solving my photo always becomes super lime green and I'm not sure why. I'm wondering if I have too much magnification (my setup consists of an 8" SCT w/ a f.6 reducer and a planetary camera). Going to keep messing around w/ different settings and seeing if I can get something to work.
You mean it's green only after color calibration, not before? Hard to say without seeing the stack. If calibration is what's causing it, maybe verify your pixel size and focal length. Your focal length should be the length with your reducer, not the scopes native length.
@@DeepSpaceAstro Ah that might be why. I'll give that a shot next time around, thank you
FWIW I watched 18 minutes of this before you mentioned Photoshop, which I don’t have. Is there a free alternative to PS that would cope with those steps? 🇬🇧
GIMP is free and open source. www.gimp.org/
@@DeepSpaceAstro Thank you. I’ve heard of that. I’ll give it a try 🙏
@@DeepSpaceAstro Btw, I enjoyed the video - you explained things very clearly. Don’t want you to think I was being negative!
Thanks, and no I didn't think you were being negative at all!
@@RealBesty