Planning and Building a Mosaic Image

For large targets, I sometimes want the detail I get with a long focal length, but the field of view I get with a short focal length. A solution for this is to build a mosaic of 2 or more images. In this video I show how to plan a mosaic using Sequence Generator Pro's excellent 'Framing & Mosaic Wizard' and then I show a quick and easy...but very effective...way to merge the images into a mosaic.
Check out my other videos on my RUclips channel. If you like what you find, do please subscribe and click the bell icon to get a notification when I release a new video.
I also have a website at www.martinsastrophotography.com with info about the kit I use, a gallery of my images, some useful calculator tools, helpful planning guides for choosing targets, beginner info etc...
Clear Skies!
CHAPTERS IN THIS VIDEO
=====================
00:00 Introduction
01:10 Planning your Mosaic
06:21 Processing the individual Images
09:46 Downloading the ICE Software
10:33 Combining your images into a Mosaic

[@grahamprescott9426]

I used siril to do a background extraction and then I tried stitching before stretching and it worked very well!! I then colour calibrated, removed stars from the 4 panel mosaic and stretched it from there. The only issue I had was a single panel didn't look as well integrated as the other 3. Assuming it's because I didn't have enough data as at this point I was doing a test (25 minutes per panel)

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Excellent tutorial!

[@martinsastrophotography]

Thanks Chuck! Love your channel by the way….I’m a big SGPro fan just like you.

[@arnaudmalleval9276]

Merci beaucoup Martin, ça va beaucoup m’aider à créer des mosaïques maintenant. J’adore !!!

[@martinsastrophotography]

Merci beaucoup Arnaud. Ciel Clair!

[@codacoder]

what a gorgeous mosaic!

[@martinsastrophotography]

Thanks!

[@chrisunderhill6527]

Perfect! I've been thinking of doing a mosaic for m31 with my 200pds, this explains it brilliantly. Thanks very much.

[@martinsastrophotography]

Great to hear that Chris! Thanks for the comment. Let me know how it goes.

[@briansnell9179]

Nice one Martin, another brilliant video. If we every get some more regular clear nights I plan to have a go at my first mosaic so this will be useful to refer to. Cheers

[@martinsastrophotography]

Cheers Brian. I look forward to seeing the result!

[@tonyclark1504]

Great video Martin - Thanks for taking the time to produce. I just downloaded the 64bit version for windows and it works a dream. However, I cannot get my screen to look the same as yours. For example telling ICE where to place images. My images are just stitched automatically.

[@martinsastrophotography]

Thanks Tony. I wonder if we have downloaded different versions of ICE? However, if it’s working automatically for you that’s great (it does not always work for me, probably due to the small overlap I use of 10%).

[@grahamprescott9426]

Mine automatically worked it. Hopefully I can find that option if not. Still surprised it worked unstretched. Then it's easier to do the stretching after. At least for a colour camera...

[@chrisoriordan6975]

Excellent Martin, one question I’ve tried this with. HA and Oiii image of the veil. But when build a new image in PS by putting them into their respective colour channels I find they don’t line up properly. Maybe as the crop from ICE wasn’t same size or something else ?? You didn’t touch on it in this video but how do you ensure all the NB channels align in your Mosaic ? Thanks

[@martinsastrophotography]

Thanks Chris. I recommend that you combine your NB channels into a colour image first for each pane of the mosaic. Then use ICE to mosaic the panes together. This should work OK.