You can clean your dust spots like open the sensor protective glass and blow the dust from your sensor. I do this from time to time and works just fine for me.
thats a very nice video! I have a few questions: 1) do you use darkflats? I suppose it's just another sequence which should be added to the flats registration, right? 2) what if the data is divided in multiple days with different flats? should it be one long sequnce or multiple sequences calibrated separately, but how to stack them all into one master image?
Thank you! Regarding your question your on the right track: 1) Flat darks and bias frames serve the same purpose and can be used intergeniably. So if you have shot flat darks instead of bias you can just process them like they are bias. 2) If the data is split between different days you indeed process them in different sequences. Then when you have your preprocessef lights (so pp_lights) you put them all in one big sequence. Register all of them and simply stack. Thanks for your questions 😁
Glad the video helped you out! Good question about the flats. I suspect that it had to do with some sort of dew or something on the sensor which didn't stay in the same place between imaging and the taking of the flats. However I'm not sure. Luckily since I cleaned the sensor the problem is absent. - Stefan
The dust motes weren't removed at all, as if you didn't even use flat frames, so what's up with that? BTW I have way more dust motes and even a speck from a peeled off filter right on the camera protection glass which appears as a deep black huge mote in subs - but it completely gets removed with APP. Also, this is way to many steps for each filter etc. Again, in APP you dump all files of all filters at once, and then APP intelligently discerns which ones are for which filter, so you do not have to do the same 5 or so steps for every filter. I know, APP costs money, and this is free I guess, but still - if the result which is supposed to be a calibrated image does not actually get calibrated, then what's the point?
Indeed the main advantage of software like Siril is that its free. Which is amazing if you are a beginner. APP is an amazing piece software, however for me it is not worth the money at the moment. About the dust modes, I was struggling with so much dust on the glass Infront of the sensor that is started moving when the telescope moved. This made it impossible to properly calibrate out. Cleaning the piece of glass resolved the issue. - Stefan
@@stefan_astro Yes, Gimp is great but I need to improve my workflow. Right now I stack in DeepSkyStacker for the (LRGB-HA) and combine the channels in GIMP manually. It's a total pain with the chromatic abberation and the weird lens distortion tool. Rotation is also an issue. On top of that, I always feel like I'm losing a lot of data trying to adjust the curves for the color values. 32bit image, the histogram is like a 1 pixel wide line. There is no option to zoom in on that, so it's really painful to get it right and requires a lot of iteration ^^ Not saying it's not possible, but I want something more straight forward and this seems way nicer :)
Thanks for showing your process Stefan. I appreciate that you showed all your steps for Siril to calibrate from raw images. Is there a reason you are not using the Mono-preprocessing script? For myself, I have my calibration images in a folder and use windows subsystem for linux as provides an easy method to make soft-links (saving disk space) and can script the creation of the links from my calibration directory to a new structure in my working directory, depending on the filters I am using (LRGB or HOS). Starting in my desired working directory, I call Siril from the command-line and give it the directory and the mono-preprocessing script. This creates a processing folder with all pre-processing, registered, and a stacked image at my main level. The RGB composting button has the ability to 'align' the images so I just use that. However I like your technique of creating a sequence for LRGB images and letting Siril do the registration as this can be scripted. Everything from here is post-processing and similar to your technique [BGE, PCC, image solve if needed, Starnet, image solve if needed, star recombination, GHS, color saturation, export to png.
Thank you for your comment! There most certainly is a reason I stack manually. Because when stacking manually you have a lot more settings to play around with leading to a better end result. As I have tested in this video: czcams.com/video/Ur7Oazkg2qE/video.html But indeed stacking using scripts is a lot faster. Which is why I use them if I just want to have a quick look at what the data is like. - Stefan
@@stefan_astro I did have to modify my process to use some of your techniques. in particular, the method of loading all the result finals for each filter and creating a sequence, aligning/registering (2-pass, then apply reg in latest version), is great as enables LRGBHOS starnet images to be managed.
Glad you found it usefull! I do believe running starnet on a sequence can give some pretty amazing results and I myself will probably be using it quite a bit aswell. - Stefan
I am using Siril 1.2.1. I follow carefully along step by step. When I get to the registration tab on my first set of light frames (at the 13:00 mark of your video), the "go register" button is disabled (grayed out) and there is a red warning message "debayer the sequence for registration". This is monochrome data from a QHY 268M camera. What am I missing or doing wrong? Thanks.
I have no clue to be honest. But you could start by trying to pinpoint the problem. For example by first slipping calibration and then see if you can register the frames. After that I think it would be best to make a post on the Siril discussion forum. Hope you figure it out, Stefan
@@stefan_astro We did figure it out. There is a setting on the APT camera selection tab for "Color FITS Preview (de-bayer)". I had the box checked (because I had previously been using an OSC camera) and this caused APT to insert a Bayer pattern entry into the FITS file header causing Siril to interpret the files as RGB. Unchecking the box corrected the error and Siril now recognizes the files as being monochrome. Thank you for getting back to me.
Thank you! Yeah Siril is able to combine all sorts of datasets. Even from completely different setups. The only thing you have to think about is that you calibrate each dataset seperately. - Stefan
@@stefan_astro Thank you! I'm completly new to Siril. I have a stack of 2 and 3 min light fram i would like to combine. I should then follow all the steps for both the 2 min stack as well as the 3 min stack? How would you suggest afterwards? Thanks
So first calibrate all of your lights in 2 seperate folders, one for 2 min and one for 3 min (so darks, flats and bias (if you miss any of these don't worry about it to much)). Then Siril will give you pp_lights_x.fits with x being some number. Which you put in to the conversion again to create a new sequence. After which you can register the images and stack them. Concerning the preprocessing tab being gone, I believe they changed the name to calibration. Hope this helps! - Stefan
Hi Ross. It sure can. The process of preprocessing is the exact same. Although it should be noted that the processing of the combined SHO image will be different. Mostly because balancing the different narrowband images is rather difficult. If you want I could make a tutorial about the combination. (I will just need to get my hands on a SHO dataset as I don't own all 3 filters myself) - Stefan
There is a lot of things that could be wrong, but I would suggest you start by looking at the error message. Often Siril will just tell you what is wrong. If that doesn't help, reinstalling Siril often does the trick. Hope it helps. - Stefan
Great tutorial, very clear and helpful!
Thank you!
Thanks for your tutorial! I am a newbie in Siril, and this video was very helpfull in stacking my narrowband images.
Glad you found it useful!
You can clean your dust spots like open the sensor protective glass and blow the dust from your sensor. I do this from time to time and works just fine for me.
I have done so since. Made a massive difference indeed. Was really quite scary tho😅
- Stefan
Such a life saver ! Thank you !
Glad you found it useful!
- Stefan
This is really helpful. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Great job bro 🤗
Thank you!
thats a very nice video! I have a few questions:
1) do you use darkflats? I suppose it's just another sequence which should be added to the flats registration, right?
2) what if the data is divided in multiple days with different flats? should it be one long sequnce or multiple sequences calibrated separately, but how to stack them all into one master image?
or maybe preprocess separately, then create a master sequence from multiple sequences, and stack it
Thank you! Regarding your question your on the right track:
1) Flat darks and bias frames serve the same purpose and can be used intergeniably. So if you have shot flat darks instead of bias you can just process them like they are bias.
2) If the data is split between different days you indeed process them in different sequences. Then when you have your preprocessef lights (so pp_lights) you put them all in one big sequence. Register all of them and simply stack.
Thanks for your questions 😁
I'm new to Siril, so this was a big help. Thanks. I have a question though. Why didn't your flats remove the dust motes?
Glad the video helped you out! Good question about the flats. I suspect that it had to do with some sort of dew or something on the sensor which didn't stay in the same place between imaging and the taking of the flats. However I'm not sure. Luckily since I cleaned the sensor the problem is absent.
- Stefan
Thanks a lot! It helped!
Glad it helped!
The dust motes weren't removed at all, as if you didn't even use flat frames, so what's up with that? BTW I have way more dust motes and even a speck from a peeled off filter right on the camera protection glass which appears as a deep black huge mote in subs - but it completely gets removed with APP. Also, this is way to many steps for each filter etc. Again, in APP you dump all files of all filters at once, and then APP intelligently discerns which ones are for which filter, so you do not have to do the same 5 or so steps for every filter.
I know, APP costs money, and this is free I guess, but still - if the result which is supposed to be a calibrated image does not actually get calibrated, then what's the point?
Indeed the main advantage of software like Siril is that its free. Which is amazing if you are a beginner. APP is an amazing piece software, however for me it is not worth the money at the moment.
About the dust modes, I was struggling with so much dust on the glass Infront of the sensor that is started moving when the telescope moved. This made it impossible to properly calibrate out. Cleaning the piece of glass resolved the issue.
- Stefan
Thank you for this nice tutorial. It will improve my images a lot, even tho I prefer GIMP ^_^
Glad you found it useful! Gimp is definitely a great program. Have used it a lot in the past as well.
@@stefan_astro Yes, Gimp is great but I need to improve my workflow. Right now I stack in DeepSkyStacker for the (LRGB-HA) and combine the channels in GIMP manually. It's a total pain with the chromatic abberation and the weird lens distortion tool. Rotation is also an issue.
On top of that, I always feel like I'm losing a lot of data trying to adjust the curves for the color values. 32bit image, the histogram is like a 1 pixel wide line. There is no option to zoom in on that, so it's really painful to get it right and requires a lot of iteration ^^
Not saying it's not possible, but I want something more straight forward and this seems way nicer :)
Thanks for showing your process Stefan. I appreciate that you showed all your steps for Siril to calibrate from raw images. Is there a reason you are not using the Mono-preprocessing script?
For myself, I have my calibration images in a folder and use windows subsystem for linux as provides an easy method to make soft-links (saving disk space) and can script the creation of the links from my calibration directory to a new structure in my working directory, depending on the filters I am using (LRGB or HOS).
Starting in my desired working directory, I call Siril from the command-line and give it the directory and the mono-preprocessing script. This creates a processing folder with all pre-processing, registered, and a stacked image at my main level.
The RGB composting button has the ability to 'align' the images so I just use that. However I like your technique of creating a sequence for LRGB images and letting Siril do the registration as this can be scripted. Everything from here is post-processing and similar to your technique [BGE, PCC, image solve if needed, Starnet, image solve if needed, star recombination, GHS, color saturation, export to png.
Thank you for your comment! There most certainly is a reason I stack manually. Because when stacking manually you have a lot more settings to play around with leading to a better end result. As I have tested in this video: czcams.com/video/Ur7Oazkg2qE/video.html
But indeed stacking using scripts is a lot faster. Which is why I use them if I just want to have a quick look at what the data is like.
- Stefan
@@stefan_astro I did have to modify my process to use some of your techniques. in particular, the method of loading all the result finals for each filter and creating a sequence, aligning/registering (2-pass, then apply reg in latest version), is great as enables LRGBHOS starnet images to be managed.
Glad you found it usefull! I do believe running starnet on a sequence can give some pretty amazing results and I myself will probably be using it quite a bit aswell.
- Stefan
I am using Siril 1.2.1. I follow carefully along step by step. When I get to the registration tab on my first set of light frames (at the 13:00 mark of your video), the "go register" button is disabled (grayed out) and there is a red warning message "debayer the sequence for registration". This is monochrome data from a QHY 268M camera. What am I missing or doing wrong? Thanks.
I have no clue to be honest. But you could start by trying to pinpoint the problem. For example by first slipping calibration and then see if you can register the frames.
After that I think it would be best to make a post on the Siril discussion forum.
Hope you figure it out,
Stefan
@@stefan_astro We did figure it out. There is a setting on the APT camera selection tab for "Color FITS Preview (de-bayer)". I had the box checked (because I had previously been using an OSC camera) and this caused APT to insert a Bayer pattern entry into the FITS file header causing Siril to interpret the files as RGB. Unchecking the box corrected the error and Siril now recognizes the files as being monochrome. Thank you for getting back to me.
Nice video. Are Siril able to combine light frames with different exposures ?
Thank you! Yeah Siril is able to combine all sorts of datasets. Even from completely different setups. The only thing you have to think about is that you calibrate each dataset seperately.
- Stefan
@@stefan_astro Thank you!
I'm completly new to Siril.
I have a stack of 2 and 3 min light fram i would like to combine.
I should then follow all the steps for both the 2 min stack as well as the 3 min stack?
How would you suggest afterwards?
Thanks
@@stefan_astro I dont have the pre-prossing tab ? Version 2.1.0
So first calibrate all of your lights in 2 seperate folders, one for 2 min and one for 3 min (so darks, flats and bias (if you miss any of these don't worry about it to much)). Then Siril will give you pp_lights_x.fits with x being some number. Which you put in to the conversion again to create a new sequence. After which you can register the images and stack them.
Concerning the preprocessing tab being gone, I believe they changed the name to calibration.
Hope this helps!
- Stefan
siril is so weird with files and folders, once I click in a wrong spot and try ro reopen siril it can't preview images
Yeah, Siril takes some getting used to for sure😅😂
400 🎉
Yes sir!
Hi Stefan
Can you confirm that your tutorial Lrgb can also be used for s h o ?
Hi Ross. It sure can. The process of preprocessing is the exact same. Although it should be noted that the processing of the combined SHO image will be different. Mostly because balancing the different narrowband images is rather difficult.
If you want I could make a tutorial about the combination.
(I will just need to get my hands on a SHO dataset as I don't own all 3 filters myself)
- Stefan
That would be great thanks Stefan !
Got a SHO image of the Elephant trunk nebula using your excellent tutorial Stephan.
If you want I can e mail you the image if you want?
That would be great! Will it than be ok if I use it in the SHO video?
E-mail: stefan.astrophoto@gmail.com
@@stefan_astrosorry just read
stefan, my siri says stacking failed. what should i do?
There is a lot of things that could be wrong, but I would suggest you start by looking at the error message. Often Siril will just tell you what is wrong. If that doesn't help, reinstalling Siril often does the trick.
Hope it helps.
- Stefan
@@stefan_astro yeah, later I realised i need to first register those images so i can stack them. It worked. Keep making such videos 😄