Stacking and aligning mono images in Siril

[Adam1234]

I originally posted this in the beginners section but had no replies so maybe it's better suited in this section (hopefully more Siril users 🤞).

 I've been practising using Siril lately for stacking, but I have a question about stacking mono images. Specifically, aligning the stacked master L, R, G and B images before combining in Photoshop.

What is then the best approach for this?

 I've thought about moving the stacked L, R,G and B images into a new folder, using the conversion tab to create a new sequence and then registering these so that I then get another set of L, R, G & B stacks which are aligned, but the act of using the conversion tab renames the files _0001, 0002, 0003 etc so I now don't know which one is the L, which one is the R etc. Is there a way to create a sequence from the stacked images without changing the name so I know which one is which? Or can I find out which image it has named _0001, _0002 etc? Or is there another way to align them?

I done this when I created my HOO image of M27, but as I only had Ha and Oiii stacks, these were easy to tell apart as they were visibly different.

FYI This is what it says in the Console tab, does Siril save the files in the order that it opens them? i.e. is L  = _00003, G = _00002, B = 00001, R = 00004?  Or does it name them as per the order they are displayed when you add them to the conversion tab?  I have noticed that the order in which Siril opens them is not the same order that they are displayed in the conversion tab.

13:20:54: Reading FITS: file r_L_stacked.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Reading FITS: file r_G_stacked.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Reading FITS: file r_B_stacked.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Reading FITS: file r_R_stacked.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Saving FITS: file Lights_00003.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Saving FITS: file Lights_00002.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Saving FITS: file Lights_00001.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Saving FITS: file Lights_00004.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Conversion succeeded, 4/4 input files converted
13:20:54: Reading FITS: file Lights_00001.fit, 1 layer(s), 4656x3520 pixels
13:20:54: Sequence loaded: Lights_ (1->4)
13:20:54: Execution time: 763.94 ms.

 

Thanks

Adam

[bottletopburly]

@alacant may be your best bet 👍

[alacant]

Hi

Not quite sure of your process, but it looks similar if not identical to...

Put the LRGB in 4 separate folders. Pre-process and register each folder separately. Stack each separately. 

Now put the LRGB stacks into a new folder. Set that as the new working directory and register but do not stack them.

You can now layer into PS or whatever else.

HTH

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by alacant

[Adam1234]

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Not quite sure of your process, but it looks similar if not identical to...

Put the LRGB in 4 separate folders. Pre-process and register each folder separately. Stack each separately. 

Now put the LRGB stacks into a new folder. Set that as the new working directory and register but do not stack them.

You can now layer into PS or whatever else.

HTH

 

 

That's exactly what I've done, but once I have put the stacks into the new folder, I need to load these as a sequence in order to register them, but to make a sequence don't you then have to 'convert' the files using the conversion tab which then creates the sequence and creates new files with the suffix _0001, 0002 etc?  

Or do you not need to create a sequence to register?  Or can you create a sequence without using the conversion tab? Does seem a bit strange if they are already in fits format 

 

[alacant]

Hi.

There are only 4 files. Perhaps quicker just to rename them. file1.fit, file2.fit...

Cheers

Edited September 15, 2020 by alacant

[callump]

I've used the RGB Compositing tool in Siril (Image Processing menu) - gives you file selectors for each of LRGB. Has an alignment tool too, and you can mess with the colour balance. But you might want to do that all in PS or whatever.

Callum

 

[Adam1234]

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi.

There are only 4 files. Perhaps quicker just to rename them. file1.fit, file2.fit...

Cheers

Yeah but when it creates the intermediate files in the conversion tab,  I don't know which file is which to rename, e.g is 0001 my R or is it my G etc.

That's the confusion I'm having. I don't want to take 0003 think it's my R then wonder why I get funny colours in the final image and find out I had them all the wrong way round

[alacant]

Look at the fits header, or just do them in order...

You just stacked luminance. Call it file1.fit

You just stacked red. Call it file2.fit

etc...

No need to use the conversion...

Cheers.

Edited September 15, 2020 by alacant

[Adam1234]

1 hour ago, alacant said:

 

No need to use the conversion...

 

I'm stil confused...need to use the conversion to be able to register the stacked images?

[alacant]

8 minutes ago, Adam1234 said:

register the stacked images

No!

Put the 4 files in a folder and set that folder as the working directory. Now hit 'sequence'.

That's it!

[Adam1234]

Ok crisis averted, I think I've figured out how it numbers the converted files. It was the text in the console tab that was confusing me as it opens and saves the files in a random order rather than opening them in the order that they are added to the conversion list. 

Eg. If in the conversion tab the order of the files was L R G B,  the console doesn't seem to actually read them in that order, in my example on the original post it was reading them L first, then G, then B then R. That's why I was getting confused with the numbering and trying to figure out which file was which. 

[Adam1234]

Turns out it numbers them in the order they appear on the conversion tab, rather than the order in which it reads the files. Now I know which file is which

Edited September 15, 2020 by Adam1234

[alacant]

You need to use the conversion tab? For 4 files? Surely you can make your own sequence!

Anyway...

[Adam1234]

1 minute ago, alacant said:

You need to use the conversion tab? For 4 files? Surely you can make your own sequence!

Anyway...

I didn't know you could create a sequence manually?

[alacant]

Hi

Siril works with sequences; ideal for calibrating and stacking. It doesn't matter how the sequence is prepared, nor what filenames are used. You or -more likely- your image capture software decides. A good one to use is the target suffixed with an integer e.g.

capture1: m42_001.fits

capture2: m42_002.fits

etc.

Most image capture software does this anyway, along with a mesmerising choice of other prefixes...

The only requirements Siril has regarding a sequence is that it is contained within the current working directory and it consists of fits files. The sequence doesn't need to be consecutive.

The default sequence prefixes are:

pp- (pre-processed)

r- (registered)

The default suffix for a stacked sequence is, 'stacked'.

Cheers and HTH

Edited September 16, 2020 by alacant