Planetary imaging - stacking software: updating my view

[JimFR]

Recently getting back into planetary imaging given the improving (for me) location of Jupiter, and the very favourable Mars this time around.

I’ve changed laptops since 2016, and noticed when rebuilding that Registax is pretty ancient now, but AS! doesn’t do wavelets.

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

I’m capturing with SharpCap from a webcam FYI… 

[JimFR]

Naturally, post your recent pics too!😉😁

[johnturley]

20 minutes ago, JimFR said:

Recently getting back into planetary imaging given the improving (for me) location of Jupiter, and the very favourable Mars this time around.

I’ve changed laptops since 2016, and noticed when rebuilding that Registax is pretty ancient now, but AS! doesn’t do wavelets.

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

I’m capturing with SharpCap from a webcam FYI… 

Most observers seem to use a combination of AutoStakkert (for stacking) and Registax (for wavelets)

I find that Registax can be very slow during the Aligning and Stacking processes if you have taken an AVI video of around 10 - 20,000 frames, taking up to 20 minutes for each, and that is even with using a laptop with an i7 processor and 16 GB RAM, whereas AutoStakkert does it in about 2-3 minutes for each.

John 

[Laurieast]

There is also Astrosurface for wavelets and much more.

http://astrosurface.com/pageuk.html

[JimFR]

1 hour ago, johnturley said:

Most observers seem to use a combination of AutoStakkert (for stacking) and Registax (for wavelets)

I find that Registax can be very slow during the Aligning and Stacking processes if you have taken an AVI video of around 10 - 20,000 frames, taking up to 20 minutes for each, and that is even with using a laptop with an i7 processor and 16 GB RAM, whereas AutoStakkert does it in about 2-3 minutes for each.

John 

In the past I’ve tended to use Registax and got good results, but it’s a bit buggy and seems prone to failure.

I hadn’t really persevered with AS until last night, but it seems ok.

Was really wondering if there were usable alternatives I guess!

1 hour ago, Laurieast said:

There is also Astrosurface for wavelets and much more.

http://astrosurface.com/pageuk.html

interesting… thanks, I’ll check it out!

 

these are some of my efforts from years ago:

[Astrohobbyman]

Autostakket Registax wavelets and Astrosurface 10" Reflector f4.3 2.25x Barlow Asi 120mc-s 

[Astrohobbyman]

[geoflewis]

On 09/10/2022 at 11:31, JimFR said:

Recently getting back into planetary imaging given the improving (for me) location of Jupiter, and the very favourable Mars this time around.

I’ve changed laptops since 2016, and noticed when rebuilding that Registax is pretty ancient now, but AS! doesn’t do wavelets.

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

I’m capturing with SharpCap from a webcam FYI… 

It's a good time to get back into planetary imaging with Mars very high elevation this year, albeit fairly small disc, plus Jupiter gained a lot of altitude and will even better next year. Saturn is also heading north, so the coming years will be getting better for it too.

There are lots of options for capture and processing and mine changes as technology advances, especially with the superb colour video cameras now available. My toolkit now comprises:

• ASI462MC (colour)
• FireCapture - for data capture, using SER. I typically set a fairly tight ROI, and capture 6 mins per run at 8ms (125fps)
• PIPP - to quality trim large SER file for faster post processing (new tool for me in 2022 since using colour camera)
• AS3! - to grade, align and stack images (exported to Registax at 16 bit TIFF)
• Registax 6 - wavelet sharpening, RGB alignment, colour balance (also exported as 16 bit TIFF)
• WinJupos - derotation of SER and sometimes subsequent TIFFs from Registax
• Affinity Photo - final levels and saturation tweaks and any anotation.

Hope this helps, but there are many ways to skin the cat....

Good luck.

Edited October 15, 2022 by geoflewis

[JimFR]

23 hours ago, geoflewis said:

It's a good time to get back into planetary imaging with Mars very high elevation this year, albeit fairly small disc, plus Jupiter gained a lot of altitude and will even better next year. Saturn is also heading north, so the coming years will be getting better for it too.

There are lots of options for capture and processing and mine changes as technology advances, especially with the superb colour video cameras now available. My toolkit now comprises:

• ASI462MC (colour)
• FireCapture - for data capture, using SER. I typically set a fairly tight ROI, and capture 6 mins per run at 8ms (125fps)
• PIPP - to quality trim large SER file for faster post processing (new tool for me in 2022 since using colour camera)
• AS3! - to grade, align and stack images (exported to Registax at 16 bit TIFF)
• Registax 6 - wavelet sharpening, RGB alignment, colour balance (also exported as 16 bit TIFF)
• WinJupos - derotation of SER and sometimes subsequent TIFFs from Registax
• Affinity Photo - final levels and saturation tweaks and any anotation.

Hope this helps, but there are many ways to skin the cat....

Good luck.

Thanks! Yes I agree, things are looking up for planetary astrophotography (ahem).

I was looking for alternatives to Registax, but it feels like most people use it even if only for the excellent wavelets part!

I have used PIPP in the past, very useful.

[JimFR]

On 15/10/2022 at 12:10, Astrohobbyman said:

Autostakket Registax wavelets and Astrosurface 10" Reflector f4.3 2.25x Barlow Asi 120mc-s 

Fabulous! Those are excellent - I have been looking at that camera, so that’s useful. Did you ever use a webcam with that scope?

[Astrohobbyman]

8 hours ago, JimFR said:

Fabulous! Those are excellent - I have been looking at that camera, so that’s useful. Did you ever use a webcam with that scope?

No the only other camera apart from the zwo asi120mc-s has been my canon 750d which is not able to capture as much detail. Started with mobile phones shots  like this Sony z1 from 2015! 

[Gfamily]

On 09/10/2022 at 11:31, JimFR said:

.’ve changed laptops since 2016, and noticed when rebuilding that Registax is pretty ancient now, but AS! doesn’t do wavelets.

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

My only real planetary image was captured using a modified £2 webcam using Sharpcap

After an initial process in Registax, an astro club colleague suggested I try processing in AS!3. Following the initial stack, I then dropped it into Registax and applied the same wavelets as before.

[MonsterMagnet]

On 15/10/2022 at 13:54, geoflewis said:

It's a good time to get back into planetary imaging with Mars very high elevation this year, albeit fairly small disc, plus Jupiter gained a lot of altitude and will even better next year. Saturn is also heading north, so the coming years will be getting better for it too.

There are lots of options for capture and processing and mine changes as technology advances, especially with the superb colour video cameras now available. My toolkit now comprises:

• ASI462MC (colour)
• FireCapture - for data capture, using SER. I typically set a fairly tight ROI, and capture 6 mins per run at 8ms (125fps)
• PIPP - to quality trim large SER file for faster post processing (new tool for me in 2022 since using colour camera)
• AS3! - to grade, align and stack images (exported to Registax at 16 bit TIFF)
• Registax 6 - wavelet sharpening, RGB alignment, colour balance (also exported as 16 bit TIFF)
• WinJupos - derotation of SER and sometimes subsequent TIFFs from Registax
• Affinity Photo - final levels and saturation tweaks and any anotation.

Hope this helps, but there are many ways to skin the cat....

Good luck.

I didn't realise that you could "quality trim" SER files in PIPP.

Thanks!  I'll have to give that a go.

MM

[bottletopburly]

  +Astrosurface  limited use of it but does seem very good  , does stacking and wavelets ,few videos on YouTube if you search .

 

[Rallemikken]

On 09/10/2022 at 12:58, johnturley said:

Registax (for wavelets)

Check out the wavelet function in Siril if you already have that installed. Used it some. I do everything in Linux, and usually it's no problem running windows programmes under Wine, but Registax is the exception. Impossible, tried it with many distros.

[johnturley]

45 minutes ago, Rallemikken said:

Check out the wavelet function in Siril if you already have that installed. Used it some. I do everything in Linux, and usually it's no problem running windows programmes under Wine, but Registax is the exception. Impossible, tried it with many distros.

I've never had a problem running Registax with Windows 10, although as I mentioned it can be slow if you use it for aligning and stacking.

John 

[Rallemikken]

On 09/10/2022 at 12:31, JimFR said:

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

Not sure if it's mentioned above, but I use PIPP for one thing, and one thing only: To merge several .ser-files into one long. When I capture planetary in Ekos I do several 30-second takes. I have not found any stacking software that will treat a bunch of single .ser-files as one dataset. Maybe it's there, somewhere in an application deep in the options....

One of those annoying aspects of planetary, you use A for this, B for that and C for something else. I suspect it boils down to the default options in some cases. When one application, lets take Autostakkert, gets a reputation of being better in stacking than Registax then every howto on the issue tells you to use Autostakkert for this, and it cements it's position as the default choice.

Youtube has become the place to bee these days. Can anyone point to a video with a complete workflow on stitching videofiles, registrering, stacking and finally wavelets inside one of the wellknown free applications?

[Fivel]

Hello to all.

I have been (on a Mac) using Siril to merge ser videos.

Siril is free and cross platform. It can also stack and do some post processing of the ser videos.

I use Planetary System Stacker more though for the stacking. It works a bit like Autostakkert. It has wavelets and can re-align the color shifting caused by atmospheric distortion. So there are more decent, free apps available for the Macs.

Also for the Mac, I may use Lynkeos for its post processing tools. Unfortunately it does not work with ser videos.

Here is my recent Jupiter image. I have an 8" Meade SCT and captured with a ZWOasi 183mc and oaCapture.

All this was done on a Mac mini.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Fivel