Jump to content

Narrowband

Siril speed for stacking


Recommended Posts

Hello all, I wonder if you seen this happen before. I’m trying to stack around 300 30” images of the Pleiades in Siril. I tried to do it using my computer hard drive but it needed to many GB so I’m using my SSD instead. When I was using my hard drive the processing was much faster but due to short storage it stopped half way through. Now that I’m using my SSD it has been 10 hours already and it’s still pre processing! any advice?
B219243E-9CCC-42C9-B897-EBB4479C0269.thumb.jpeg.0f0cb9d3dc336a75012f5c40f6d32468.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Siril checks available disk space and will not go ahead if a process is to require more than is free.

As a guide, to process 100 dSLR fits images using v1.1.0 git under Ubuntu 22.04 on an old i5 with SSD and 8gb ram takes around 1/2 hour. On a 16 core Ryzen, under 5 minutes. Add a little longer if you need to convert to fits first.

pre-process - register - stack 

If I had to guess, it looks as though the debayer is incorrectly set. Maybe post (links to) an example fits, or the raw before conversion.

HTH 

 

Edited by alacant
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, alacant said:

If I had to guess, it looks as though the debayer is incorrectly set.

For me Siril detects that the wrong Bayer patter is selected and corrects to the right one and completes just fine. I guess it must effect the time taken, but not significantly 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your ssd isn't connected via usb is it? I notice on the screenshot also your memory is 1Gb? (Checked mine, similar software setting too).

That Bayer error youre seeing, set the Bayer pattern to suit your camera in the preferences menu (top right button, looks like three odd horizontal lines stacked on top of each other), debayering also slows down the process but is necessary if using OSC cameras.

Edited by Elp
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Elp said:

Your ssd isn't connected via usb is it? I notice on the screenshot also your memory is 1Gb? (Checked mine, similar software setting too).

That Bayer error youre seeing, set the Bayer pattern to suit your camera in the preferences menu (top right button, looks like three odd horizontal lines stacked on top of each other), debayering also slows down the process but is necessary if using OSC cameras.

My SSD is connect via USB. Is that an issue? Will check the rest as well. Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Leti Theobald said:

My SSD is connect via USB. Is that an issue? Will check the rest as well. Thank you!

Generally usb is a bottleneck for any disk drive read/write operations, it rarely runs at the speed advertised. This is highly dependent on the actual drive, the usb port type it's connected to and also the computer internal specs (ie how fast it can transfer data around). I suspect USB is your bottleneck.

I also have the same issue, not enough internal space and Siril writes a lot of large sequence files unnecessarily, I usually have to exit the program and delete any previous sequences and keep the latest to do the next step, it's one of the reasons I use DSS to stack mainly.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're a bit limited in terms of free ones, you could try using DSS running within a windows environment on your Mac?

Other software I've seen is paid for, Pixinsight, APP, might be others out there.

Or just critically free up your internal disk space.

Edited by Elp
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Siril is kind of the fastest one out there at the moment, and not by a small margin. At least on a windows machine when symbolic links can be used and so a lot of the file writing can be skipped, im guessing its not possible on a mac? (never had a mac, wouldn't know)

DSS and in fact any other stacker out there will also write temporary files, but not to the extent that Siril does them since Siril keeps all of the intermediate files of all the calibration frames, light frames, registered frames etc. Best solution would be to free up some hard drive space. Surely you could move some files from your main HDD to the external one?

Another option is to do the stacking in phases. First stack your darks into a dark master, delete the intermediate dark .fit files as you no longer need them. Then the same for bias, and flat. Then calibrate your lights, and afterwards you can delete the intermediate .fit files as you now have the preprocessed ones to use, then you can register the preprocessed lightframes and delete the unregistered ones. This leaves you with registered subs, the bare minimum storage space needed in any stacking software out there. If you dont have enough space to hold all the registered frames at once in your hard drive, well, best of luck because then the situation is really dire.

Edited by ONIKKINEN
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Leti Theobald said:

I can’t run DSS

Siril is the best we've tried, including closed, open and very expensive apps. It is totally non-destructive.
Perhaps this would be a good time to upgrade your mac's storage. Or, probably more economical, invest in one of the new generation mini pcs.

Cheers

Edited by alacant
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Siril is the best we've tried, including closed, open and very expensive apps. It is totally non-destructive.
Perhaps this would be a good time to upgrade your mac's storage, or perhaps more economical, invest in one of the new generation mini-pcs?

Cheers

Considering upgrading my laptop. Would 32gb of RAM be enough? 1Tb storage. Could upgrade to 64gb and 2Tb but it’s so expensive!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From my experience a computer very rarely goes into double digits with RAM, the max I ever got was 15Gb and that was through constant rendering. If the RAM is cheap enough by all means do it. Your issue at the moment is storage, if you can't really free any (I know you can, use WinDirStat to see where your storage is being used up) fit as max as your computer can support, if you've got nvme slots, best get SSD in that format, even a sata SSD gives a better improvement over a sata HDD.

Edited by Elp
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For at least planetary stacking RAM is very important, if OP is looking to upgrade their setup it might be something to keep in mind. Siril i think is not so RAM dependent but mostly write speed limited in the HDD/SSD department.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Elp said:

From my experience a computer very rarely goes into double digits with RAM, the max I ever got was 15Gb and that was through constant rendering. If the RAM is cheap enough by all means do it. Your issue at the moment is storage, if you can't really free any (I know you can, use WinDirStat to see where your storage is being used up) fit as max as your computer can support, if you've got nvme slots, best get SSD in that format, even a sata SSD gives a better improvement over a sata HDD.

My Mac is around 8 years old so the stores in 250gb. But I’ll have a look, I’ve been looking for an excuse not buy a new one 😊

wont worry about the RAM too much though, that was the most expensive part

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I just wanted to chime in on this;  I was battling the same issue with processing time and the one thing that made my processing time go from 6 hours down to  24 mins was Using and external SSD (samsung T7 1Tb) on my pc's USB 3.1 gen 2 port with the USB C port on the back of my pc and the USB C cable provided with the SSD.  I  originally tried the same port with an apple USB C cable because it was longer and I could put the drive where I wanted but the processing time was 6 hours.  Previously I upgraded my memory fom 16Gb to 32Gb (no change) my processor from an i3 9th gen to an i7(no change) The USB 3.1 gen 2 can support 10Gb/s but you need to use the correct USB cable (USB C with a thick cable ie: the one that came with the SSD)  Hope that helps somebody save some $$$$.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.