Comet Processing in PixInsight

Want to improve your comet processing in PixInsight?... check out my latest approach in this video. The in-depth step-by-step version (with data included) is in the Horizons library of material at AdamBlockStudios.com .
You can see some recent comet images of C/2021 A1 (Leonard) here:
www.adamblockphotos.com/c2021...
(And a nice NEOWISE here: www.adamblockphotos.com/c2020...)
#cometleonard #astrophotography #Pixinsight #C/2021
More at: AdamBlockStudios.com
Those just starting out in PixInsight will enjoy FastTrack Training! www.adamblockstudios.com/cate... (see the video @ • Introducing FastTrack ... )
REVIEWS! www.adamblockstudios.com/cate...

[@franksteffens6502]

Thank you Adam, your videos have helped me a lot to approach problems in PixInsight in a more methodical way. For the star residuals, I was looking for a method to prevent the artifacts from occurring in the first place during stacking. In doing so, I developed the following method, based on a trick from one of your other videos: First, I created a star mask from one of the registered subs using Starnet++ (maybe the method gets even better if you take the stack for the stars as the basis for Starnet++ instead of a single frame). I then binarized the star mask and used it as a mask to write black values into the sub with PixelMath. With ImageContainer I punched out the stars from all registered subs in this way. Then CometAlignment and Stacking. Clip Low Range in ImageIntegration ignored the black pixels (I had learned this in one of your other videos). The result contained virtually no residuals left, just a few darker pixels. These could be removed very well with Cosmetic Correction. For my data set (47x60s) at Comet Leonard this worked very well.

[@AdamBlock]

Very good idea/method. I can see if the comet motion is enough between the frames (and no overlap between stars) your suggestion would work. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@bezain7663]

Was just waiting for it.!

[@rudibarani]

Thank you, Adam. Just in time 💫

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks.

[@astrocatinfo]

That was an smart solution Adam! Thanks for sharing

[@AdamBlock]

Thank you!

[@terrylovejoy3147]

Adam so much great information here! Thanks creating your very valuable channel.

[@AdamBlock]

Thank you Terry.

[@steveleonard2856]

Great video Adam! I am partway through using this workflow with Starnet++ V2 in linear mode to batch starnet the linear subs. Looks promising!

[@AdamBlock]

Excellent..good luck. Nothing is perfect...but this method does offer some incremental benefits. At quick note- Russ Croman's StarExterminator has the batch mode natively now... (you will not be surprised as to why this came to be :) )

[@stef2499]

Omg i love you so much for this, i shot this yesterday and was struggling

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks Stefan.

[@felisep1]

Hi Adam ! great video! I tried star exterminator but it also delete the core of the comet .. How can I avoid this? thanks in advance

[@ibnulhussaini3791]

Hey mate, thanks for this guide. For some reason Star Exterminator didn't work that well with my data. I'm not that concerned right now since this data set isn't that great. It was captured with a bright streetlight in the way of that patch of the sky. Just wanted to try this method before I change the setup & acquire better data. In this case I found that Star exterminator worked better on the brighter stars & Starnet was better on the smaller stars

[@AdamBlock]

There are some techniques you might not be aware of for better rejection. I demonstrate these in my videos.

[@troyhunter4740]

Good stuff as always Adam, how would you go about taking the images? .. expose for say 60 seconds, then wait for another 60 for the comet to drift?.. then take another 60 second exposure?. Would the break in-between be helpful for the comet alignment process to work better? Or should i just take constant exposures?

[@AdamBlock]

In my case, I was using a monochrome camera- so cycling the filters (takes in images in alternating colors) was sufficient. If you are using a OSC camera... Yes, combining images with spacing between them will help. However, I would still acquire the data sequentially without pause- who knows how good the frames will be frame to frame. YOu can choose the frames later during processing.

[@DeepSkyDanAstro]

Excellent👍🏼😎👍🏼

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks Dan!

[@chrisdavis8663]

Very grateful for all you do for the astrophotography community! Can you point me in the right direction to learn how to color calibrate the comet image? You mention using the coefficients from the calibrated starless image. Where do I find this information, and where do I input the information to calibrate the comet aligned image. Thanks for your patience! I'm VERY new to PixInsight, and this is my very first comet.

[@AdamBlock]

Well... I have just released what I consider definitive videos on the subject at AdamBlockStudios.com (e.g. www.adamblockstudios.com/categories/c2022e3ztf-20230127 )

[@neverfox]

Is there any way to do Drizzle integration with this method? Given that I believe it must refer back to the calibrated data (pre-registration), that pretty much precludes any kind of composite image that involves going down two separate registration/integration paths, right?

[@AdamBlock]

I don't know. It might be possible to modify the pre-registration images with star removal and then use drizzle integration. I am not convinced there would be a huge benefit. Most comet data does not meet the requirements of drizzle integration.

[@TheSuper8mm]

Hi! First off, thank you for such an informative video and sharing your wonderful insight into comet processing. Your knowledge is invaluable. I just wanted to ask about the images behind you on the wall. What company do you use for printing your astrophotography? I’ve been looking for quite some time and am not sure where to start. I tried printing some at home, but they never come out as I would like. Thank you again for all you do.

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks. Please note this video is now a bit old. I have developed more sophisticated and generalized approaches to comet processing on my site (with the advent of comet ZTF). The pictures on the wall behind me are metal prints. Most were printed from Bay Photo in California. Metal prints are on another level...

[@enriquebechet1]

I have been struggling to get a good image of the comet. Even using different scopes and cameras. I suscribes to PI Fundamentals and really enjoy it. I tihink is time to upgrade to Horizons. Hopefully I can get the cone t image I have been crying about. Lol

[@AdamBlock]

Well...I am not going to talk you out of it. :) Thank you for being a member of AdamBlockStudios!

[@elbagre71]

Hi Adam, thanks for sharing this video. I could not process my images with the comet and M3. I made 2 separate images, one with only the comet and the other only with the stars, the problem is that in the image of only stars, PI removed M3 in addition to the comet. Any suggestions to avoid it? please. Greetings.

[@AdamBlock]

Hmm... this might be a data specific issue. If M3 isn't resolved and looks like a "blob" of light...indeed the star removal program might get rid of it. Technically you can add it back in surgically with pixemath (since it exists in the comet only image ...correct? But yeah, you do have a complication. As I mention in the video, there is no perfect method. The standard CometALignment method might be best in your case.

[@elbagre71]

@@AdamBlock Thanks a lot Adam for your answer! I will keep trying and thank you again for your recommendation. Greetings

[@Roblane007]

Is this set of videos available to buy separately on Adam Block studios? I can only find the it in PI Horizons option which is $250. A bit rich for me

[@AdamBlock]

I do not have a la carte videos. Perhaps in the future I will bundle the PI Edition of the Cosmic Canvas examples and make that available. This collection still needs to be fleshed out a bit.

[@Roblane007]

@@AdamBlock thanks for the response Adam. I bought your fundamentals course a while back and love it. If covid ever allows me to work a few more hours I will definitely buy horizons.

[@jeffreyweiss5615]

Great video, Adam. But I'm stuck with PCC failing because without the RA-Dec of the images, which I don't have with any certainty and are not in the FITS headers, neither PCC or ImageSolver can solve the stars-only (StarXterminator) RGB stacked image. The stars in that image look very wierd but using STF and HT to get rid of most of them to give the Solvers a chance of converging (and lowering the min. luminance from 12 to 16) still didn't give any solutions. How did you manage to get PCC to work?

[@AdamBlock]

Yes, if that information is not there- you will need to figure out the center of your field. If you want a quick and dirty way (still precise)- you can submit the stars-only image to Astrometry.net . It will solve the image and give you the coordinates of the center of the field and the platescale. Otherwise, using a starchart/imagery (Like Aladin on-line) you can find the coordinates that way as well. I have already mentioned to Russ that he should carry the FITs header information forward into the stars files...

[@jeffreyweiss5615]

@@AdamBlock Thanks, Adam. I did eventually get the center coods. & PCC eventually worked, although I did have to first take the RGB_Stars over to PS to get rid of the large residuals from the comet head that we're in all the stars images after StarXTerminator. Without doing that, PCC gave terrible color in spite of nice calibration curves.

[@AdamBlock]

@@jeffreyweiss5615 Of course the KZbin video does not reveal *all* of the steps of processing. That is information is what I demonstrate in my videos at AdamBlockStudios.com ... that is the point! :)

[@_il_gufo_]

Interessante 👍☄️

[@zelodec]

I ran the starXTerminator process but it also removed the core of the comet on each picture and because of that the CometAlignment process fails to detect the comet core. How to deal with this issue?

[@zelodec]

actually I could use cometalignment process before running starXTerminator.

[@AdamBlock]

Good point! That is something I will need to consider- but changing the order of operations should be OK.

[@magedsyehia]

Hello in 17:40 you wer mentioning subtract the comet. How can I subtract the comet?

[@AdamBlock]

I now have comprehensive videos on my site at AdamBlockStudios.com that show how do to this with the new CometAlignment tool.

[@1MoreMojo]

I have 2 mornings of OSC data … should I use the same process?

[@AdamBlock]

Sure. You could operate on the debayered images. Should you do it? Well, it depends on if you like the process. :)

[@AdamBlock]

@Euripides Argyropoulos Please see my answer in the forum. I think I need to make a video that explains what extracted stars *should* look like. Your images looked fine to me!

[@billblanshan3021]

Can you share the raw files?

[@AdamBlock]

Members of my site have access to the data and can follow along with the instructional videos. Thanks!

[@utternutter2535]

This isn't for beginners, so I didn't know what you were doing and there was so much on your screen it was confusing. Please could you do a step-by-stap vid for beginners?

[@AdamBlock]

I do step by step in my videos on my website at AdamBlockStudios.com . I have updated videos that show how to create comet images. See: www.adamblockphotos.com/c2022-e3-ztf-2023-01-21.html