Fix your broken Seestar S50 astrophotography images with Siril

[@erewhon42]

I realized soon after posting this that I glossed over the very final step, the DeNoise step. I'll do another shorter video on that soon, as it can improve things that much more after you've processed the image in Siril. (This step occurs outside of Siril.)

[@giuseppececere9815]

When you use Denoise is better to do it on the starless image after GHS

[@ranman5283]

After weeks of trying to get my head around siril and following youtube video tutorials and ending in failure, stumbled across your video and followed step by step and finally I got an end result. Thankyou so very much, I can let some hair grow back now.

[@erewhon42]

I'm really glad it helped! And thank you for the kind feedback.

[@lenn15]

You can leave the satellite trail subs in there. they will not be visible on the stacked image most of the time. when I would delete all my 3-5 minute exposures with my "normal" telescope rig, therewon't be much left to work with.

[@erewhon42]

That's true. It does average out. And yeah these days if you excluded satellite trails with longer exposures you'd have nothing left. :-/

[@KopLamp]

Hello there! Another Siril enthousiast I see! I cover it a lot on my channel too. What I tend to do with the plot view (after registration) is set the Y-axis to "background" to spot clouds or other irregularities in my data.That way I don't have to gloss over hundreds of images. I then draw a rectangle on the plot and right click it so I can then choose to exclude everything outside of the selection.

[@erewhon42]

Hi there! Thanks for the tip. Every time I've gone through the frames on that tab, I've tried a few different things, including sorting by FWHM. I guess I decided since it was "only" a couple of hundred I'd just brute force it on the video. But it definitely gets tedious, and a bit painful with higher subframe counts. So thanks for the suggestion! I think I'll try that out today, as I have another batch I want to do with about 1000 frames! And I'm going to check out your channel so I can see what other things I might be missing in Siril.

[@KopLamp]

@@erewhon42 I am also convinced that the images with a satellite streak in it (especially if you have so many subs) will not be worth to remove them. The sigma clipping algorithm will remove those 'faulty' pixels while the nebula data still gets used in the stack.

[@erewhon42]

@@KopLamp I agree. And I should have probably made that clear. I didn't have the words to describe it (thanks for that! 😃). I did briefly think about that while I was doing it, but it was more of an example, and it was helpful that a satellite was near the beginning of the sequence vs the roof which was later.

[@zacharyniswender1925]

First of all, thank you for making such a clear and easy to follow tutorial. This has really improved my images with the Seestar! I am wondering if you’d do a video on editing globular/galactic clusters? Thanks!

[@erewhon42]

Thanks, glad you found it helpful! And that's a great suggestion! I've been working on kind of a prequel video with a slightly simpler workflow. But now that some nice globular clusters are coming into view, that would make a good topic for the following Siril video. (Not to mention galaxies too.)

[@philipmark3343]

Thank you, THANK YOU, for actually making a video and speaking in layman’s terms for someone like me who is just a hobbyist at best. (And also for injecting personality). If I watched one more video by some NASA PhD student nerd trying to explain Siril to me using words I don’t know or even care to learn, I was going to sell my Seestar

[@erewhon42]

Thank you for the kind words! I am glad you found it helpful. I do try to make sure I explain as much as I can without bogging things down. Glad you found it a good balance!

[@runewinsevik8471]

1:38 "the Seestar only takes light frames" This is not entirely correct, is it?

[@erewhon42]

Well... are you talking about the stacked files? Or that it's using some kind of dark frame internally? I agree with both of those.

[@hkt48man57]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing your know-how.

[@erewhon42]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[@abulka]

At 14:22 you refer to denoise. Where in the video did you do that?

[@erewhon42]

Unfortunately, I didn't. :-/ I used another piece of software, specifically Topaz Labs DeNoise AI. (Quite the mouthful!). It's really good, but it costs money. And looking at their website, it looks like they are pushing their more expensive photo product now if you want the denoising. For that and other reasons, I am working on a standalone video to go over denoising software. I'm going to go over a few of the options. I hope to get it out over next few days.

[@loowisk1113]

Amazing video thank you! I’d love to see you process Pleiades ✨

[@erewhon42]

Thank you. And nice suggestion! I'll have to see if I have enough data of the Pleiades. I think I did....

[@skotos_oman]

When using star removal i am not having the option of Execute. Does anyone have an idea what can be causing this? Am new to siril any help will be appreciated.

[@erewhon42]

Is it just greyed out? You need to make sure you have StarNet installed. It's a separate tool. You have to download it from www.starnetastro.com/download/. Then under the Preferences menu in Siril, you configure the location under Miscellaneous. There's an option for "Software location" partway down that dialog.

[@jpbslayer]

loving this video saved the first picture im trying, just noticed a mistake(??) during background extraction you said to switch back to linear, but you actually go back to auto stretch. probably no diffrnce. just noticed.

[@erewhon42]

You're right. I think I did notice that at one point long after the video went live, but I forgot about it. I try to avoid those kinds of errors, or I "correct" my words with text on screen, but sometimes things get through like that.

[@erewhon42]

And glad the video helped you salvage something! I've definitely had to do that more than once! :)

[@tariqalkindi8045]

Hi, greeting from UAE thanks for the nice demo. By the way can i combine the moon shot with airplane while flying across or sunset?

[@erewhon42]

Hi Tariq! You can always combine things like that. Are you talking about putting a plane in front of the moon, or taking a photo of a plane crossing the moon and putting it elsewhere?

[@yenaplyskyn7790]

Thx so much, i've discovered another world

[@erewhon42]

Thanks! Glad is was useful!

[@santiagomadruga4298]

Very clear tutorial. Something I don't get is the order of the photometric color calibration. Shouldn't it be after stretching to preserve the natural colors?.

[@erewhon42]

Thanks. You make a good point. The docs for Siril say you need to do the photometric color calibration before stretching or the colors will be wrong. I'm guessing that if the image has, say, some kind of yellow cast to it, when you stretch it that yellow will get shifted relative to the other colors, so the photometric color calibration won't correct the colors correctly.

[@MixatAAA]

Thank you for this content!

[@erewhon42]

You're welcome!

[@allisoncarlin3124]

Great video! 🙂

[@erewhon42]

Thanks! 😊. Really appreciate it!

[@gordonyetter2932]

Have you ever toyed with applying drizzle when registering?

[@erewhon42]

Yes, I had used the old drizzle in Siril 1.2 a couple of times. I didn't spend much time on it, though. The current development version, which will become Siril 1.4, has a new, "proper" drizzle built-in. I've been experimenting with that a bit recently. Once I've been able to get some better results, I plan on doing a video about it.

[@seafishingwithharry5516]

Hi im a begginer I watched some videos on how to add star net to siril but when i go to miscellaneous theres no software location category so i cant ad starnet prob a mistake i made but any tips?

[@erewhon42]

Are you running Windows or Mac? And which version of Siril are you running?

[@Marcus_Aurelius_6]

Great Job!!!!! Is is the same for galaxies?

[@erewhon42]

Yes, definitely! I've used the same technique on galaxies, both to fix bad sessions, but also to combine multiple days.

[@Marcus_Aurelius_6]

@erewhon42 Thank you so much!

[@bobf3598]

Would you exclude any high clouds? They havent blocked any of the stars registered just changed some of the screens to a slight lighter shade of green..

[@erewhon42]

I guess it depends on how many frames there are. If there are a lot, I would. If there isn't much faint data there, I usually don't need to boost the brighter stars any more. I processed one recently where I ended up excluding a lot of frames.

[@shevuki]

I’m confused with the beginning. I use my phone and iPad to track celestial objects with the Seestar so how do I get my stack images to computer?

[@erewhon42]

The fastest way to transfer files is to plug your Seestar into your computer. It will show up as a drive, and then you can copy the files. (It works this was on Mac or Windows.). Alternatively, if your Seestar is on your home Wifi network (station mode), it will show up as a network device "SEESTAR". You can connect to it in Finder / Explorer and copy files that way. It's a lot slower over Wifi, but it works.

[@justinbaker6146]

Thanks for the great video! I only seem to have a single FITS file on my Seestar after observing each object (one 12mb file per DSO). Will that still work with Siril, or do I need to change some setting on the device to get multiple files like you've demonstrated here?

[@erewhon42]

You can definitely edit that FITS file in Siril. You don't need to do the stacking step, but you start after that. (Background extraction, star removal, etc.). Turning on the setting on the Seestar gives more flexibility, but only going forward. With the pre-stacked FITS files, you can also combine those. So if you had multiple days, you could combine them assuming they are overlapping enough. (The ones I've done have.) But again, you'd have more flexibility if you have the subframes. (For example when fixing the kinds of issues I showed in the video.)

[@justinbaker6146]

Ok excellent, thanks so much!

[@justinbaker6146]

I tried loading in the single 12mb FITS file but I'm not sure where to go next. Siril still seems to be expecting a sequence of files to do its work. Any guidance would be much appreciated! @@erewhon42

[@1958ARo]

If I use the app on my iPad how do I get the files from my iPad to my iMac (I assume that my Seestar stores the photos in the iOS app PHOTOS)

[@erewhon42]

The app will save the on-telescope stacked jpeg to your Photos app. You can go into the My Album in the app, and pick the Seestar tab at the top to see everything on the telescope. They literally just came out with a new version of the Seestar app a few hours ago that lets you download multiple subframes at once. (Before you could only download one at a time.) Since I usually have dozens, or hundreds of subframes, I plug the Seestar directly into my laptop using a USB cable. (Since Wifi would tend to be a lot slower.)

[@hmuphilly9129]

What else obstructions would we want to look out for thats not a satellite crossing?

[@erewhon42]

Well, just from personal experience: planes are a big problem where I live. But then I also miscalculate how long I should leave the exposure going, and I'll get a neighbor's roof or tree. Sometimes clouds roll through too. In both cases, if there are still some stars visible, the Seestar will include it in the stack and really start messing up the image quality.

[@JeremiahThomas-y8g]

when i do global star alignment it says all my pictures failed except for one... how can I work around this

[@erewhon42]

I forget the technique I used for extreme matching issues, but a lot of times I just decrease the number of matched stars. I actually sometimes run it as low as 5 stars to match. I would try that. If that doesn't help... let me know and I'll try to remember the other method I used.

[@JeremiahThomas-y8g]

@@erewhon42 That helped. I did minimum star points 4 and selected on " match stars in selection" however out of 500 only 344 was taken. anyways to close the gap to less discarded ?

[@erewhon42]

@@JeremiahThomas-y8g Great! That's a big improvement! I'm still trying to remember what I used for this one particular data set. I think I might have tried a different transformation (to Euclidean, perhaps?). I don't remember if I changed the registration channel.

[@jwandel]

Hi, maybe dumb question here -- how do you download your subs from Seestar? The only option I see is to download each sub individually, which would take hours to tap through and do. Is there a better way? Can I plug it into my PC or something?

[@erewhon42]

I plug it into my computer with a USB-C cable. If will show up as a drive, and then you just copy off the files. (I've only tested it on my Mac but I'm sure it works the same on Windows.). It doesn't take too long to copy.

[@jwandel]

@@erewhon42 Yep, this worked. Thanks for the response, and super helpful video. Processed a 45min exposure of M42 with this and it looks phenomenal.

[@erewhon42]

@@jwandel That's great!

[@cato451]

dumb question but I'm new to this stuff. Where do I find all the individual images on the Seestar? My Seestar stacks them for me so I don't know how to find the individual pictures to process multiple sessions.

[@erewhon42]

If you have that setting turned on in the app (Advanced Feature > Save each frame in enhancing), you can plug your telescope when it's on into a computer. I think the directory is MyWorks, then "M 42-sub" or something like that. (Where "M 42" is the name of whatever object you take a photo of.). In that directory you'll see all of the subframes. If you have multiple sessions, they will all accumulate in the same directory.

[@cato451]

@@erewhon42 thank you sir!

[@erewhon42]

@@cato451 You're welcome!

[@johndaley9188]

SEESTAR is NOT broken. All you've done is make people angry. You know it's called post processing. If anyone wants to improve their captured image.... If you want to do a Siril tutoral, be proud and say what you are offering. Stop the bait and switch. Disappointed.

[@hmuphilly9129]

I imaged this Nebula yesterday and I have more detail shown but probably because Im not in the city but a surburban area. However it was a new moon yesterday

[@erewhon42]

Yes, unfortunately I'm in Bortle 9 skies. And a pretty bad Bortle 9. So it takes a long time for me to get results. But that makes it easier to have mishaps.

[@hmuphilly9129]

@@erewhon42 so the only way to get dark images that barely need processing is to be in a dark sky then with an EQ mount

[@erewhon42]

@@hmuphilly9129 I guess it depends. Not only do I have Bortle 9 skies, I have a lot of buildings to deal with around me. So I can't image on a single target for that long. You can get good results with urban and suburban skies without much processing. If the subframes aren't in bad shape, you can automate a lot of the processing.

[@johndaley9188]

Pixinsight, Siril!!! Waste of time and money. I post on my tablet, files are already there, using the photo editor. I first hit remaster. Done in 3 sec. Already close to the Siril final. Continue if I feel the need to crop, color/image enhance, add a title. Maybe 10 more minutes. Done. These post SW packages are archaic, difficult to learn and are geared to the pre-smartscope era. Embrace the technology. Harder doesn’t always mean better. If Siril is still your thing this video was a good tutorial.

[@erewhon42]

I appreciate your point. To be honest, if you're just taking images off the scope and there aren't any issues you need to work around, it doesn't take much if anything to tweak them. And there are a lot of people who use image processing software for tweaking their astro photos, especially for the final stages. Even if it wasn't your cup of tea, thanks for the comment and the final bit, too.

[@hmuphilly9129]

you probably dont have to edit as much if in a bortle 1 or 2 sky location?

[@erewhon42]

You can still have mishaps, but yes, on the whole things will probably be better all around. I've seen some photos from the Seestar from Bortle 3 or 4 even and in some cases the results seem better than what I get in just a fraction of the time. Of course, when you have a lot of good data, you'll probably want to spend just as much time really making it pop.

[@hmuphilly9129]

@@erewhon42 Moonlight and or planet glare?

[@erewhon42]

@@hmuphilly9129 Well, it depends on the target. The moon will definitely wash things out, but people get good results even when the moon is up. So long as what you're imaging isn't too close to the moon in the sky.

[@hmuphilly9129]

@@erewhon42 I head planet glare is a form of light pollution in dark sky locations thanks for the replies.

[@AnalogMonoxide]

Thanks, to the point and very helpful.

[@erewhon42]

Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!

[@Optimus-Prime-Rib]

Total noob here. Why do you stop with space looking grey? Why dont you continue to make it black as possible

[@erewhon42]

That's a reasonable question. Depending on the quality of the data (in my case: pretty low due to heavy light pollution), it's can be a challenge to bring out faint details in the target without bringing up the brightness of the sky. There are ways of fixing, or at least mitigating that, with other tools. I really need to put out an updated video going into that.

[@jsamc]

A whole half an hour, wow 🤣

[@Manu-yu2wz]

Useless tutorial.I have followed all the steps over and over again.I watched the video over 16 times and I gained anything at all.STacking doesn't work at all and the registration turns all the rest of the images black with a value of 1 at max/min that can't be changed expect for the first image which is the only one normal.

[@erewhon42]

What target were you imaging? How many subframes? I have had some registration issues with some targets because it can't match enough stars.

[@MenInInk]

i want to beleave

[@erewhon42]

Siril isn't magic, but it can help recover things that got mangled by the auto stacking in the Seestar.

[@hmuphilly9129]

go away flat earther.