How to comet stack in PixInsight!

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Thanks for making this, Shawn. I've got some comet data I'd like to process one of these days. I'm going to save this in my tutorials folder.

[@tomhoskins4913]

Outstanding, I am 2 months into Astrophotography and have been using DSS and PS exclusively . This is my first detailed view of Pixinsight, What a superb tool. You are a Great Teacher

[@JamesLipton-kw8ni]

thanks for the detailed guide through the process, super helpful as i attempt my first comet stack and process.

[@brianastrodoc2886]

Fantastic! Just what I needed for this Green 50k year comet!, 1 year later. Perhaps a little updating since the release of all the Xterminator software. Thanks so much Shawn! As always an excellent tutorial.

[@conradsanders8475]

Shawn perfect timing for this tutorial as I was just looking for something like this to process my comet Leonard. I did start using DSS but this seems like a much easier solution. This is a very informative video. Thanks.

[@rtumkur]

Thanks Shawn! I took images this morning and I was telling a friend that I wish Shawn had a tutorial for this and boom, it showed up this afternoon. Can't wait to use it. Thank you!

[@jim17700ify]

This is a very straight-forward tutorial that I could easily grasp. Others that I have looked at seem to be teasers that solicit purchases, or they are harder than they need to be. I look forward to applying this workflow to my Leonard data.

[@clarkastro2510]

Thanks for doing this Shawn. I had suggested it to you a few months back hoping others would also. And you did it! Thanks again.

[@briansnell9179]

Excellent video as usual. Thank you Shawn.

[@jimwaters304]

Shawn - Thanks for taking the time to make this video. I am looking forward to using it.

[@xB4R7x]

I'm pretty new to PixInsight - I have to say your tutorials are hands down the best I've been able to find. Keep up the awesome work, and thank you very much. You're making the learning curve far less steep for me. Clear skies. :)

[@StefanoZamblera]

Thank U very much for sharing 👏👏👏wishing clear skies from Italy

[@filipdziegielewski4742]

Good job Shawn. Thank you for your videos

[@JonDenver]

Saved me Shawn! DSS would not stack my comet at all. This helped me learn the process and now I know I also need longer exposures to get more tail!

[@VisibledarkAstro]

That's awesome! Glad the video was helpful. Cheers.

[@ZNEBRAAJ]

Thank you for this!

[@roryc3683]

Thanks Sean! Awesome vid.

[@redabdab]

Thanks SO much Shawn. This is exactly what I was looking for! I got a pile of data last night on C/2022 E3 (ZTF), but I've never imaged a comet before so this is invaluable and v easy to follow.

[@astrofordummies8157]

This is great Shawn, glad the data worked out.

[@denbergeron]

Very interesting video Shawn. Thank you

[@DrewJEvans44]

Excellent walkthrough, Shawn! ☄️

[@Br00se]

Thanks Shawn, I've been saving my data from last week waiting on this video. 🙂

[@FrootyRecords]

Cheers Shawn. Great tutorial.

[@jerrygipson2439]

Another excellent video. Thanks a lot.

[@alxcav]

One of the best tutorial I ever found: detailed explanation for each step, great suggestions and awesome results... I've been struggling for days trying to process my ZTF Comet without acceptable results, and your video just came to save me: Pixinsight is a very great tool but it requires some learning curve fo be faced, and videos like this one are what we need, Great job: you got one more follower to your channel!

[@mesample1705]

I give you a thumbs up for your production and content. I did run into an issue with the comet alignment step. My rig did a meridian flip which threw the registration off on most frames. I found doing a comet align on the registered (on stars) files instead of calibrated files, solved that problem. WBPP had accounted for the meridian flip and the CometAlignment process produced good results when using the files in the "registered" folder.

[@AdhishMajumdar]

Thank you very much for sharing this. I could not capture Leonard myself, but your tutorial helped me work on a friend's data! Worked very well at the first try!

[@giohelp]

great job! thanks

[@rudibarani]

Just in time 😀 Thanks a lot!

[@brenellaitalia]

Thanks, very helpful!

[@trevorgreen2232]

Thank you Shawn for another excellent presentation

[@MikeTettenborn]

Awesome. Many thanks for this.

[@enriquebechet1]

Thanks so much. I’ll try again:)

[@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer]

Great video , and nice to see other processes modules I can use for other images

[@benc7102]

G’day Shawn Congratulations on reaching 10k subscribers Well done mate

[@area51xi]

This is what you call a master class.

[@MrGuitar50]

Thanks for this! I'm trying to process the new comet E3 ZTF now!

[@olly7248]

Excellent, thank you so much for doing this 👍🏻⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@jurgenheinrich3028]

perfect - great and very easy; thank you

[@dwightlethbridge2796]

Much better than the arcane method in DSS which I always had trouble doing. I, like you, have been clouded out of Comet Leonard.

[@bloodstone2000]

GREAT Video Shawn! I sure there are a lot of people out there furiously searching for this exact Video. considering most of Us' grabbed a few hours this last week... I think I broke the Record for Range masks on mine .😂

[@anata5127]

Master Pixinsighter in action! I just like you tutorial for their simple and clear presentations. Preparing for c/2022 c3 (ztf). Some suggestions. Creat stars from star align image using Star X terminator. Saturate stars to get nicer star image. This is your TARGET image. Comet apply to it, because comet is closer to you rthan stars. Target image is always for further away object. Comet will overlay stars.

[@davecurtis8833]

Nice work Shawn, Ive been waiting waiting for this :-). Is there any technique to clean up the background stars on the comet image. I see you dropped the black point a bit to make them disappear.

[@Erniej270]

Thanks for this video! When capturing images, do you recommend guiding on the stars or on the comet?

[@Skyguy055]

Thanks for doing this Shawn. If the skies ever clear in Vancouver I’ll be using a mono camera to try and replicate what you have done with a OSC! Cheers 🍻!!

[@johnadastra1754]

Thanks, Shawn! It's been awhile since I had any comet data to work with. But my frames include a galaxy I want to keep. I assume using Lum mask instead of a star mask will help place the stars plus galaxy data into the comet stack image. Any comments appreciated.

[@eloril]

Thank you, it took me all day but I processed C/2022 E3 (ZTF) with your fantastic video. My main issue was starxterminator installed with the 'lite' AI version selected, which was terrible for a comet. Also @17:45 you introduce a pre-configured MultiscaleLinearTransform and just apply it, I had to guess how to use that one (I turned off everything except layer 3-6 and it looked ok).

[@daniberkvens8167]

Good video for OSC, but how do you do this with LRGB filters and a mono camera?

[@andamd1983]

Thanks for this tutorial! Where I can find autocolor script? I can't find some features in the latest version

[@Makrem]

Thanks for this video, What this circle in the middle of the stack ?

[@dolphinpat1]

Great tutorial Shawn. I am processing C/2022 E3 but I am not sure how you managed to get rid of the star trails in your comet alignment process. I get bright star trails.

[@koppervik1]

😊 I'm having the exact same issue. After combining the stars with the comet image, seems like the trails dissapeard as 'by magic'? Or did you do some processing of the comet image, but cut that part from this tutorial?

[@AstroBackyard]

Try the "Windsorized Sigma Clipping" pixel rejection selection - that did it for me!

[@texasbackyardastronomyglen9040]

thank you for this video. i am new to PIS.. i have avoided processing for too long. its time. lol. any chance you will be releasing comet E3 videos as well using the new version of PIS ? module 1.3.5 i recieved a email announcing the release of the new version of comet alignment today. would like to see your video including the new version. thank you sir.

[@rogerbailey608]

I am using this tutorial for C2022 e3 (ztf). When I get to the linear fit portion it always fails. I get an error message: Incompatible image geometry: cometstack. Any ideas why this might be failing?

[@conradsanders8475]

I have comet data from Telescope Live as you know, their camera's are all monochrome. What would be the steps that I would need to do prior to continuing on with your process? I have already run WBPP so I have the masters for RGB and Lum and then a directory with the registered xisf files to be used with the comet alignment process. I also have all Russell Croman's tools to help me make a star and starless image. Basically where do I fit in the integration and LGRB combination in your process? I have done very little with monochrome processing so bear with me since it's very new to me.

[@jr10]

Why was your stacked image of the aligned comet frames starless? I did not see where they were addressed until later in this video. Did I miss something?

[@paulomarto]

When I have comet stacked the final image is just a blank screen with green noise and no comet. Please help!

[@Dudleydogg]

All my Debayered Images are Green so when I do the comet stack I just get a blur. not sure how to remove the green background prior to comet stack

[@alanbruce2356]

Excellent video as always, any chance you might do an update with the new Comet alignment tool just out? Thanks :)

[@VisibledarkAstro]

I actually did. I also tried the new options in the updated comet alignment tool but didn't find they gave me as good of a result as my original method does.

[@abrahamshadbeh7223]

A bit fast but easy to follow. I might actually be able to process my neowise data thats a few years old now. LOL

[@AstroCloudGenerator]

Hi Shawn. I'm hoping to use this on C/2022 E3 (ZTF) this week, thanks for sharing. Nice to see you on the Nebula Photos server last week. If you pay us another visit you might see what you helped me achieve. CS

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Hi Richard. Glad the video is helpful. Good luck with the comet. I was hoping to try imaging it but will have to wait till late January.

[@jmzcal]

This is a great video and a concise way to teach us. I'm trying this with C/2022 E3 (ZTF). After my comet integration (around 11:00), I can see the head of the comet in my image before hitting the auto stretch. When I hit auto stretch, it improves, but nothing like what you show in your video. Unstretched you don't see anything (around 11:00), but when you auto stretch, you see this massive head and tail. Was Leonard so much brighter, or am I doing something wrong? Great work on this video!

[@glennschiffer1742]

I was wondering the same, looks like DBE was applied ,cause my image is green until DBE

[@_ethereal_astro]

is it better to track on the core of the comet or the stars? i took an image of ETF last night at 180s in LRGB and I get a oblong core. Great tut as well!!

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Depends on what you want for an end image. Tracking on the comet will trail the stars. What I would do is short subs. 30sec. Each channel. Take as many as you can get.

[@baggi6726]

why after image integration step, my comet aligned image is not colored? 😢

[@christianvulpescu1398]

Very good tutorial. Thank you Sawn. Just one question: Do you guide on a star with sideral speed in EQMOD or on the comet?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

For this data it was guiding on a star but with short exposures. You can also guide on the comet if need be.

[@christianvulpescu1398]

@@VisibledarkAstro If you guide on the comet, you wouldn't be able to have pinpointed stars anymore, I guess. Is this true?

[@steveleonard2856]

Hi Shawn, I don't see a registration step here. Don't you need to perform registration on the stars before comet align? Otherwise you will be susceptible to tracking errors and dithering, leading to blurring of the comet nucleus, and real trouble if there is a meridian flip during acqusition.

[@JethroXP]

I wondered about that too but did it the way he showed anyway, however my comet came out elongated. I then tried it again but using the registered images instead of the debayered and that gave the results I expected, nice clearly defined comet. Not sure if I did something wrong or maybe WBPP has changed enough since he made this that perhaps the steps need to be updated?

[@benny2930]

Hi Shawn. This is great. When I use the multiscale linear transform. Nothing happens. Have I missed something.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Not sure. I would check out my updated 2023 comet stacking vid and follow that.

[@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer]

Maybe you could show us how to do a comet movie with the same data in Pix

[@MrGuitar50]

Shawn, if your scope does a meridian flip during the session will that affect the outcome of the comet processing?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

If you use the registered lights it will be fine. Doesn't matter that a meridian flip occurred.

[@mannysawit189]

Is it possible to make the stars more "pinpoint"? They seem to be somewhat bloated. Is it because of the setting of the star mask, where you used 4? What happens if it's set to 2, or 6? Which direction to make the stars sharper?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

You can play around with the values for the star mask and star bluring. You could also try using Stanet2 or StarXterminator to make a mask. That would be another way. Cheers.

[@brianfulda]

Nice video, Shawn. I tried following these steps but in my image of M3 & Comet Leonard, M3 is just as bright as the comet so what happens is that when I stack the comet, M3 still shows up as a bright blob in my comet stack image. This then shows up in the final image too, and I'm having a very hard time getting rid of it.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Hi Brian - you'll probably have to "paint" out the M3 blob in the comet stack. And then make a hybrid mask that includes M3 for the star stack.

[@brianfulda]

@@VisibledarkAstro Thanks! I figured I might have to do that. Will give it a go.

[@utternutter2535]

Great tutorial! Just a few things. I have a learning difficulty plus my eyesight isn't good. It's hard to see the file name to decide what I needed to choose. Maybe zoom in? It's too low-quality to see. Then when I opened the star stacked image, two others opened at the same time, which isn't in your tutorial, so it took me a little time, looking at the long file name to decide which file I needed to keep. It took a moment to see how you did autostretch. I'm still a beginner, so haven't yet used the icons on the toolbar. You went fast so I had to repeat the vid a few times. I normally go to STF via the menu. In CometAlignment, my files titles didn't contain the "c", they only had "d". How should I have calibrated them? I also don't understand why my images became bright green when I autostretched them. They settled down after DBE. When you extracted the lightness from the StarStack, I had to repeat the vid a couple of times to see what icon you clicked. MLT setting didn’t darken the StarStack new image. Weird. Sadly, my comet core was so bright, I lost too many of the stars by eliminating it and it didn’t hide the streaks in my comet stack image. Plus I didn’t see how you turned off the mask preview. I do know how to turn it off via the menu, so that was OK. The PixelMath equation wasn’t clear. I had to guess the dollar sign. Sadly, the star stack image with the mask didn’t hide the streaks in the comet stack. It was a mess. I did save the files up to that point to apply the star stack in Photoshop. I wish I understood why it didn’t work for me!

[@ojodeicaros5950]

Hi, I´m getting an ´´incompatible image geometry´´ message when trying to do the ´´linear fit´´ and applying the mask... any insight?

[@ojodeicaros5950]

No worries, found the problem, the two images, for some reason were not the same size, so, I just applied dynamic crop and adjusted to same size to one of the images.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Glad you figured it out. I was going to suggest checking the image sizes.

[@benny2930]

Hi everyone and hi Shawn. Is anyone having the issue of getting up to linear transfer and getting the message that the image has no geometric match even though I dynamically cropped both images the same. Thanks

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Haven't had that problem. Haven't heard of anyone having that issue either. Not related to the workflow. Are you sure you are applying crop correctly?

[@texasbackyardastronomyglen9040]

im 3/4 the way through the video and already wishing for a simpler way..

[@Astrolips2000]

Thank you for this!