How to Stack a Comet in Deep SkyStacker

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is making its appearance in the eastern morning sky (Late Nov - Mid Dec 2021). You can take images of it with a telescope, but how do you stack these images of a comet that is moving? This is how I stack a comet in Deep SkyStacker.
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Music from the KZbin audio library: "Central Park"
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:39 Information about the telescope and Comet Leonard
2:46 Setting up Deep SkyStacker
10:23 Post-processing in PixInsight and Photoshop
15:16 Making a Movie of the comet in DaVinci Resolve
16:18 Final Remarks
18:07 The final picture and movie

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Excellent, I've got some comet data. I'm going to save this video for when I'm ready to process it. Thanks!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thanks Chuck. I hoping for a clear sky on Dec 3 as it will be next to M3. Should make for a spectacular photo.

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Good luck, I have nothing but clouds now

[@Mabe456]

tip: you can set a comet location on the first and the last frame (sorted by time) and DSS will interpolate it's position for all the in-between frames. Great if you don't want to set the comet on hundreds of images.

[@Westlake]

Thanks for sharing this video! Much appreciated!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Westlake

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Great tutorial Pat! Also loved the video at the end.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thanks, Joe. I try

[@joaquinfabrega]

Very hice video. Congrats and thanks.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you for watching my video Joaquin

[@credenvy1552]

Awesome video going to get data soon !

[@AZ4Runner]

Great Follow up to the previous video, I'm definitely going to give this a try! love the image and the animation/TimeLapse.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Jason. This comet is beginning to get a lot of astro attention

[@henryparker4668]

Thanks Pat. I got some data on the comet this morning, and I’ll use this to help me stack.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I hope you get some great results. Sometimes, you get more star trails than other in DSS's attempts

[@theinterstellarfeller]

Another awesome video! I totally forgot DSS had comet mode. Can’t wait to try it out.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Don. I hope you can get some good data to try it out.

[@kisore20gp]

Thank u for the movie idea

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Glad I could help

[@kisore20gp]

I like the bgm during the animation

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

That's one of my favorite cuts from the KZbin audio library: "Central Park"

[@craiglowery4427]

Excellent video Pat especially with 2022 E3 (ZTF) reaching close approach. Have you made a video on basic usage of Pixinsight?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Not yet, Craig, They just came out with a NEW COMET processing routine today and I plan to experiment with it over the next few days.

[@LogansAstro]

Great follow up tutorial from the last one on Comet Leonard. Now, can you please send the comet down south please so I can try out your tutorial on DSS :)

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thanks, Logan. Ha ... yes, it seems that the northern hemisphere has a better view of this celestial visitor

[@tribble1027]

Very much appreciated...will be trying these techniques. How long were your individual subs of the comet? Thank you

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Tribble ... Thank you. The subframes were 2min each. Even with that, I did detect a slight blurring of the head of the comet.

[@davidsimard1522]

Wow but it look so difficult you have been doing that for a long time

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Well, Comet stacking takes extra effort

[@Piotrando]

Hi Thanks for this. What to do in case after resgitration and stacking system do not automaticaly recognise the commet. Most of my pictures it knows there is comet but sometimes I can not click on it ?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Try holding down the SHIFT key while moving to the comet then left mouse click when you are centered over the comet nucelus.

[@DawidGlawdzin]

Informative video. Thank you. Question: have you tried a Stars + Comet Stacking in DSS settings? Seems a perfect setting for what you're trying to achieve. thanks

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Dawid. No, I haven't tried that. I will certainly give it a try right now. Thanks for the tip.

[@DawidGlawdzin]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Looking forward to the results. I will try to catch it as well soon (weather permitted)

[@marcusbatac7923]

I just recently heard about deep sky stacker and photo stacking. I am planning on trying on capturing C/22 tomorrow was wondering if it is possible to manually track (sony a7iv with a 300mm on a tripod) the comet and still be able to get at least decent results on star tracker?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Marcus, With that wide field of view, you should be able to capture the comet and even enough exposures to stack. I would avoid going more than 10 seconds per exposure since you will not be tracking. Longer than that will results in short star trails. But even with that, you should be able to get some good comet captures. Keep in mind, if your stars are elongated in your exposures, the stacking software will have issues discerning the stars and might not be able to stack.

[@marcusbatac7923]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy thanks for getting back to me in time about to leave to catch the comet soon, I appreciate the tip going to try this out fingers crossed everything works out smoothly! for the trip ill be bringing 135,300, and 16mm lenses with me and try out a couple of techniques i've gotten from asking around!

[@jonkjon]

I tried this in DSS pertaining to the time lapse and none of my tif files that were generated were stretched so they are are still linear. What do you suppose I missed? Great video BTW. Thanks for taking the time to share...

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Jonkjon, What I do after stacking in DSS, I pass the final image to PixInsight and stretch it there. If I plan to make an animation, I stack all the generated registered tif file into Photoshop and stretch them there. I never use the final DSS product by itself.

[@alitlweird]

*The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.* - _Psalm 19:1_ ✝️

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

One of my favorites

[@alitlweird]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy hashtag: Kid’s show. 🤓😉 A Christian/Bible based, educational astronomy & stargazing show. but not something that’s preachy. Just some amazing facts about space, the Universe and our planet… with sprinkles of Biblical wisdom and Truth for context. 😇✝️

[@alitlweird]

Imagine if Percival Lowell -or heck… Galileo, had this technology! 🤩🤯

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

No kidding. I think about that all the time

[@wismokey]

How many comet images did you stack?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I think that image was with 26 images

[@dadwhitsett]

Well I am confused [happens frequently]. When I set my Stack Parameter to "Comet Stacking" [9:38] the result is not starless. It shows star trails. Why was yours starless?? Thanks.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Sorry for the delay ... I wanted to brush up on my comet tracking first using C/2017 K2 which is now visible. If you stack too many frames, DSS can't handle it and you end up with stars, some funky ones at that. Try stacking about 10 frames or less and see what happens. I just did this using 10 x 2min subs and it came out great. When I tried to stack all 100 frames, it went wacko.

[@ChainsawFilms]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy I just experimented with the DSS to stack my 100 lights on tracking comet only. Like Marc stated, my 1st time had funky stars. So, what I did was, after putting the circle around each comet, I went to the add/remove stars icon above the comet icon and it put green circles on each star. Then in recommended settings, it said I was trying to stack comet with star trails and to use an average combination method. I ignored that and left it on the Kappa-sigma clipping. I had a nice crisp comet and no stars. I learned this after painstakingly using dust and scratches to remove every funky star. Lol. I am about to re-processes now. Thought I would share this tid-bit of what I learned. Thanks for all you do friend.

[@zygmuntziokowski7877]

Too bad the Deep SkyStacker doesn't run on MAC. So, I use Starry Star Stacker.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

That's good to know.