How to Stack and Process Comet Images with Deep Sky Stacker

[@Astrolavista]

****Apologies for the audio levels between **0:35** and **3:30**. I got a copyright claimed for the backing music for that particular portion of the video (DESPITE GETTING THE MUSIC FROM A WELL KNOWN ROYALTY FREE SUBSCRIPTION SITE). You Tube gives you the option to remove the clip but it seems to totally mess up the rest of the audio in the process! :( *****

[@migukaje]

Just used this for 2022 ZTF! Thank you very much!

[@Astrolavista]

Glad it helped!

[@AdzworldofcrazySh1t]

Great tutorial Chris, I've just stacked 13 pics from the other day, I couldn't work out how to move the box so thank you :)

[@Astrolavista]

Cool! Looking forwards to seeing it if you post it up Adz. Glad the video helped someone already!

[@allenbaylus3378]

simple question - do you need to mark every comet image, or does it figure it out on the steps between? I have around 100 images of C/2022 E3 - do I need to highlight the comet nucleus in every frame?

[@Astrolavista]

Yes you need to mark each one with a circle and press save each time - weirdly I did this with exactly 100 images only yesterday. The latest version of DSS does seem to lock onto the nucleus at least if you hover close by the comet, twice as fast as the last time I used this software.

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

Great video, always find your content so relaxing and unpressured. Love it and big fan of FLO.

[@zaugitude]

Very well explained, just what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@Astrolavista]

You're welcome :)

[@TheUrbanAstronomer]

Great tutorial Chris!! Been playing around with DSS the last week. 😀

[@Astrolavista]

Cheers Vineeth. Cool! I really rate DSS, I've been using it for maybe 8 years now. I just wish it would recognise my Fuji RAF files so I don't need to painstakingly convert them lol

[@TheUrbanAstronomer]

@@Astrolavista argh.. format recognition is a pain point with these cool tools right. Does PIPP recognize the format - you might be able to batch convert it then. I am hoping to pick up more on the deep sky side of processing.. lets see how it goes. 😀

[@Astrolavista]

@@TheUrbanAstronomer Good thought! I'll test out PIPP for conversion tomorrow. You'll be fine with deep sky, up and running before you know it :)

[@msenin]

@Chris, did you space out the subs to let the comet move more between subs and make outlier rejection easier, or just shoot nonstop?

[@Astrolavista]

Hi Maxim, I always leave a delay between subs to help reduce sensor heat build up. The easier outlier rejection is a bonus!

[@clintkennedy8374]

Liked and subbed thank you for this!! Never imaged a comet until Leonard which is currently visible early morning and this solved some issues I was having

[@Astrolavista]

Awesome, thank you Clint! Great to hear the video helped :)

[@astrodad656]

I use DSS for all my stacking but I have had a few occasions where it does not detect any stars. Unfortunately my pictures of comet Leonard were in this category so I had to use the ASI stacking program to do my stacking. The image came out great but I would like to know why this is the case. Any thoughts how I can correct this? Thank you.

[@Astrolavista]

Hi Astrodad, I take it you've adjusting that star detection slider thingy and it still hasn't given you enough stars right? The only time that has ever happened to me is with narrow band imaging when a lot of star light is cut due to the filter. Are you using Mono with say an Ha filter? or one shot colour cam?

[@astrodad656]

@@Astrolavista no filter, asi2600mc-p. What burns me is that ASI software is able to run it without any difficulty and yet DSS could not run it.

[@bushcraftandastronomer.3775]

Hi Chris. Thanks for this great little tutorial which. i found very useful and your shot after deep sky stacked looks brilliant! Still no luck but who knows because of the good Scottish weather. I'll use this video in future reference as maybe another comet will show up! The night sky is full of surprises like the fireball that lit up the skies over Australia so you just never know what's going to happen! Years from now you'll show comet Neowise images to family and friends of the future and say I took this back in 2020 when this comet was bright! Just like seeing Comet Hale Bopp I'll never forget the times I saw it. You show how's it done mate!!!

[@Astrolavista]

It may be that you won't get to see this one John, but lets hope there will be another one along soon. The next one may not be naked eye but you're putting together a nice wide field imaging rig which will be great for imaging fainter comets! Lovely thought about looking back at these comet images in years to come :)

[@EyeInTheSkyProductions]

Thank you for making so simple 🙏

[@RaysAstrophotography]

Excellent Image Chris!

[@Astrolavista]

Thanks Ray! It's better than I thought it would be for 3 second exposures on a fixed tripod. Kind of wish I had a star tracker for longer exposures but I really can't complain with what I've achieved considering lots of people weren't able to see the comet.

[@toddeswe]

Thanks for this guide but when i shoukd mark the comet i don't get a ring around it because it is so unclear. How to do then? And if one have lets say 300 lights are you marking everyone like this manually?

[@Astrolavista]

Hello, I'm having the same problem with the latest version of DSS. I made this video when comet Neowise was around and the version of deep sky stacker back then allowed you to precisely place the circle. Like many, I'm currently enjoying imaging c/2022 E3, however with the latest version of Deep Sky Stacker the circle seems to lock to the closest bright spot. This is quicker when it works but I too noticed it just wouldn't lock onto many of my comet exposures unless they were very focused and sharp frames. I ended up throwing away 50 frames because I couldn't place the circle on the comet. I would just un-tick any frames where you can't place the circle accurately. I hope they fix this bug.

[@toddeswe]

@@Astrolavista yes let’s hope they do. Meanwhile I’m trying with Siril.

[@cooky187]

Hello guys anyone know why my comet came out of DSS in black and white, 30s subs at 1600 iso, 140 of them, they are clearly in colour when flicking through the images but when stacked the final result is black and white and cannot pull any colour out at all on PS

[@astrobeardimage]

Thanks perfect timing, Clear Skies!

[@Astrolavista]

You're welcome AstroBeard :)

[@chrischarlesjax]

I cannot get the image to come out anything other than monochromatic when doing Comet + Star Stacking. It is in color if I do Comet stacking OR star stacking, but not when I try to do the combined method. Is this inherent in the program or is there something I am missing?

[@Astrolavista]

Are we talking about the image as presented in DSS or saved and brought into another image manipulation program? If in DSS I take it you've moved the saturation slider up?

[@woldsweather]

Is there a way of stopping DSS producing those annoying infor.txt files?

[@Astrolavista]

Not that I've ever found, sorry

[@pinakoza]

Amazing! Thank you very much for sharing :)

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Hi Chris I'm currently capturing Comet K2 Panstarrs & never stacked comet data before so found your video very useful thanks, I assume you can stack using darks & flts also?

[@Astrolavista]

Cool, I forgot Panstarrs was back! You can stack Fits and darks should work fine also, I'm glad the vid helped :)

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

well the first stack went bad so I'll try again when I get home 🙂

[@veridianfilms]

@@dumpydalekobservatory how did it go? I'm currently attempting to capture the same comet and was wondering if it worked

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

@@veridianfilms I managed to capture it ok but stacking of it didnt go as well, we tried quite a few times to so not sure why it wouldn't work.

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

No matter what I do, following exactly along, I cannot get DSS to stack the comet and stars or even separately when a comet is involved.

[@Astrolavista]

I'm sorry to hear that, not fun :( I made this video a while ago when comet Neowise was about but I've just followed my own tutorial with the latest comet c/2022 E3 and it still worked but I did notice one difference. The latest version of DSS tries to snap the circle to the nucleus of the comet which is quicker but sometimes it just wont lock on the comet which is frustrating. Other than that it stacked the same as last time I used it for Neowise so it does still work. Are you absolutely sure you didn't miss a step? Might be worth checking a different tutorial also as there are a few on this on YT now. I'm sorry this didn't work for you.

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

@@Astrolavista yeh tearing hair out at it. I've stacked it about 15 diff times I'll keep going and will let you kmow if I find culprit. Dss usually works fine for me

[@Astrolavista]

@@stevenrobinsonpictures Yes please do let me know , hope you get it resolved. Have you tried re installing DSS in case there is a bug with comet stacking. Maybe a long shot but if you have tried 15 times it might be worth a try.

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

@@Astrolavista I will try that too thanks mate

[@Nottsboy24]

Nice upload 👌🔭

[@Astrolavista]

Thanks!

[@pigeond]

When you zoom in/out with the mouse wheel, you can hold down shift then it won't keep snapping to the random stars.

[@Astrolavista]

Thanks for that :)

[@pigeond]

@@Astrolavista No actually thank YOU for this video. I actually wasn't sure how to use the comet mode in DSS. I'm trying to stack the K2 panstarrs now :)

[@xuan-qk7uq]

that's really helpful

[@astroazores]

Quite useful. Thanks!

[@woldsweather]

How do you get the green circle?

[@Astrolavista]

It should come up when you click on the comet icon on the right

[@woldsweather]

@@Astrolavista Got it thanks though it doesn't ask to save it.

[@joaquinfabrega]

Excelente video. Thanks

[@TeamGamingSWE]

I can't get comet stacking to work. The final stack comes out as a mess everytime.

[@Astrolavista]

Do you have any frames where the comet isn't circled?

[@TeamGamingSWE]

@@Astrolavista No, I think I had too many frames. Looks better when I only use 10, I guess it's not perfect this tool? The stars leave artifacts in the background.

[@jbrannon7]

Deep sky stacker will not allow me to click on the comet in comet mode, it will only put the green circle around stars.

[@angelotaylor7519]

Is this for comet ztf?

[@bradperry4902]

I was having the same problem just now, but I found shift+clicking, sometimes repeatedly, would eventually let me set the green circle around the comet.

[@wNNdSharK]

Tip: don't use 4k photos, it took 4 hours to register 18 frames with 8gb ram...

[@Astrolavista]

Ouch!

[@woldsweather]

It didnt ask if I wanted to save after clicking on the Comet.

[@Astrolavista]

After placing the circle, if you forget to click on the save icon (floppy disc icon on the right side of the screen) before moving on to the next file it will bring up a prompt to save. If none of this is happening for you, and you can't save via the save icon try re installing software.

[@COHIBAOFFICIAL]

I thought it was just me trying to scroll the pic after zooming, jeeze there should be a keyboard button to hold and scroll

[@nachiketdhavaleyt]

no luck :( I'm from India there are a bunch of clouds here every day

[@Astrolavista]

Sorry to hear that. My KZbin buddy Vineeth from The Urban Astronomer is based in India and I think he's only managed to get one shot at Neowise.

[@nachiketdhavaleyt]

@@Astrolavista yeah my many friends clicked good photos but I'm still trying :(

[@Astrolavista]

@@nachiketdhavaleyt Feel for you dude, I shall not take what I've captured for granted . Wishing you some good luck and clear skies.

[@Nonosquare2000]

@@nachiketdhavaleyt hey bro. I am from Bangladesh, one of the countries sharing borders with India. I run a channel called "Rooftop Astronomer". In my most recent video, I showed many good pictures taken with a very small telescope. You wanna check it out? We have much similar atmospheric conditions to your country. So I recommend you check it out.

[@mubarakhayath]

Hello bro can we do a collab,I make me similar content

[@Astrolavista]

Hey dude. I'm flattered that you would want to collab but I've never really given much thought to collaborations before. I guess if I was to start doing them I would probably ask my mate Vineeth from The Urban Astronomer (if you don't follow his content I can recommend it) I've not come across your channel before so I'll subscribe to you and follow along and see what happens. Clear skies!

[@mubarakhayath]

@@Astrolavista haha I have just started out bro ,so I thought doing a collab would help me get some exposure and also meet some creators out there! So we can plan something , nothing fancy hahaha . Dm me at IG @striving_amateur

[@woldsweather]

Oh no you click on EVERY one? I have 400!

[@Astrolavista]

I'm afraid so.

[@lasersummit7895]

What a uselessly long video.

[@Astrolavista]

A seven minute tutorial is too long? I mean it's a four year old video so I could probably make a more polished video now days, but even so it seems to have a 98.9% positive feedback score in the stats which suggests it can't be that terrible.

[@lasersummit7895]

@@Astrolavista Buddy i really dont like to be the asshole but realistically this video could have been condensed in 30 seconds? For like the 90% of people who cant find the comet settings in DSS...

[@KermitSF]

​@@lasersummit7895 respectfully, this makes the video accessible to everyone