Manually Calibrate and Stack Astrophotography Images in Siril

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

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[@kevinwisdom7578]

Your Siril tutorials are unrivalled, nobody breaks it down like you. Awesome stuff, my man!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Hey thanks so much for that! Appreciate it!

[@fasullamail]

Hello Rich, very interesting and accurate as always! Spot on about calibration with (L-D)/(F-B). I keep saying that this is by far the best astrophotography channel on the tube. Quick question: if had to process a sequence of already-debayered TIFF images, should I uncheck all the CFA-related boxes?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

I don't know about the best, but I appreciate the sentiment! Thank you! I would guess that you're correct, although I haven't actually tried.

[@KJRitch]

During the flats calibration with bias are you supposed to check “Debayer before saving” like you do when calibrating the lights with the dark and flat sequence? In the lights calibration you said “again”. I had to rewind to the flats calibration but the “Debayer before saving box” was’t checked. Thanks

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

When I said "again" I was restating that again this is color data. Not that I was checking the debayer option again.

[@calabrais]

I had the same thought, thanks for asking this question :)

[@robertridgley3278]

Just getting started with imaging so this video is very helpful. I can't thank you enough, it's just what I needed.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Happy to hear it was helpful! Thanks!

[@eeliashar5190]

Rich, this is a fantastic and useful video, thanks so much for taking the time to show us the way. One comment if I may. i am using mac and was unable to find any of the files with the prefix..\ even though siril was clever enough to find the calibration files on it own. T he final result stack was not found until i had the idea that this may be a windows' only prefix, opened the manual process folder under paralles and there it was. had to rename it to "bring" it to mac. May be worthwhile to add a written comment for mac users? Thanks again

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Yeah obviously the file systems are different between the 2, and I don't have a Mac to test with. Sorry about that.

[@Tiki08]

First of all hi!!! that was a great tutorial but i have a different situation. I dont have "bias frames" and "dark frames" at all, but I do have a "dark master" because they do a "dark masters" regulary for the telescope i used so they just sent the "dark master" to me. So I cant calibrate "flat frames" with "bias frames" (because I dont have them), but when I tried to calibrate with "dark master" (I checked online and they said that the "dark frames" already have the bias frames inside of them) but it didnt work. what should i do?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks! Just just follow the part about the 'Lights' frames, and in the Calibration tab, tick Use Dark, and select your dark library. Then run the calibration.

[@wil46nl]

Great tutorial, but you really should use Remove Green background option on this youtube video😂

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks! That's comes during processing. 😉

[@abulka]

In the plot tab, at 19:56 when viewing X: roundness Y: FWHM I'd expect to see a trend line falling from left. to right viz. the more round the stars the lower (better) the fwhm. Yet on your graph the trend line is rising from left to right, which is the opposite. In my attempt on my own data I also see the wrong trend line, just like yours. Weird. I would have thought a high star roundness would typically mean a low fwhm?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

That green line is showing the order of decreasing values, as seen at the left. It can be confusing, but it's trending up as the FWHM is going up, even though higher FWHM numbers indicate lower quality.

[@charleswalker7191]

Good morning, truly amazing processing speed and I thank you for that but here is my comment and criticism-when manually processing a data set in almost all cases you allow for drilling down to the location of the files. But in literally the most important point in processing, the “Save In” line on the Stacking tab, we suddenly need to understand Windows path hierarchy and how to use symbols to get our stacked image to save where we want it to save. Could I implore you to add the standard “Save As” folder drill down routine that everyone is accustomed to?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Sorry I'm not one of the Developers of Siril, so can't help with that.

[@IonutNedelcu]

A very good guide! Thank you for this. I want to ask, what is the recommended method of stacking multiple sessions? Stack them all together, stack individually and then stack the stacks or manually do the calibration and registration and then stack all the registered & calibrated frames together?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks! I think the easiest way is to use Sirilic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnurq2Saet5paMU

[@One1Raptor]

Great video! Is it possible to process images from multiple night manually?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Probably but I haven't visited that. I've been using Sirilic for multiple nights and have a video on that if you haven't seen it.

[@KJRitch]

I’m using the Siril 1.2.0 (build 8653). In the Registration for the pp_lights_.see I noticed under Output registration your check box for “Save transformationin seq file only” is unchecked. I’m not able to uncheck in my release and therefore the Algorithm is forced to Lanczos-4. I didn’t see any r_ files in Process folder. I guess a change was made since RC1.

[@AwesomeZAstronomerFTW123]

Absolutely perfect thank you man

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Happy to hear it was helpful! Thanks!

[@ssrattus]

No.1 Siril resource!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks!

[@Cheapass-tro]

I hope to never need to do this but it's really nice to know you've always got a tutorial for these things. Keep up the good work!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks man! Appreciate that!

[@attilabekefi7539]

What if I never have calibration files?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Then just stack your lights. Might be easier to just use the script. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6ewi6KuZ8mfkKM

[@drithen]

Do I need a set of calibration frames for each of my filters?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Yes you should

[@akidobos]

Thank you very much, it helped me a LOT!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Glad it helped!

[@KJRitch]

When stacking the lights (Siril 1.2.0) I get this message. Registration data found. Stacking has detected registration data with more than simple shifts. Normally you should apply existing registration before stacking” Has this got something to do with my previous comment about Save transformation in seq file only being checked? I’m not able to uncheck this item. Thanks

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

I believe it does. Maybe you missed a step or setting. Try running through things again.

[@KJRitch]

I started over and didn’t get that error and was able to change the Registration Output. However my image still came out with a blue tint instead of green.

[@lupixus]

After the first 42 seconds I hit the like button. Although i know the process, it's alwais a pleasure to watch and hear you. And always i heve something new to learn from your videos.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks so much!

[@Tiki08]

is it ok that i dont have lights?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Lights is the object that you imaged, so yes you do need them.

[@maxrotundo7766]

Great work! Can I do the manual stacking procedure without biases? Or if I only have lights and darks ? Thanks in advance

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Yep

[@maxrotundo7766]

@@DeepSpaceAstro thanks but how?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Just skip the steps that relate to the calibration data that you're not wanting to use. If you only have lights and darks, then just follow the parts for lights and darks. Biases are used to calibrate flats, so again just skip what you don't have, but know that your flats may have issues with out the biases.

[@maxrotundo7766]

@@DeepSpaceAstro thank you so much!

[@tonybailey8288]

Brilliant work! One thought is adding the steps to do per-sub background extraction: Sequence-select lights sequence Image Processing - Background Extraction - Polynomial=1, Generate- Compute Background before applying: the grid and gradient are calculated for each frame) Apply to sequence-giving you bkg_lights_000nn.fit files as the lights to use for the Lights stacking section I realize this may bring in complexity, but it might be a useful step. Thanks again for your amazing Siril videos.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks for the tip! Always nice to have different ways of doing things! Thanks!

[@MrZizilis]

Extremely helpful...I'm pretty new to Siril (slowly proggresing from EAA to AP) and your tutorial is very easy to follow even for a newb! Huge thanks for this tutorial, MUCH appreciated!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks for that! Glad to hear it was useful to you!

[@chrislee8886]

As always i really enjoy these SiriL tutorials- in my case however my system (ASIAIR) automatically produces master calibrations of darks and biases - the OSC scripts therefore fail as they look for the originals. Perhaps you might run a tutorial on how to tweak an OSC script to allow this “short cut” and so allow folks like me avoid always using the manual approach to the calibration and pre processing of the lights? Just a thought!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks! I actually have this on my list of videos to produce 😉

[@JoeBob79569]

This was absolutely perfect! I had a set (also happened to be Orion!) that Siril just flat out refused to stack with the script for some reason, but when I ran it manually like this I eventually got there (albeit Siril just totally closed down during one of my registration attempts!). I think Siril just wasn't detecting the stars, but when I picked them manually in the Registration tab it worked out fine. I had also been ignoring a bunch of stuff in Siril for some reason, like the Unlink button, and I think my brain just refused to register them because I didn't know what they did. I learned a hell of a lot here, so thanks!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Great to hear! Thanks!

[@jms69200]

i have a script to do the DOF automatically, it saves time.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Sorry. DOF?

[@jms69200]

@@DeepSpaceAstro Darks Offsets (Bias) Flats

[@user-dm2tr6zo7r]

Very good video. Love your short and to-the-point explanations. Although I would have removed the bad frames. I have also a suggestion for a next video: gradient removal in the sequence. Works great. Thanks again. Oli

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks. Yeah I still need to play with that more but maybe in the future

[@jeff5163]

Top notch! After watching this video between 14 and 200 more times I should have it down!! 😜

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

It's definitely a learning curve!

[@AstroAF]

Thanks so much Rich, your Siril videos have really opened up a lot of doors for me in developing a post process. Question at this time stamp, why did you elect to uncheck biases in the calibration? 15:47 Thanks again, appreciate all you do!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks! The bias stack is only used to calibrate the flat stack.

[@stefanschneider3681]

That was a good one. Although I've been using Siril for three years now there is always something to learn from more experienced users like you. Thanks!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks!

[@matthewfletcher]

amazing stacking tutorial, so much information! thanks!! :D

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Glad to hear it was helpful! Thanks!

[@calabrais]

This is a legendary tutorial, many thanks!

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks!

[@ianmacdonald2307]

Very interesting Rich. I’ve just started using the ‘OSC pre-processing script’ on some of my old data and am consistently getting better results then using a ‘result’ file from Deep Sky Stacker for example. I’m pulling out a lot more data than ever before. I had never used Siril before I started watching your tutorials. You’ve taught me so much! Once again - Thank you 🤝

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

That's great to hear! Glad the videos have been helpful! Thanks!

[@ekalbkr]

Once again, thanks, from this Siril noob. It's going to take awhile to absorb enough to be independently competent, and your tutorials are a great help.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

@@ekalbkr Thanks and happy to help!

[@colestrekal2609]

What do i do if my camera cant take biases? Dark flats instead?

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Why can't your camera do biases? What camera?

[@colestrekal2609]

@@DeepSpaceAstro Dwarf 2

[@colestrekal2609]

no iso range

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

@@colestrekal2609 Sorry I don't know anything about the Dwarf. I always assumed that was a self contained system that takes care of everything.

[@colestrekal2609]

@@DeepSpaceAstro So its not possible to process without biases? I have light flats and darks. Have you heard of dark flats?

[@johnknight7293]

Another gem 😊

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Thanks!

[@Cheapass-tro]

Hey Rich. I tried to use this method earlier (partially) but couldn't... Lemme explain. I was running OSC preprocess on Andromeda but after 45 minutes I hit a problem due to lack of storage space. I cleared some, ran it again and again I had insufficient storage (120GBs available). Then I cleared some more room and tried to pick up this manually, as Siril had already converted the files and created masters. However I could not work it out and ended up running the script again for 50 minutes or so. Is there a way to pick up on where the auto routine left off please? This isn't the first time this has happened and I can't buy a new bigger SSD any time soon. Thanks.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

The script won't pickup where it failed and it's hard for me to be able to offer advice on what to do, not knowing where you ran out of space, how much data you have, etc. With that being said though, if you have your masters from the script then maybe using those with just your light and flat frames and with my custom OSC_Preprocessing script will get you through. Take a look at this video if you haven't already: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJ7ZcmyArJ2rhdE. Let me know.

[@Cheapass-tro]

@@DeepSpaceAstro It had created masters (bias, dark & pp_flat). I did click on the linked video soon after your upload but clicked off when you said it's only for cooled cameras. That could well work, thanks.

[@Cheapass-tro]

@@DeepSpaceAstro If only Siril had a pause button. I could sure use that when storage is getting low (and even just for using the PC). Mine's old (2016), 4c/8t with 16GB RAM and it uses everything while running. I am aware I can restrict what it uses but it still struggles to do anything other. Once I click go, I just have to watch TV while I wait...

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

It's only for cooled cameras if you plan on re-using the masters. In your case were just trying to get you through the same set of data. I just put the script below together for an ASIAIR user that was wanting to use the masters that it creates. This should work for your use case too though, and allow you reclaim some more space since you also have your pp_flat master. In your Siril home directory put your light frames in a folder named 'lights', and put your master dark & flat files in a folder named 'masters'. They need to be renamed to dark_stacked & flat_stacked. Delete everything else from your drive since you have the master dark and master flat, there's no need for the individual darks, biases, & flat files. 1drv.ms/u/s!Aii2lourR1D0gaA65FTufqro0tlmpQ?e=sQB9ij

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Another thought is follow the manual process but do it in steps. Copy your dark frames to the PC, create the master dark, and then delete the dark frames. Do the same for the bias and flats and in the end you just have the dark and flat master to stack the lights with.