Solar Stacking with ASIVideoStack and Autostakkert! Which is better?

I will demonstrate how easy it is to stack solar images of the Sun with ASIVideoStack and Autostakkert! Version 4.0. Which stacking program did a better job? You decide.
FOLLOW ME:
Astrobin Images: www.astrobin.com/users/erikgi...
SOLAR GEAR:
Telescope: Lunt 40mm f/10 B600 Dedicated H-alpha Solar Telescope
Mount: Sky-Watcher SolarQuest Alt-Azimuth Solar Mount
Camera: ZWO ASI 178mm Monochrome Astrophotography Camera
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Mini
Software: ASI VideoStack and Adobe Photoshop
SOFTWARE:
AutoStakkert! at www.autostakkert.com/
ASIStudio at www.zwoastro.com/software/
MUSIC CREDIT:
"Inspiration" written by Rafael Krux
FreePD.com (Public Domain)
"Calm" by Zimpson
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/zimpzon/calm
License code: CSTG14EQBEZGSBBS
"Stark Goes Dark" by the Whole Other
KZbin Studio (Public Domain)
KZbin GEAR:
Canon EOS R10 Camera
Google Pixel 8
Wondershare Filmora
Canva
Adobe Express
#Lunt #solar #telescope #astrophotography #stacking

[@chrisruthford4492]

Autostakkert was by far the best quality image. Thanks for the quick tutorial, I learned a lot.

[@astrobortle5]

Thanks! It is a powerful program that really suprised me with impressive results.

[@stuartriley]

Eric, thank you for your content and your review of the two approaches for stacking.😊

[@astrobortle5]

Thanks! ☺️

[@ABCMO-bl5pi]

I agree with Chris. The AutoStakkert image was clearly better than any of the three ASI images. You might be interested to know that I found the same thing just yesterday for lunar images. Sunday night I took advantage of the moon being very high in the clear sky at a civilized hour (about 78 degrees high at 8:30 p.m.), and then stacked the videos in both ASI Studio and AutoStakkert after which I proceed to similar post processing in PixInsight and Photoshop. Although the final result for the ASI Studio image wasn’t bad, I much preferred the image that began in AutoStakkert. So what is true for the sun also seems to be true for the moon.

[@astrobortle5]

Good to know! Do you have those images online? Love to see.

[@ABCMO-bl5pi]

@@astrobortle5 Thank you. As for the images, no, I don’t have them online anywhere.

[@craiglowery4427]

Great comparison. I think AS!4 is better too. I do like the fact that ASIStudio is continually updated and improved. So much of the lunar, solar and planetary software we all use is old and rarely updated if at all. I find that disturbing.

[@astrobortle5]

I agree. If you want folks to use your product, your software needs some TLC!

[@janeberhardt8302]

Small correction for your Autostakkert image: You chose 100% of all frames, not of the first quarter. There’s multiple boxes for when you want to run different percentages (e.g. for comparison etc). They are not linked to the quarters of the graph. Also it’s sharp already because you checked ‚sharpen‘ in AS4. I usually leave that unchecked, as I like to be in control of sharpening my images :)

[@astrobortle5]

Great catch! I will need to update this video now.

[@astrobortle5]

Thanks again - I'm retiring this version of the video and I am releasing a new version of this video with the corrections you point out.

[@PowerScissor]

Do you guys think the legend is true that every time someone says "clear skies" at the end of a video or paragraph, a new cloud is born?

[@astrobortle5]

Hahaha! 🤣. That is a good observation! I'm still trying to figure out something better to say than that. Any ideas?

[@PowerScissor]

​@@astrobortle5 "You stay classy, San Diego" worked for Ron Burgundy. Here's one I don't think I've heard before "Keep your stars sharp."

[@91jmixes40]

Good tutorial, but didn't help with my problem. I got 4 minutes of footage of totality and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to stack it, because there were some clouds, and it drifts through my frame a bit - but the biggest problem is that these softwares typically use brightness to determine frame quality and object detection, which is problematic because... total eclipses are black. I think I'm gonna have to slowly pick through the 4 minutes and keep/delete stuff, maybe even manually align. Really frustrating issue.

[@astrobortle5]

I am jealous that you got footage of totality! I left a cable at home and didn't get to use my solar telescope. As far as stacking during totality, I'm not sure about that one. I think your most valuable data is the video itself - which I would love to see if you choose to upload it to KZbin. Someone on cloudynights might have done what you are attempting. Good luck!

[@91jmixes40]

@@astrobortle5 Hello! I ended up figuring it out - I manually got rid of the bad frames, and PIPP was able to stabilize it. Then I just made one giant alignment point in Autostakkert and the final image looks pretty good. Thanks!

[@astrobortle5]

@@91jmixes40 sweet! Please share the link to your images! I'd love to see them

[@91jmixes40]

@@astrobortle5 I put them in a community post on this account :)