Doing AP EAA Style...

[kaymann]

SC has been my path to enjoyable AP. Prior to SC I would not even attempt to do AP now I do both at the same time.

• SC Allows me to check that my exposure/gain settings are in the right ballpark without wasting time.
  If it looks good in SC EAA then I can certainly make it look good in post processing.

• I save all lights taken so I can process them after my EAA session, at my leisure.
  I am now realizing the power of SC and it's ability to preprocess the lights for me and save a Master Light FIT.
  It has me thinking I could stop saving the lights and just go with the master light FIT for post processing...

• I save a PNG as displayed file in the folder where I am collecting Lights.
  This allows me to go through my folder directory after the fact (months after my memory has faded) and know exactly what the lights are all about. I am very dyslectic and NGC, M IC, etc., numbers often mean nothing to me. I did not do this when I first starting using SC and now regret it. I have to guess about the object, and it's fit per the light train used. Having a summary PNG right there in the folder is awesome.

I just finished adding my EAA/AP work into the "My Section" of the Gary Imm Compendium Spreadsheet. The SC saved PNG's made that work so simple and thoroughly effective for picking new targets or old friends to see again.

If this seems like an ad for SC well, I guess it is.

[admin]

Hi,

don't worry, we like people posting things that sound like adverts for SharpCap

It sounds like you are getting a lot of value out of using SharpCap, which is great. You can certainly take the approach of only saving the SharpCap processed live stack data rather than the raw frames - it depends on how much you enjoy the post-processing in other stacking software like DSS, PixInsight etc and how much improvement in quality you feel it gives you.

The one warning I will mention about that approach is that if you take it, you have to do all your dark/flat correction in SharpCap - once the images are stacked, adding dark/flat correction afterwards will not work properly and will give very poor results.

cheers,

Robin

[kaymann]

...
[Don't forget Siril!!! ]

The one warning I will mention about that approach is that if you take it, you have to do all your dark/flat correction in SharpCap - once the images are stacked, adding dark/flat correction afterwards will not work properly and will give very poor results.

cheers,

Robin

Great reminder on the SC stacked FITS...

Which reminds me my camera (ZWO ASI33MC Pro) has picked up some hot pixels (green). If I use hot pixel removal it works great for my as displayed PNGs. Does it work for the SC created Master Light FITS? I know it does not work for my individual SC lights as a dark is need there to get rid of them.

Also, satellite trail removal works on my as displayed save PNGs. Does it work for the SC created Master Light FITS? Of course it does not work for the individual SC Lights? (ASTAP stacking does a great job of removing them).

[admin]

Hi,

the answer to those questions depends on whether you are live stacking...

If you are live stacking then all the processing stuff (hot pixels, satellite removal, etc) get applied to the images going into the stack (so the saved stack images have the benefit of them), but the individual saved files deliberately exclude these corrections so that you can process them from scratch in another application.

If you are *not* live stacking (deep sky live stacking I should say for clarity now there is a planetary kind), the saved images will have the processing (hot pixel removal, flat correction, satellite trail removal) applied to them.

The logic behind this is that if you are live stacking *and* saving the individual frames, it's most likely because you want them 'untouched' to allow later processing in some other app. On the other hand, if not live stacking and you have turned on the processing options then presumably you want them (you could turn them off if you dont).

cheers,

Robin

[kaymann]

Perfect - thank you!