Without doubt the best basic tutorial on DSS out there. Peter cuts straight through the BS with practical sensible advice that is repeated enough times that after even one viewing you feel you know what you are doing. He simplifies the plethora of options within the program. When you need darks, when you need bias frames etc. I reprocessed some of my images directly afterwards and found I could save lots of time by eliminating darks and biases altogether. Simply brilliant, many thanks
Absolutely smashing tutorial. This was my hobby and passion for quite long time but due to countless failures and other reasons I was one step away from getting rid off my astrophotography gear. I watched this tutorial and I have created half descent picture of M64, and this is by far the best picture I ever created.
I will say this. It takes a long time to actually absorb pre/post/ and shooting astrophotography. When I first started researching, this channel was one of the first. Now that I have a little field knowledge of astrophotography, I am able to absorb this a lot easier. Up until this point i have been using sequator, but dss is a lot of more sophisticated. I learned this when I tried to stack the green comet this year and sequator only stacked the stars and would only treat the comet as an artifact and removed it. I bumped my head all day yesterday trying to play with dss. This video brings me a ton of clarity. Clear skies
Especially the parts about saving as a 16 bit tiff /not using auto save .tiff and not re registering already registered pictures. Also the star detection not having to compute a ton of stars.
Peter, thanks a lot, you have done a great contribution for astro-fans like me, and you have made all the details quite clear, I highly appreciate this dedicated video you have made. Keep going on!
Brilliant,thank you so much. I have had Deep sky stacker for a while but haven't used it yet! I now have the knowledge, and confidence to start mastering it cheers Peter.
Hey bro, I can't thank you enough from an extreme amateur. I was just doing a test stack and couldn't get it to stack more than one light image. I had something set wrong and now I have a better idea of what I am doing. Thanks a lot! Great video, great explanation and awesome captures!
Is there any way to open a .fits file in photoshop. I wanted to try the method of editing the files in PS before stacking but my files are all .fits files and I can seem to find a way to either open them natively or convert them to .tif before opening them.
HAHA! I've got some work to do. I went out and snapped 20 images of just the night sky to have something to practice with. My highest score was -21. That's less than zero!
Great tutorial! Where in the second workflow (the DSLR one) would you put enlargement with some AI tool like the one of Photoshop or Topaz - would it affect negatively the stacking, if enlargement is done before it? In addition could Topaz DeNoise be used instead of Camera RAW's also before the stacking, or is it better to use it after the stacking? I am wondering also why you emphasize so match on removing color noise in Camera RAW - isn't actually the whole point of stacking in removing the noise - both luminance and color? Of course you can improve it with additional noise reduction, that's why I am asking also about Topaz, but my assumption is that stacking should do a bigger amount of the noise reduction task, while noise reduction should only add a smaller proportion of additional smoothness, no matter whether it is used before of after the stacking? Another question: could DSS be used to remove only hot-pixels for ultra-long exposures like 1 hour and more, used for single-photo start trails?
Hi Peter. I agree with the comments below...one of the best DSS tutorials I've watched. Many thanks for your patient way of guiding us through the different stages. Your tips and suggestions along the way are also so helpful! Could you help me with something? I will keep this simple, for me (as I am a novice) - I registered and stacked three .fits files for the Orion Nebula (R, G and V), but after stacking, the resulting image appears greyscale (the image doesn't seem to have any colour information i.e. the histogram on the bottom left does not show the RGB channels. When I open up the image in GIMP, ssme thing. I am unable to see any colour data i.e. whether I try levels or curves, there is no way to adjust the colours - the image seems to be greyscale. Could you tell me what I am doing incorrectly?
I shoot in HaRGB with a DSLR color camera. I followed your steps all the way through. I've put in my Ha lights frames, I've put in my RGB lights frames, and then registered them. Once they were registered, I turned the RGB frame of the best score into a reference frame, and them unchecked the rest of the RGB images. I added my Ha calibration frames, and made sure the RGB reference frame was unchecked. Once this was all done, I ran the stacking process, but the final result came out with a black image with a blank histogram and no data. What am I doing wrong?
Are you still in southern Utah? I work for my local cable station, WLOO CATV in Waterloo, WI, and was planning on taking a trip to the Valley of the Gods this fall to film a show about it for our channel. I thought it would be cool to meet up with you while I'm out there to document how you go about photographing deep space objects on an average night. I like that your channel is more geared towards the casual astrophotographer. You don't need 10 grand worth of equipment to get amazing shots, and I think that's a great way to get new people interested in this. Let me know what you think.
Congrats Peter great video ! I have a question how can i change a Color FITS file to a Color TIFF file to make the adjustment as you indicated on camera raw; i achieve doing this by using FITS liberator buy it give a gray scale file. I hope you can give some light ! Thx !
Hi, all the file you import on DSS are RAW files, right? Do you have any idea why my final processed image (autosave) has much less resolution as the original tiff or raw (lights) ? I mean 150mb, but when I enlarge it, it seems very pixelate ......thank you
This was a great tutorial, but I have so many questions. I do panos, and my friend has recommended doing flats and darks, I usually only do 3 light frames, because of the limited time frame of the mw, do I sort them into panels, with lights and darks and flats? Are your folders in your camera folder? I'm using a dslr? Do I need a dark and light master for every session I go out? Or do I just get 1 master for all? Do you have a cheat sheet for this video
Thanks for this very important Tuto especially for beginners. I took with my Nikon D5200 between 100 and 300 lights the M45 M42 and M31 with 6s/3200iso. I stack first with DSS (or even sequator) and then arrange with Lr. My Results are really bad... 1/ Should i invert and do LR on raw files export on Tiff files and then stack with DSS ? 2/ should I arrange iso and exposure time , my DSLR is limited to 30s ? Thank indeed for your great help
I just downloaded DSS on my Dell Laptop. The left panel is not available. I have one panel with buttons for Monitor, Stack, and Stop. No way to add files. ???
Starry Sky Stacker is an application available for the Mac. At least there are some alternatives, but I agree that finding Mac software can be difficult.
Thanks Peter. When the final stacked image is displayed, occasionally it is very washed out, almost white. I’ve been in the habit of moving the middle slider to center on the slope, hitting apply and saving the image. You suggest not doing this. Does it lower the quality of the saved image?
@@Ascard ...No its great for DSLR. Multiple nights is good. I have stopped using darks and bias frames. But my exposures are usually less than 5 secs each
16:13 hmm when I turn off "Create output file" I dont have any result after stacking. There is no file to save as. So I check "create output file", dss creates 32bit Autosave file after stacking(and saves it in specific folder), and there is an option "save picture to file" and then I can save this file as 16bit tiff. So I always end up with 2 files. Or maybe I miss something?
Your voice is very soothing. I might play this tonight when im in bed going to sleep
😂
I am using a DSLR, and this is the best DSS tutorial that I saw. Thanks Peter for the great tutorial.
Without doubt the best basic tutorial on DSS out there. Peter cuts straight through the BS with practical sensible advice that is repeated enough times that after even one viewing you feel you know what you are doing. He simplifies the plethora of options within the program. When you need darks, when you need bias frames etc. I reprocessed some of my images directly afterwards and found I could save lots of time by eliminating darks and biases altogether. Simply brilliant, many thanks
Absolutely smashing tutorial. This was my hobby and passion for quite long time but due to countless failures and other reasons I was one step away from getting rid off my astrophotography gear. I watched this tutorial and I have created half descent picture of M64, and this is by far the best picture I ever created.
I will say this. It takes a long time to actually absorb pre/post/ and shooting astrophotography. When I first started researching, this channel was one of the first. Now that I have a little field knowledge of astrophotography, I am able to absorb this a lot easier. Up until this point i have been using sequator, but dss is a lot of more sophisticated. I learned this when I tried to stack the green comet this year and sequator only stacked the stars and would only treat the comet as an artifact and removed it. I bumped my head all day yesterday trying to play with dss. This video brings me a ton of clarity. Clear skies
Especially the parts about saving as a 16 bit tiff /not using auto save .tiff and not re registering already registered pictures. Also the star detection not having to compute a ton of stars.
Thanks
Helped very much!!!
Thanks
Peter, thanks a lot, you have done a great contribution for astro-fans like me, and you have made all the details quite clear, I highly appreciate this dedicated video you have made. Keep going on!
Brilliant,thank you so much. I have had Deep sky stacker for a while but haven't used it yet! I now have the knowledge, and confidence to start mastering it cheers Peter.
Another great video Peter. Your attention to details is most appreciated.
Excellent tutorial, Peter. Thanks for posting it!
Great video. Made it look a lot easier with very clear explanation and methodical work flow. Thanks
i would say the green cast is caused by the RGGB bayer matrix of the DSLR cmos sensor
Hey bro, I can't thank you enough from an extreme amateur. I was just doing a test stack and couldn't get it to stack more than one light image. I had something set wrong and now I have a better idea of what I am doing. Thanks a lot! Great video, great explanation and awesome captures!
Great tutorial, thank you very much Peter!
Thank you for this video. This helps answer lots of questions I had.
Hi. Great video, will definitely try out your recommended workflow. Greetings from Germany, Frank
Is there any way to open a .fits file in photoshop. I wanted to try the method of editing the files in PS before stacking but my files are all .fits files and I can seem to find a way to either open them natively or convert them to .tif before opening them.
HAHA! I've got some work to do. I went out and snapped 20 images of just the night sky to have something to practice with. My highest score was -21. That's less than zero!
Simply amazing the amount of useful information shared. Thank you so much.
Great tutorial! Where in the second workflow (the DSLR one) would you put enlargement with some AI tool like the one of Photoshop or Topaz - would it affect negatively the stacking, if enlargement is done before it? In addition could Topaz DeNoise be used instead of Camera RAW's also before the stacking, or is it better to use it after the stacking? I am wondering also why you emphasize so match on removing color noise in Camera RAW - isn't actually the whole point of stacking in removing the noise - both luminance and color? Of course you can improve it with additional noise reduction, that's why I am asking also about Topaz, but my assumption is that stacking should do a bigger amount of the noise reduction task, while noise reduction should only add a smaller proportion of additional smoothness, no matter whether it is used before of after the stacking? Another question: could DSS be used to remove only hot-pixels for ultra-long exposures like 1 hour and more, used for single-photo start trails?
thanks Peter...once again a superb tutorial
Excellent video. I need to get better with modifications made in Lightroom, but your DSS tutorial really helped!
Good stuff, I’m retired so to me you move a little fast, so I have to stop and go back allot..old people, lol. Great video Pet, thanks
Great video I was wondering once you have stacked all the filters do you take the final images and stick them for a master image. Thank you in advance
Hi Peter. I agree with the comments below...one of the best DSS tutorials I've watched. Many thanks for your patient way of guiding us through the different stages. Your tips and suggestions along the way are also so helpful! Could you help me with something? I will keep this simple, for me (as I am a novice) - I registered and stacked three .fits files for the Orion Nebula (R, G and V), but after stacking, the resulting image appears greyscale (the image doesn't seem to have any colour information i.e. the histogram on the bottom left does not show the RGB channels. When I open up the image in GIMP, ssme thing. I am unable to see any colour data i.e. whether I try levels or curves, there is no way to adjust the colours - the image seems to be greyscale. Could you tell me what I am doing incorrectly?
I shoot in HaRGB with a DSLR color camera. I followed your steps all the way through. I've put in my Ha lights frames, I've put in my RGB lights frames, and then registered them. Once they were registered, I turned the RGB frame of the best score into a reference frame, and them unchecked the rest of the RGB images. I added my Ha calibration frames, and made sure the RGB reference frame was unchecked. Once this was all done, I ran the stacking process, but the final result came out with a black image with a blank histogram and no data. What am I doing wrong?
Can you provide images on which we could practice along?
Hey, Peter, please check the cable organizers and the ASIAIR mounting bracket I've sent you some time ago. Thanks, Nick
Can you put the different filters using the different group buttons at the bottom?
I was thinking about this procedure yesterday :D Because the images from the DSS are very dark, although very clean but without light. So thanks :)
Are you still in southern Utah? I work for my local cable station, WLOO CATV in Waterloo, WI, and was planning on taking a trip to the Valley of the Gods this fall to film a show about it for our channel. I thought it would be cool to meet up with you while I'm out there to document how you go about photographing deep space objects on an average night.
I like that your channel is more geared towards the casual astrophotographer. You don't need 10 grand worth of equipment to get amazing shots, and I think that's a great way to get new people interested in this. Let me know what you think.
Thank you for the helpful video show and tell for Deep Sky Stacker.
Congrats Peter great video ! I have a question how can i change a Color FITS file to a Color TIFF file to make the adjustment as you indicated on camera raw; i achieve doing this by using FITS liberator buy it give a gray scale file. I hope you can give some light ! Thx !
Hi, all the file you import on DSS are RAW files, right? Do you have any idea why my final processed image (autosave) has much less resolution as the original tiff or raw (lights) ? I mean 150mb, but when I enlarge it, it seems very pixelate ......thank you
how do you get these dark, dark flat and bias images i just have light
This was a great tutorial, but I have so many questions. I do panos, and my friend has recommended doing flats and darks, I usually only do 3 light frames, because of the limited time frame of the mw, do I sort them into panels, with lights and darks and flats? Are your folders in your camera folder? I'm using a dslr? Do I need a dark and light master for every session I go out? Or do I just get 1 master for all? Do you have a cheat sheet for this video
Thanks for this very important Tuto especially for beginners.
I took with my Nikon D5200 between 100 and 300 lights the M45 M42 and M31 with 6s/3200iso. I stack first with DSS (or even sequator) and then arrange with Lr. My Results are really bad...
1/ Should i invert and do LR on raw files export on Tiff files and then stack with DSS ?
2/ should I arrange iso and exposure time , my DSLR is limited to 30s ?
Thank indeed for your great help
I took raw photos on my canon t6i... when I select the photos to upload to DSS they appear as JPEG files... why is that?
I just downloaded DSS on my Dell Laptop. The left panel is not available. I have one panel with buttons for Monitor, Stack, and Stop. No way to add files. ???
Is there a way to stop it producing these annoying text files (info).?
Starry Sky Stacker is an application available for the Mac. At least there are some alternatives, but I agree that finding Mac software can be difficult.
There is also Sirl, ASTAP, Pixinsite and ZWOs own stacker.
Hi- I don't get a 'score' column. Any ideas why?
does DSS still output a 72dpi tif even when using 300dpi source files?
Amazing tutorial.
Thanks Peter. When the final stacked image is displayed, occasionally it is very washed out, almost white. I’ve been in the habit of moving the middle slider to center on the slope, hitting apply and saving the image. You suggest not doing this. Does it lower the quality of the saved image?
As noob as I get I still like this work flow.
How do you get scores of 10k? I can only get scores of around 1800 max
Hello Peter. I was working with Deepskystacker and I got an error message saying "Vector T ; too long." do you know what that means?
got the same thing :(
when i stack my image it's completely white?
And how would you stack multiple nights? Can you just stack every night seperatly and then stack the stacked images from every night?
Sure multiple nights assuming you use the same optical train each time. Having similar temps helps too
@@entropytango5348 So you would not recommend it if I use a DSLR?😂
@@Ascard ...No its great for DSLR. Multiple nights is good. I have stopped using darks and bias frames. But my exposures are usually less than 5 secs each
@@entropytango5348 Why only 5 secs? Thats nothing🤔😂
Hey Peter, just wondering if you've ever used Siril or Sirilic for stacking?
Can you please make a video on Gimp…it’s free 😬
False. You can get DSS on the Mac. A German gentleman has ported it over. It is not the latest version but defiantly works. :)
You can also use wrappers thru Wine to use the most recent version on mac.
hmm a single light picture of the pleiades has much more detail than after stacking 30 of them like 90 percent of the details dissapeared..
16:13 hmm when I turn off "Create output file" I dont have any result after stacking. There is no file to save as.
So I check "create output file", dss creates 32bit Autosave file after stacking(and saves it in specific folder), and there is an option "save picture to file" and then I can save this file as 16bit tiff.
So I always end up with 2 files. Or maybe I miss something?
Petře nebylo by tam neco česky? Uz tak me to prijde moc slozity.. Ne tak jeste anglicky..
I can’t even download it on my pc i got windows8
Is he using filters because he is using monochrome ?
North America Nebula, not North American… just saying 👍🏻