An (Absolute) Beginner's Guide To Deep Sky Stacker | Astrophotography Software
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
- In this tutorial I'm going to teach you how to use Deep Sky Stacker. Deep Sky Stacker is a free piece of software used by astrophotographers all around the world to stack their images.
This tutorial will assume you know nothing about stacking, or how to stack! I'll cover what stacking is, setting up Deep Sky Stacker, light frames, stacking your first proper image, what it looks like in an editor and then building on how to add in calibration frames and what those are exactly.
I hope this video is of use to you and that you come away from it more informed and ready to tackle your astrophotography journey!
PS. Messy hair - don't care!
==== Timestamps ====
0:00 intro
0:33 What Is DSS & Stacking?
2:04 Setting Up DSS
2:39 Reference Frames
4:07 Light Frames
5:21 Info Panel
7:28 Stacking
9:21 Stacked Image
9:58 Dark Frames
11:04 Flat Frames
11:50 Dark Flat Frames
12:17 Offset/Bias Frames
12:58 Calibration Summary
13:18 Stacking All Of It
14:12 DSLR Stack Example
14:51 Stacking Result
16:27 Outtro
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Great tutorial, using DSS now! Thanks for tips!
Clear skies
Thank you so much! I was so nervous and I had no idea what I was doing! After watching your video I feel so relieved and I know exactly how to do it. Thanks!!!
Brilliant tutorial - many thanks for uploading this.
One of the best tutorials so far. Thanks
Fab tutorial. Thank you.
great tutorial thanks
You're a great teacher. Thank you.
Great tutorial!!!
This has really helped me!
thank you .....very well done
This is a great video even for someone who has used DSS a bit as it let's you review the basics. I had a question though regarding 1:30: As someone who is for certain much more experienced than I am in stacking, what would theoretically look better? A stack of 30 2 minute shots or a stack of 12 5 minute shots? Would it vary depending on the target? (For example a bright target like the Orion Nebula versus a harder Ha-abundant target? Thanks!
I'm literally watching this at 3 am
Hi
Very helpful tutorial
Question:
After I checked all mi light frames FWHM showing NC ( no number)
Scores showing NC ( no numbers )
Do you know why?
Thanks
Thank you 👍
Great video for absolute beginner like myself. The only thing that would help is that sometimes you move that arrow so fast I can't follow it. If you moved the arrow slower and stayed on the part you're going to click for a second, I could follow better. I took a lot of notes. All in all a great start to my imaging. Thanks.
I follow you and others. I appreciate your hard work. I bought a dedicated deep sky camera, got my first images, put them in D,S,S, zero stars detected dss gave me a message didn't like length width?
Second comment, or rather question. You mentioned "dark frames temperature not needing to be perfect if close. I shot same target over several cold winter nights, intending to make one final image. One night temperature was 10 degrees F, next clear night was like 35 degrees F. How ( or which) do I stack?
I should say people like you who take the time to help struggling beginners are appreciated beyond a simple THANKS!
In this case if you've shot over multiple.nights you want to use the group function at the bottom. Rename 'group' to the word 'night' and it'll make sense ;)
So I'd put night 1 into thr group 0 tab, night 2 into group 1 and so on. Each with their own calibration frames if required.
If you have common calibration frames that apply to all nights, such as bias frames, then put them into thr first group and it will apply to all further groups
D you use Photoshop elements for the final editing also can I take the photos in Raw format. Many thanks
hi, so i took pictures using my galaxy s23 ultra, about 20 of them, iso 160, exp 20 in dng format, with expert raw app, however, when i import them into any kind of stacking software, they become incredibly dark and barely anything is even visible, while before import they look great, what can i do?
Thanks for a great video...DSS creates master calibration files after loading the individual dark, flat, or bias frames. Can you use the single master calibration files instead of loading all the individual calibration files, e.g., 50, when stacking other images?
Hey thanks. Yeah, once you've made a master you can use that instead of the others. So once I've had a master of 50 darks for example, I would then just load the master dark into my data
Thank you!
Another question
When do you add other frames photos I did not see it on this video
When you said don't check HA, in stack checked pictures, what if you use a HA filter, like I do in my bortle 9 city backyard?
I usually just leave the settings as is for my Hydrogen Alpha. If yoh click 'create super pixel ' setting for the Ha, then you'll have an image half or quarter the image resolution. I don't really change my settings between narrowband or broadband
How would you do it if you wanted to add data from future nights on the same target,with say different framing.would you load all together and would software align images ok. Hope you understand what I’m trying to say
Hi Chris Thanks for the question. If you have multiple nights of thr same target, then you use the group tabs at the bottom of the information panel. Group 1 night 1, group 2 for night 2 etc.
If you have common data to use over all nights (like bias frames) just put them into group 1 only and they'll apply to all groups
Can you provide images on which we could practice along?
When i press stack checked pictures i just get a error message saying that heigh is wong or that the master lighg? How to fix it?
I’m new at astrophotography and enjoyed your video. Can you send me a link so I can download it?
Here you go :) deepskystacker.free.fr/english/download.htm
My photos look okay before but after putting them through DSS the end result looks streaky as if I did a very long exposure. What am I doing wrong?
When i stacking 25 frames,10dark,10light a pop up says out of 25 frame one should be used...dint know why
hi can you tell me what software you used on stacked image please i am super super new to astrophotography
I assume you mean what software I use to edit? If you're new and don't want to spend, you can use a program called GIMP. I have a tutorial on here. Alternatively there's Photoshop and Affinity Photo which you have to pay for, again I have tutorials for those also :)
When I try to save the image to file, it comes up with an error massage saying ‘there is no picture to save’. I have done all the steps, does anyone have any idea why this is happening?
Can you do Autostakker for Planetary imaging?
Not much of a planetary imager but I'll see what I can do :)
I keep getting a error message saying not compatible height, width, number of colors, number of channels, only one master dark,offset and flat....what can i do?
Same
Mine doesn’t have the menu on the left hand side???
I’m stuck at the very opening screen when you open the program for the first time. It does not look anything like your screen at all
O ya i just want this
Try ASTAP. Much better software and makes stacking mono images just as easy as OSC.
Don't think I've heard of that one. I'll have to look into it
I stack 23 light frames of my m57 and just get a white screen lol
i hoped this was for true beginner. not at all clear. too many "catch phrases", etc. can i do astro photos w/o doing this impossible stuff for me?
Hi Michael. What parts did you not understand? I tried to make this as accessible as I can but if you require a bit more explanation I can try to help :)
Honestly it may be a struggle doing deep sky astrophotography without knowing a bit about stacking images, dark frames, flats etc. There is other software that can do it also but you'll come across the same terminology and such.
Nightscape photography can work without stacking also but you'd get better results if you did stack.
@@AstroFarsography don't see how you get pics into the stacker. have not used a socalled dslr camera. i've got my wife's old nikon d40x. also have an old laptop. seems like you are talking to someone who has used so called software before which i have no clue. i'll keep trying but not looking to good except for sequator maybe. like how do you "throw" your image or images into dss? i guess that's just to start.
So you got to take a lot of pictures
Pretty much, yes. Instead of one really long image, we break it into more, shorter images.
I have pictures of the seven sisters a few can I stack them
6 months later still fucking hate this software.
Hi
Excellent video
Question
If I have 300 second light and 180 second light from the same object and night
Can I tack them at the same time together .
If yes do I have to use two sets of darks too at the same stacking process?
Hi there
Yep you can stack different exposures together. At the bottom of the screen you'll see the 'groups' tab. If you have different exposures, put them in different groups
Group 0 (or 1, I can't recall right now) will apply its calibration frames to all other groups UNLESS you put calibration frames in other groups
So the first tab put your 300s lights with 300s darks, your flats from that session
Then open a new group and put your 180s lights and 180s darks and flats from that session
And so on, they'll all stack together
@@AstroFarsography
Excellent
As I watched your video actually i did exactly the way you say and I found only one image on home terminal
In your video i thought i saw each image from each group!
The question is will both groups merge in to one image on save folder for next processing
By the way before I watched your video I stack 300s and 120 s in one group and dss did processed good with no isue I pilled darks of 300s only and flats and D.flats
I don’t know if used all the data but it made it through.
@refetastro yeah, if you use the group method it will stack everything into one image. If you want separate final stacked images you'll have to do them individually