Processing snippet: Stacking solar, lunar or planetary video files

Processing snippet: Stacking solar, lunar or planetary RAW SER files, RAW AVI files or Mono SER or AVI files.

It is likely that Autostakkert! Would be used by most imagers, or possibly a program such as AstroSurface that can be used to stack and also process Video  files. However ASIVideoStack can be used to good effect and is free to download and use.

Click on an image to get a closer view

The RAW or Mono SER file is loaded into ASIVideoStack. IF a RAW colour file is uploaded (it can be dragged onto the application if required), the correct Bayer pattern can be selected

If the whole disk is visible then planet mode can be used. If part of the disk is visible then surface mode can be selected. A movable region of interest can be dragged onto a preferred area. The percentage of the frames to stack can be selected, then the Stack button is clicked

When the stacking is completed, A folder named ASIVideoStack_Output will be created automatically in the same folder as the SER video file. the stacked image is shown already sharpened to an extent. However, the saved .fit file will not have been sharpened.

There are various processing controls that can be used to work on the image (most likely if the whole disk can be seen). However, it is only possible to save the processed image as a .jpg image while the saved .fit file is unaffected

In this example, two overlapping SER files were captured and the second file is stacked in exactly the same way.

The two resulting .fit images can then be combined by the usual method.

The use of ASIVideoStack is simple to use and is quite fast and provides an alternative debayering and stacking method for those who don't use it routinely.

Steve Wainwright