Integrated Image Cropped, What Causes This

@chrism5527 Hi Chris,

In tab 6 there is an option Mode under Composition. If you set that to crop then the resulting image will be cropped. Note that the help text of that option is incorrect, which I have notified Mabula of. Set it to full to get the full stack.

HTH, Wouter

Hi Wouter - in tab 6 it was already on FULL.  I tried reference to no effect.  Still cropped the image.  Any other thoughts?

@chrism5527 Hi Chris, did you modify any of the settings in APP? If yes, which ones? Does this also happen when you load the lights and calibration frames and then go straight to tab 6 and hit the Integrate button?

@wvreeven Hi!  I'm so new that I'm not touching any settings from 1 to 6.  Yes, I just ran integration without the other steps and same outcome.  Interestingly I watched the integration status and it integrated 26M pixels, which is what my camera has.  Not sure what I'm doing wrong here....

@chrism5527 Hi Chris, can you please upload all files to

https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/

using username and password upload4 and create a directory called chrism5527_crop with the files in it? Then I'll have a look at them and will try to find out what's going on. Thanks!

Hi again!  I can't login with my user name and upload4 as the password.  User name is Chrism5527.  My technical skills are shining today...am I missing something?

@chrism5527 Use upload4 both as username and password please.

Hi, files should be there.  Thanks for you help!

Hi Wouter - I also remembered that I had imaged two different targets that night and, when I processed the two different images separately, only the one that I sent you was cropped.  I don't believe that I adjusted a setting differently.  I processed them the same way.  Hopefully you can shed some light?  I was thinking that there must be some automated action of an algorithm that looked at the image and felt it was best to crop.  

Thanks,

Chris

@chrism5527 Hi Chris,

I downloaded the files and noticed they were only lights, no calibration files. I loaded them into APP anyway and went straight to tab 6 and clicked the Integrate button. This is the result:

Does that looked cropped to you or is this the format you expected?

Look at one of the fits files.  This is like a 50% crop of the fits file.  So this is not what I expected.

@chrism5527 Here is one of the lights loaded in APP:

Compare the stars in that image with the stars in the stack. They match exactly so it is not a crop at all.

Wow, I'm totally surprised by that.  I need a focal reducer to get the entire nebula.  Sorry for taking your time, but you are right...

@chrism5527 Glad to hear that we agree that the integration done by me is not cropped. Does that mean that your issue is solved? In other words, are you able to reproduce this or was your original integration perhaps not cropped after all?

The original integration was not cropped at all.  I guess the degree with which the nebulosity was captured simply fooled me.  Thanks for your help and sorry if I took you away from other actions!

Chris

No need to apologize at all. Like I wrote, I'm glad we got this sorted out.

@wvreeven 

Hi Wouter, thanks again.  Went out last night and re-took 3 targets.  I tried something new:  I extracted the Ha and then the O3 and saved in separate files.  Then tried to recombine in tools (RGB).  I got this error message:

Considering that I didn't change any of the settings between the to integration paths, any idea why the bit depth and dimensinos would be different?  The data comes from a OSC and a dual band filter.

Thanks,

Chris

@chrism5527 This happens to me as well occasionally and to be honest, I don't know. However, please go back to tab 1 and clear all files (lights and calibration). Then load the Ha and OIII integration results as lights and go to tab 4 and click Start Registration. When it is done click Save Registered Frames. Then load those two new frames in tab 9 and you should be good.

Is it because of this?

Thanks Wouter!  It worked great.

Posted by: @chrism5527

Is it because of this?

 

Glad to see that it worked!

How do you create the Ha and OIII images exactly? When I got to tab 0 and select the algorithm "Ha-OIII extract Ha", then load all images in tab 1, then go to tab 6 and click integrate, then go back to tab 0 and select the algorithm "Ha-OIII extract OIII", then immediately return to tab 6 and click integrate again I do not get the issue that you got. In other words, do not shut down APP in between the two extractions. Is that what you do as well?

@wvreeven

I go to tab 0 and set to Ha Extract and I load the lights and walk through each tab until integrate and save as Tiff, go back to tab 0 and change to Extract O3 and walk through each tab until integrate and save as Tiff.  When I go to tools, then these two images don't combine.  

There is a warning after changing the tab 0 from Extract Ha to 03 that you must re-register (or normalize? I'd have to walk through it again).  So I assumed that you have to walk through each tab again.

I don't know enough to cut corners, can you load images and just go to tab 6 and Integrate?  If yes, all the other tab actions are done automatically?

@chrism5527 Why save as TIFF? APP outputs as FITS (which is the standard file format for astronomical data exchange) and when you use the two FITS files in tab 9, all will go well without errors.

Yes, when you change algorithm after doing an integration, that popup is expected and you need to do the normalization again.

@wvreeven

I will change my workflow - I save as Tiff to use in my simple Canon DPP software to change curves and enhance (which can't read FITS).  I haven't gotten to the point of a dedicated post-processing software.  Trying to learn how to better my steps to this point.

@chrism5527 With APP you can reduce light pollution gradients on both the Ha and OIII frames before combining them to an RGB image. Then you can calibrate the star colors and those two already should give you good colors. Then you can export to TIFF and post-process in other software. Do not do this before combining to RGB because working as close as possible to the raw integration results will give by far the best results.

So, don't adjust star colours, and light pollution until after final combine to RGB?  Ok, I will try this now.  Thanks for your help again. 

Hi Wouter -  I extracted separately the Ha and O3 and saved as FITS.  When i went to combine RGB, I loaded the two FITS files and got this error:

Not sure what happened.  Any insight?

@chrism5527 There is no need to manually save as FITS. The results of the two integration runs are automatically saved as FITS for you. You need to use those images. They are saved as "<object_name>-RGB-session_1.fits" and "<object_name>-RGB-session_1-1.fits".

Hi Wouter - I did as you said, and it didn't work.  

These are the two files.  Not an expert, but I went through the process from Tab 0 to Tab 6 for the same set of data changing the Tab 0 from extract Ha to extract O3.

What i notice is that the dimensions are slightly different after both passes (see second snip).  Does this cause the error or am I messing things up somehow?

thanks,

Chris