15th Feb 2024: Astro Pixel Processor 2.0.0-beta29 released - macOS native File Chooser, macOS CMD-Q fixed, read-only Fits on network fixed and other bug fixes
7th December 2023: added payment option Alipay to purchase Astro Pixel Processor from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries where Alipay is used.
No not yet, because registration/alignment of images is only possible right now on images with stars... I intend to include this possibility in the future though by finding registration points in lunar/solar/planetary images as well so they can be processed.
So, the possibility will come at some point in time.
Now - i dont need to crack my head, in search of this option i APP. 👍 Guess you have lots of request for new add-ons in APP - but sure we´re some who´s looking forward to Lunar/solar/Planetary processing possibility also.
Please add one more request for the addition of planetary processing. If, when it comes, it's as good/simple as APP is at the moment it will be fantastic. I'm constantly amazed how simple and quick it is but yet returns an excellent image. Simply brilliant
😉 Well, he knows very well what the top requests are at the moment. Planetary is requested yes, but will require a whole different approach as all of APP is focused (no pun intended) on stars. So, it might be a future feature but will be quite a bit away. Top requests at the moment are deconvolution, denoise, HDR and comet stacking.
It is possible to stack multiple lunar images in APP!
Quite likely there are better ways than this and if so someone can add a better workflow while we wait for the Manual to arrive or a solar system update patch. I have tried this method twice on two different phases of the moon with some success.
In this instance, I took 200 fits frames of the moon (and flats and biases) taken with my refractor and 533mc camera using the ASIAIR at lowest gain and its fastest speed, all while waiting for the moon to drop and DSO imaging to start. Perhaps because I had not adjusted the image depth to 8 bits I could not find a way to use my existing PIPP or Autostakkert (I also had taken a video file but for some reason it was much more zoomed in) so I tried my APP. Since there are no stars in the frames I used the comet/one star setting. I did not have any success with star analysis turned off so I left it on and selected triangles rather than quadrilaterals (do not know if this latter change had a benefit). When the option to target the comet came up I just selected a distinct crater. After identifying the cometary crater on the first frame, I then found I had to skip at least one of my frames for unknown reasons and then sequentially and tediously identify the comet on about 70% of the 200 frames with it just skipping over a few. Apart from that I only had to alter the stretch parameters at minimum stretch to stop my stretched image being too bright
Edit: In case APP versions make a difference I note that I am using APP 2.0.0.beta 13 at this point.
Thank you very much for sharing this. I ahev never tried this myself and I am a bit surprised you were able to pull this of with the comet/one-star registration option.
I am working on the comet registration at the moment and I have solved several bugs relating to processing with star analysis disabled. So I would think that it will even better with star analysis disabled with the next release 2.0.0-beta18 😉
At some point we need to write special registration methods for planets/lunar and solar of course.
It is possible to stack multiple lunar images in APP!
Quite likely there are better ways than this and if so someone can add a better workflow while we wait for the Manual to arrive or a solar system update patch. I have tried this method twice on two different phases of the moon with some success.
In this instance, I took 200 fits frames of the moon (and flats and biases) taken with my refractor and 533mc camera using the ASIAIR at lowest gain and its fastest speed, all while waiting for the moon to drop and DSO imaging to start. Perhaps because I had not adjusted the image depth to 8 bits I could not find a way to use my existing PIPP or Autostakkert (I also had taken a video file but for some reason it was much more zoomed in) so I tried my APP. Since there are no stars in the frames I used the comet/one star setting. I did not have any success with star analysis turned off so I left it on and selected triangles rather than quadrilaterals (do not know if this latter change had a benefit). When the option to target the comet came up I just selected a distinct crater. After identifying the cometary crater on the first frame, I then found I had to skip at least one of my frames for unknown reasons and then sequentially and tediously identify the comet on about 70% of the 200 frames with it just skipping over a few. Apart from that I only had to alter the stretch parameters at minimum stretch to stop my stretched image being too bright
Edit: In case APP versions make a difference I note that I am using APP 2.0.0.beta 13 at this point.
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I did exactly as you described and it worked great!! Thanks!!
Hi I am completely new to astrophotography. This post helped me a lot for me to process Jupiter (taking pictures with a compact camera).
APP seemed to be blocking completely on the registration process. I restarted the program an disabled the "star analysis" after which I could see APP processing my light frames and occasionally asking me to click on the "comet nucleus" which for me meant to click on jupiter.
And it worked! see my result using only a 10cm tripod without tracking using a compact camera TZ-70.
It is always exciting to get an image of another planet. Glad my moon technique worked for you, but that is really stretching the technique to try it for a somewhat over-exposed Jupiter captured with an untracked mount!
We all start somewhere though and if you are keen and want to get more into planetary or lunar photography (and spend more money) go over to Cloudynights website Major & Minor Planetary Imaging - Cloudy Nights and read the FAQ at the top of the planetary forum. You can also go to the forum sections on Lunar or beginning imaging (for nebula etc).
Generally speaking the moon is the best target for a compact camera, a DSLR or mirrorless camera can be used for star images as well as the moon. For planets, while results are possible with a DSLR or Mirrorless (in particular those that have suitable video modes) you want a specialist camera (covered in the FAQ) that does video imaging, this can also be used for the moon. Of course a tracking mount is best, but even an untracked mounted like a tripod if stable and if a great deal of patience and effort is applied to catch many frames in a video of the moon or planet as it drifts across the field of view can produce nice results.
Free software , PIPP, AS!3 or AS!4, Registax 6 or its newer replacement can be used to convert the video into a detailed image that is much better than any single frame.
Hi I am completely new to astrophotography. This post helped me a lot for me to process Jupiter (taking pictures with a compact camera).
APP seemed to be blocking completely on the registration process. I restarted the program an disabled the "star analysis" after which I could see APP processing my light frames and occasionally asking me to click on the "comet nucleus" which for me meant to click on jupiter.
And it worked! see my result using only a 10cm tripod without tracking using a compact camera TZ-70.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience and result 😉 APP has not been designed to process lunar/solar/planetay images (yet), it is designed for deepsky and comet images. But it is nice to see that the comet alignment does work as well on planetary images.
