PixInsight Forum (historical)

PixInsight => General => Topic started by: cosmochristo on 2018 May 23 22:30:17

Title: Process for wide field DSLR alignment to Stargen reference
Post by: cosmochristo on 2018 May 23 22:30:17

After finding that PI was not able to align 16mm full frame images completely (problems towards the edges) I found a forum discussion from 2010 about removing distortion by using Dynamic Alignment on each sub first.
see: https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=2132.0

Is this still the best approach if you want to mosaic together wide field shots for the entire Milky Way? Is ImageSolver intended to take over from the manual DA process?

Title: Re: Process for wide field DSLR alignment to Stargen reference
Post by: msmythers on 2018 May 24 00:07:13

The best way I think to approach this is using the ImageSolver script with Distortion correction turned on, MosaicByCoordinates script and the GradientMergeMosaic tool. They all have documentation available in PI and I would suggest reading that. Your biggest problem will be distorted stars in the corners. If your overlap between images are good I would suggest cropping out any problem areas before actually starting the mosaic building process.

I tried a large mosaic a number of years ago just to get an understanding of the scripts and tools. It was made of 15 panels with 4 different lens sizes, 135, 90, 45 and 20mm. While the imaging quality is not great, I think it showed the power of the these scripts and tools. With good images and care during processing I think you should be able to get a result.

(https://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/3f49b26b6ac481432fb0b47881b6f308.1824x0_q100_watermark.jpg)


Mike

Title: Re: Process for wide field DSLR alignment to Stargen reference
Post by: cosmochristo on 2018 May 26 19:08:37

Thank you Mike, I will try that process and see how far I get!  :D