Author Topic: Streak: What and why is this here?  (Read 4168 times)

Offline Terry Danks

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Streak: What and why is this here?
« on: 2012 October 29 07:38:06 »
Hi All:

I am having trouble with an artifact in a stack of 20 10-minute R subs.
I have tried several rejection algorithms to no avail.
Not that the horizontal streak is NOT visible in any of the individual subs so I don't know where it's coming from.
I first ran the Batch Pre-Processor and when I saw the streak, I then ran the Integration Tool on the registered subs with several pixel rejection algorithms but the streak remains.

Image of streak: http://danks.netfirms.com/R_Streak.jpg

Terry Danks

Offline Carlos Milovic

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #1 on: 2012 October 29 07:56:36 »
Do you see the streak on any of the calibrated subs? Are them on any of the registered subs? Let's narrow down the search, and find out the step where it appeared.
Regards,

Carlos Milovic F.
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Offline sleshin

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #2 on: 2012 October 29 09:01:32 »
Hi Terry,

If the streak is in all the subs then it won't reject because in each sub all  the pixels that define the streak are bright and therefore no matter how many pixels are identified as outliers by the rejection algorithm, the remaining pixels are bright and the streak persists. This, of course, is different than an airplane trail, for example, where the bright pixel that defines the trail is in only one frame and is easily identified as an outlier and rejected.

I have seen similar steaks that have turned out to be do to a bright star just outside the field of view and positioned such that it caused a reflection. For me it happens very rarely and is a fluke of positioning that somehow presents bright enough light at a place where a reflection can occur. The star doesn't have to be extremely bright. I have had this with an eight mag star that was in the one position for my image train where a reflection was possible.  You can look in your planetarium program with your camera icon in place and see if there is a bright star adjacent to the field in line with the reflection. You can then get rid of the streak by rotating the camera and using a different guide star. If the streak is gone with repositioning then clearly a bright adjacent star was the problem.

Steve
Steve Leshin

Stargazer Observatory
Sedona, Arizona

Offline pfile

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #3 on: 2012 October 29 13:10:15 »
to me that streak looks like an iridium flare or a satellite tumbling and reflecting the sun.

i wonder if the streak might be in your flats? then again something bright in the flat should result in darkening of the calibrated image, i think.

what do the calibrated subs look like?

Offline topboxman

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #4 on: 2012 October 29 14:15:33 »
I would examine every single sub of lights, bias, darks, and flats to make sure that every one of them looks good. Stretch every single one of them using STF.

Every once in a while I would get a bad sub and throw them out before I calibrate. It's very important to examine every single sub. Some subs are bad due to faulty download over USB cable. Most of my "bad" subs would have a white line streaking across the image and the image above the white line would be lighter than below the white line.

Peter

Offline Carlos Milovic

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #5 on: 2012 October 29 19:23:48 »
You may use the Blink process to view them all. Just load each set separately, to have a meaningful shared STF.
Regards,

Carlos Milovic F.
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Offline Terry Danks

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #6 on: 2012 October 30 07:20:54 »
Sorry to be late getting back but I meant it to be clear. The streak is NOT visible in ANY of the original, uncalibrated subs, calibrated or uncalibrated!
At the suggestions here I checked the master flat. The Streak DOES appear in the master flat. It does NOT appear in the individual flat frames though.
I have reprocessed the master flat and the artifact has disappeared.
Problem solved.

Thanks all.

Terry Danks

Offline Carlos Milovic

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Re: Streak: What and why is this here?
« Reply #7 on: 2012 October 30 09:06:25 »
Glad to hear that. If you see this artifact again, please let us know.
Regards,

Carlos Milovic F.
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PixInsight Project Developer
http://www.pixinsight.com