AstroBKK
Planetary Treatment
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The video files captured in Planerary Acquisition are treated to obtain final image.
Autostackert!:
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Open the video file, set image stabilization parameters (default worked well in this example), then press the "Analyze" button. Once completed, check the quality graph and set frame percentage to be stacked value to select all frames with a quality higher than 50%. Tick normalize stack 75% and select the Drizzle factor if needed. Choose file format as tif if Registax is to be used, or fit if needed (Startools, etc.) Destination file by default is the source file, keeping it as AS! file is practical. In the picture window, set alignment points, either manually or automatically with place AP grid button. If the image is too dark, AP detection can be enabled by increasing brightness. Size of alignment point can be adjusted, too big may impart details but too small will markedly increase stack calculation time. Press the "Stack" button.
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Registax:
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Load the stack with the "Select" button, then adjust wavelets (using linear and gaussian works well and no significant differences in final "deconvoluted to taste image" could be observed when using other wavelet parameters). Adjust wavelets intensity, use of the 3 or 4 first layers are enough to get a good deconvolution, and adjust sharpen and denoise parameters to enhance details and smooth image. Deconvolution schemes can be saved. Adjust color with RGB balance module, usually good colors can be achieved with autobalance then little tweaks such as slight green reduction and/or blue increase. Denoise/deringing module will help to remove ring artifact and further smoothen the image. Other functions such as gamma, brightness, and contrast can be used to improve the overall aesthetic. Once satisfied with the result, crop image and press do all button, then save image.
Denoise AI:
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This software can be used to give the final polish to the image. Results can be impressive, but care must be exercised to avoid introducing artifacts or artificial features, such as "crocodile skin". Moons, their shadows, and some prominent details may also be altered, and the use of the recently introduced masking function is very useful in these cases. Sharpening can be useful but applied subtlety as it can quickly lead to an unnatural appearance. Color noise reduction may help to reduce chromatic artifacts (e.g. moons shadows). Denoise AI gives better results than the previous AI Clear algorithm.
Overall steps:
Video (FireCapture) Stack (Autostackert!) Wavelets (Registax) Denoised (Topaz)
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Final image:
