7 replies to this topic

[Daniel Dance]

If i have say a few hundred partial eclipse images that I would like to align for a timelapse, is there presently a new tool that allows to do that?

 

I know back in 2017 nothing was available.  I'd really not like to have to do it manually in photoshop again because . . . well . . . i have much better things to do.

 

 

So just curious if any new tools have popped up recently that will do this for me.

Thanks

 

[HxPI]

I’m curious about the same

[TimeLapseLaboratory]

I am looking for the same thing. I have over 2100 photos and really don't want to go through the process of manually aligning them. 

[Lopper]

I used PIPP (planetary imaging pre processor) to register 2,520 still frames to make my 2 hr 51 min timelapse:

 

https://youtu.be/ABtjGDFer7A

 

I did it in 3 batches and made a separate avi file for each partial phase and one for totality. Once I made an avi file for each of the 3 separate phases, I then stitched each of the individual avi files together using OpenShot Video Editor.

 

Once you've loaded your frames in PIPP, click on the "processing options" tab, employ object/planetary frame stabilization and center the object in each frame. For the partial phases, use the "edge in shadow" feature and select the appropriate edge from the dropdown menu. There are many other settings that you can fiddle with as well, including histogram adjustments, debayering raw frames, output video fps and compression options, etc.

 

Hopefully this will get you started. Let me know if you need any more details.

 

Matt

[Daniel Dance]

I used PIPP (planetary imaging pre processor) to register 2,520 still frames to make my 2 hr 51 min timelapse:

 

https://youtu.be/ABtjGDFer7A

 

I did it in 3 batches and made a separate avi file for each partial phase and one for totality. Once I made an avi file for each of the 3 separate phases, I then stitched each of the individual avi files together using OpenShot Video Editor.

 

Once you've loaded your frames in PIPP, click on the "processing options" tab, employ object/planetary frame stabilization and center the object in each frame. For the partial phases, use the "edge in shadow" feature and select the appropriate edge from the dropdown menu. There are many other settings that you can fiddle with as well, including histogram adjustments, debayering raw frames, output video fps and compression options, etc.

 

Hopefully this will get you started. Let me know if you need any more details.

 

Matt

It's a great video, thanks for sharing.

 

No offense to your great work and timelapse, but the software did a terrible job at alignment - its all over the place.  If it was me and had the great data you had, I would definitely redo the entire thing but manually align instead.  Your great captures deserve better and the bouncing around takes away from your timelapse.

 

Unfortunately, I think the only way to really do this well is manually in photoshop.

 

This is what I did.

 

1.  Use script and load stack of a bunch of images.  I've done 50 at a time.

2.  Use a single (and the same) image as a reference image

3.  Set blend mode to difference for all the frames except reference.

4.  Then one at a time, align the frame manually.

 

This works extremely well, and once you do it, it can be done VERY FAST.  I can do 50 frames in about 5 minutes.

[HxPI]

I wasn’t able to get PIPP to do the alignment well with my HA or WL images. All that is needed is a way to align the edge of the eclipsed sun images to a full disc reference, not sure why this is not working in the case with PIPP. I’m searching for another tool to do this, otherwise manual alignment is the only other option.

Edited by HxPI, 14 April 2024 - 01:38 PM.

[Daniel Dance]

I wasn’t able to get PIPP to do the alignment well with my HA or WL images. All that is needed is a way to align the edge of the eclipsed sun images to a full disc reference, not sure why this is not working in the case with PIPP. I’m searching for another tool to do this, otherwise manual alignment is the only other option.

You have to be careful in what you are aligning.

 

If you are doing partials for a timelapse, then yes, you want to align on the Sun.

 

However, if you're processing corona, you do NOT want to align on the moon (black disk).  For corona, i would align on prominences or for brighter exposures, nearby stars.  Stars for the totality time period track almost exactly in sync with the Sun and its corona.

Dan

[HxPI]

Only aligning partials. PIPP is not able to handle my files.