P.I batch pre-processing script

[LewisM]

Been using batch pre-processing on all my photos lately, and revisions of older ones. Went to redo my Running Chook, and I get a fatal error of "Insufficient signal" or somesuch with a query of "Blank frame?" at the end.

Now, CCDStack has nil problem seeing stars to register in the image, as they are 600 sec exposures. Nor does PI stand-alone registration algorithm. But the Batch script just can't see these lights (even if I load scaled versions).

Any ideas? I've had it do it before too with some subs, whereas no stretch or even a simple stretch shows abundant stars.

I'm lazy - I like the batch preprocessing script, instead of doing 4 seperate steps (debayer, calibrate, register, integrate)

[Atmos]

All that comes to mind is that the Darks are causing an issue where they’re WAY over correcting and removing stars.

What are the calibrated subs looking like?

I started off using the BPPS but I found I was getting better results doing it manually.

[RickS]

Have you checked the calibrated version of the files, Lewis? That can happen when calibration goes wrong and truncates data in an image.

For a problem like that I'd run BPP with Calibrate Only ticked, check the results look OK, and then run StarAlignment manually and tweak settings if needed.

I've rarely needed to adjust the StarAlignment settings but I have heard of cases where it was necessary to adjust Noise Reduction or other Star Detection parameters.

Cheers,
Rick.

[LewisM]

I shouldn’t think the darks are truncating as these were done the same night as the data but you never know. Maybe the flats?

Anyway, I’ll keep fiddling with it. What I like about the batch preprocess is it seems to remove the colour botching of this OSC better than manually and definitely better than CCDStack