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Graz, calibrate each of the filtered subs. Do all L, R, G, B with the respective dark, bias and flat masters.
Only try to register the subs once. The more you align/register, the greater the risk you lose resolution especially if you are using bi-cubic resampling or other algorithms that substitute or shift pixels. Its likely not a problem for RGB data, but definitely your luminance be it clear, ha, or unfiltered data only register once. Get into the habit of only registering once and stick to it. Some prefer to build the RGB first and then align to the luminance.
To do this, register and stack your luminance and save as fits to create the master. Then for the other filtered data such as R,G,B, register the subs against the luminance master. Once they are registered, you can then stack them to produce respective R,G,B filtered masters. Note that you may find that the red filtered data can sometimes be better to register data against as stars appear tighter.
Rarely would I use MaximDL or CCDstack to do an LRGB combine. There is simply not enough flexibility doing it that way. I typically use photoshop to combine luminance with the RGB. What I will do is use MaximDL or CCDStack for Ha+R combines or base RGB combines but never LRGB or HARGB. The power of photoshop layers is hard to beat when adding luminance. This is a complete different discussion.
MaximDL for data acquisition. CCDStack for the grunt work in processing but I do shift data in and out of different tools to reach the desired goal. Shifting data out of PixInsight then into CCDStack is easy with pixel math. You'll find the image is completely dark once opened in CCDStack, but once you multiply by 130,000 counts, the image is restored to normal ADU levels and you can continue on from where you left off.
Its not what you use, but how you use it that counts.
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