How to add details from a different dataset with Astro Pixel Processor

Have you ever done an imaging session and wanted to add more detail in certain areas, but didn't have any more subs of the same size and with the same camera and optics, but you did have some from a different set? Did you know that using Astro Pixel Processor you can combine those and get what you want?

When I did the NGC 6723 and NGC 6729 Advanced Request on CHI-2 that was eventually turned into a pro-dataset (and now a One Click Observation) I didn't think I quite got as much as I wanted on the globular and the core of the nebula. Thankfully Telescope Live decided to grab those two objects individually on CHI-1.

Using APP I loaded my Advanced Request in as session 1, NGC 6723 as session 2, and NGC 6729 as session 3. I then made sure to go to tab 4, registration, and set my scale stop to 10, and uncheck the same camera and optics box. I left it as a normal registration.

Then I went to tab 6, Integration, and I made sure to turn MBB on and set it to 15%. This makes different images blend into each other much more smoothly. After that I hit integrate and waited to see what I got. There was a little bit of smoothing that needed to be done and a little bit of tone matching in a few spots, but nothing that can't be handled by either PI or Photoshop.

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So, once I was done here is what I ended up with. You would be able to see where the stuff from CHI-1 and CHI-2 are blended simply by the amount of close up noise there is when at 100% zoom. Still looks decent to me. Go ahead and give it a try yourself!

You can get all of the images here: https://app.telescope.live/click-grab/all?target=6723 and https://app.telescope.live/click-grab/all?target=6729

This blog post was originally published in our Telescope Live Community.

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