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Removing Satellite Trails with Affinity Photo

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In this tutorial, Nik shows how to remove the satellite trails which are commonly seen in astronomical images. This valuable technique is an alternative to the common way of removing satellite trails that involves the stacking of several images using pixel rejection techniques, such as sigma-clipping. As sigma-clipping requires at least three frames per filter, this new technique explained by Nik in this tutorial is specifically valuable for One-Click Observations, where you often have only two images per filter.
SPECIFICATIONS
Tutor .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Nik Szymanek
Parts .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 video
Duration .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 0h 20m
Image type .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Deep Sky Imaging
Difficulty level .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Intermediate
Category .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Techniques
Tier .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Premium
Software used .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Affinity Photo
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PART 1
Affinity Photo Satellite Trails
5
PART 1

Affinity Photo Satellite Trails

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Comments

Great tutorial, Nik. While I've been using Photoshop for many years, I've only just recently started playing with Affinity Photo, so this helps. Just a tip for other users maybe (based on my experience with Photoshop), if the Corrected layer was with opacity lets say 85-90% one would be able to see both the reference layer and the corrected layer and apply the deletions or clones as needed a bit quicker than just moving the brush.

Also is it possible to use the Inpainting brush as a one off fill (now that we have a selection made) instead of having to go through end to end manually painting? Is there basically Fill mode for the Inpainting tool?

Edited:

Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, reducing the opacity of the corrected layer certainly helps. I stumbled across that idea a couple of months after compiling the tutorial and it works well.
After a bit of investigation I've realised that yes, you can inpaint the selection. Here's how: With the selection active, use 'Edit > Inpaint' (or 'Alt' + Backspace') and it will automatically fill in the selection with the Inpainting tool's features. The usual caveats apply i.e. star duplications etc.!
Hope this helps.
Nik

An extremely useful video and very well demonstrated. It has helped me clean up some serious artifacts!

Thanks David. Glad it was of use. I've since learned that it's not actually necessary to use the 'non-trailed' image as a reference. The Sigma reject algorithm works whichever sub-exposure is used for reference. You never stop learning in this hobby! 🙄
Cheers,
Nik