Stack Pro Planetary
Rapid curation of planetary/lunar/solar frames: define a tight ROI, score sharpness, keep the Top X%, and export 16-bit frames ready for stacking.
Quick Start
- Open SER/AVI/MP4 or an image sequence.
- Drag a tight ROI around the planet/feature.
- Enable Quality Sort; set Top X% (10-30%).
- Optional filters: Deinterlace, Denoise (hqdn3d), Unsharp, Gamma.
- Export curated frames (PNG/TIFF 16-bit).
All Controls
| Control | Default / Range | What it does | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROI (x,y,w,h) | - | Process the selected area only | Always for small targets |
| Quality metric | - | Sharpness/contrast scoring | Unstable seeing / long captures |
| Top X% | 5-50% | Keeps best N% frames | Jupiter 10-20%; Mars 5-10% |
| Stride | 1-8 | Skip frames for speed | Very high FPS / slow CPU |
| Deinterlace | Off | Remove comb artifacts | Interlaced sources |
| Denoise (hqdn3d) | Off/Low/Med | Spatial/temporal noise reduction | Very noisy data |
| Unsharp | Off/Low | Gentle edge enhancement | Use lightly pre-stack |
| Gamma | 0.8-1.4 | Mid-tone shaping | Low-contrast features |
| Output format/bit depth | PNG/TIFF, 8/16-bit | Export curated frames | 16-bit for stacking |
Scenarios
- Jupiter: ROI tight; Top 10-20%; Unsharp Low; Denoise Off/Low.
- Saturn: Top 10-20%; Gamma 1.0-1.2; avoid halos.
- Mars: Top 5-10%; conservative Unsharp; 16-bit export.
- Moon: Use tiling ROIs; moderate Unsharp; watch halos at terminator.
- Sun (H-alpha): ROI on active region; Denoise Low; avoid aggressive sharpening.
Troubleshooting
- Soft results -> lower Top %, tighten ROI, reduce Stride.
- Ringing/halos -> reduce Unsharp; avoid over-contrast.
- Slow performance -> smaller ROI, higher Stride, close background apps.
Updated 2026-05-17