Mosaic Workflows and Best Practices in Pixinsight [Deep Sky] Processing techniques · IrishAstro4484 · ... · 1 · 195 · 0

My last two images published on Astrobin are my first attempts at mosaics.

I underestimated how difficult it came be to stick together panels and make the overall image look seamless.

My first attempt was a 2 panel mosaic of Eta Carina and the Statue of Liberty and while I'm happy with it as a first effort there are artefacts and and colour casts in the background I don't like. 

I used the Gradient Merge process in Pixinsight for this image and it struggles to stick the panels together without artefacts (whether you use overlay or average and even when adjusting parameters such as feathering).

https://astrob.in/rfip2b/0/
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My second mosaic is a four panel mosaic of the Small Magellanic Cloud and 47 Tuc. This time is used the Photometric mosaic script developed by John Murphy. Right out of the box this appears to have worked a lot better and minimal user intervention. I owe John a coffee for his excellent work!

https://astrob.in/jelxh6/0/

Any constructive feedback on either image is welcome but I'm also interested in tips/tricks/best practices for creating mosaics in Pixinsight.

Off the time of my head, sufficient overlap between panels is important but almost minimising and adequately correcting gradients and normalising the panels as well. 

I'm going to do a revision of my ETA Carina image with the Photometric mosaic script and see how I can improve the final result.

Either way, I look forward to having a good discussion on this topic ✨ 🔭 📸