- New stack combines the folders you map, with optional frame filters.
- New analysis calibrates and registers first, then lets you drop frames before the combine step.
Lay out the folders
Put each frame role in its own folder. New stack recognizes these names:flat-dark, darkflats, dark-flats, flat_darks, and dark_flats also map to flat darks. If a folder name does not match, assign the role yourself in the panel.
Start a stack
On the set, open Stacks and choose New stack.1
Map folders to roles
Check the folder for each role. Lights are required. Darks, flats, biases, and flat darks are used when you include them.
2
Pick a starting point
Choose a preset, or use Recommend settings to fill the sensor and combine controls from the folders and frame counts already in the set. You can still edit anything the preset or the recommendation set.
3
Start stack
The job shows up in Stacks. When it finishes, Download master saves the result, and a
stack-1 folder (then stack-2, and so on) appears in the explorer.Presets
Open Advanced on the panel to change the combine method, rejection, normalization, weighting, sensor (color or monochrome), and cosmetic correction. Cosmetic correction is available when the stack includes darks. Rejection and weighting apply to mean combine.
Frame filters (FWHM, weighted FWHM, roundness, star count, background, and quality) live on the same panel. Each metric can keep the best N percent, clip by sigma, or cut on a threshold. Only already-selected frames keeps frames registration already marked selected.
The master is a linear, unstretched FITS. It looks dark and flat until you stretch, remove the background, and color-calibrate it in your processing tool.
Re-stack
A finished stack can be combined again without repeating calibration and registration. Re-stack keeps the sensor and the registered frames from the source stack and only reruns the combine step. Change the method, rejection, weighting, or sigma, then start the re-stack. The new master is a separate stack in the list.Analyze, then keep the good frames
Use this when you want to see every light before you commit to a master.1
New analysis
In Analysis, choose New analysis. The job calibrates and registers the lights once and writes an
analysis-1 folder (then analysis-2, and so on).2
Review frames
When the analysis is ready, each frame shows FWHM, weighted FWHM, roundness, star count, background, and quality. Plots show the spread. Turn a metric filter on to reject frames that miss the cut. Use Exclude on a row to drop a frame yourself, and Include to put it back.
3
Start stack
The summary shows how many frames you are keeping. Start stack needs at least two kept frames. The combine uses only those frames and reports Refine stack started when the stack job is queued. Download the master from Stacks when it finishes.
Stacking reads the files already in the integration set. It does not upload from your camera card. Sync or Add files first.