Complete Stacking Workflow

Capture: Record your planetary video in RAW or lossless format (SER preferred, AVI uncompressed acceptable). Use high frame rates (60-200 fps) with short exposures (5-30ms) to freeze atmospheric turbulence. Capture 2000-10000+ frames - more frames give a better selection pool for lucky imaging.

Load: Import your video file into processing software. SER files preserve per-frame timestamps critical for derotation. AVI files work but lack precise timing. The software will read frame dimensions, bit depth, and total frame count automatically.

Analysis: The software evaluates each frame for quality using sharpness metrics like Laplacian variance. Frames are scored and ranked from sharpest to blurriest. This process identifies which moments had the best atmospheric seeing during your capture.

Selection: Choose what percentage of frames to stack based on seeing conditions: 5-15% for poor seeing, 20-30% for average, 40-50% for good, and 50%+ for excellent conditions. Lower percentages give sharper but noisier results; higher percentages give smoother but potentially softer results.

Alignment: Selected frames are aligned to sub-pixel accuracy using planet centroid, limb detection, or surface feature tracking. Multi-point alignment compensates for atmospheric dispersion that shifts different parts of the planet differently between frames.

Stacking: Aligned frames are mathematically combined using your chosen algorithm. Median stacking rejects outliers safely. Weighted stacking emphasizes sharper frames. Local Quality stacking selects the best frames independently for each image region, achieving maximum detail.

Enhancement: Apply wavelet sharpening to bring out fine planetary detail. Start with conservative settings (sharpen 0.1, denoise 0.05) and increase gradually. Enhance color saturation carefully - planets have subtle natural colors. Apply histogram stretch to expand the tonal range.

Export: Save your final image in 16-bit PNG or TIFF format to preserve all tonal information. 8-bit JPEG is acceptable for web sharing but loses subtle gradations. Include processing metadata in the filename (date, planet, frames stacked, algorithm used).