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Stacking tips for comet A6 Lemmon captured with 35mm lens

Processing Stacking Comet Help Needed
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Pablo Lucero avatar
Pablo Lucero avatar

Hello there everybody, how are you doing? Pablo here, again.

I have a couple of questions about the comet of the moment... the A6 Lemmon and I was hoping to ask for some help if possible.

The only clear sky I had a few days ago was really unexpected, just out of the blue, I had to run to the mountains. I was planning some images, but as it usually happens, we need to improvise some aspects of the plan.

Thing is, I managed to capture the little one, but only with a 35mm lens, so, it's pretty tiny in the frame. It is visible for sure, I LOVE the composition, but still. I’m processing a lot of aspects to refine the image even more, but the problem, the real problem, is the comet.

📷 The battle for the cometThe battle for the comet

https://app.astrobin.com/i/enztg6/

Any tips or methods about stacking it to get a little bit more detail? I did a timelapse, and I was hoping to process something out of that, main problem is that the comet is way too little compared to the rest of the panorama I ended up making, so softwares like DeepSkyStacker are not really that good to making it more visible since it’s tiny, and it has the landscape. Cropping it out makes the image even smaller so, it’s tricky.

I have a pretty nice composition, but I'd like to have a bit more tail from the comet. I’m afraid I just need to go out again but this time around with the moon in full power haha.

As far as I know, almost everyone is stacking 85 to 200mm shots and then the landscape...

Thanks in advance.

Engaging
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Are the frames flattened properly during calibration and is the landscape still in the frame for all of them?  This is a tricky SoB…
Pablo Lucero avatar
Pablo Lucero avatar

andrea tasselli · Nov 2, 2025, 02:14 PM

Are the frames flattened properly during calibration and is the landscape still in the frame for all of them?  This is a tricky SoB…

Hello Andrea, thanks for answering me.
Well, the images, actually… I only have the lights, it was a very particular night and I didn’t take any flats or darks to properly calibrate the final photo, but I managed quite a lot of times to extract good detail only with the lights alone, thing is, I was taking images with a telescope or a telephoto lens most of the time, in this case, I was only using the 35mm.
I cut the landscape to stack them up but still, I’m not getting the detail I was hoping for…

andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Your problem is that the stacked images isn't flattened nor properly corrected for things like satellite streaks and such. There must be a lot more in the final image that can be brought out using PI and Graxpert, for example. Happy to help if you so wish and if I have the raw files or the final stacked image.
TiffsAndAstro avatar
TiffsAndAstro avatar
You have an amazing landscape.
And a comet, satellites , the milky way. And nebula. Also Low land mist. 

In one image.

If this can be improved on, I can't wait to see the result.
Pablo Lucero avatar
Pablo Lucero avatar

andrea tasselli · Nov 3, 2025, 12:18 PM

Your problem is that the stacked images isn't flattened nor properly corrected for things like satellite streaks and such. There must be a lot more in the final image that can be brought out using PI and Graxpert, for example. Happy to help if you so wish and if I have the raw files or the final stacked image.

That would be amazing actually.
I’m planning a last photo this week, if the weather is good. But yes, if you don’t mind giving me a hand, that would be great Andrea, thanks.

TiffsAndAstro · Nov 3, 2025, 12:53 PM

You have an amazing landscape.
And a comet, satellites , the milky way. And nebula. Also Low land mist. 

In one image.

If this can be improved on, I can't wait to see the result.

Thank you. I started to run quite a lot that night haha.
I was scouting the place before, but then, when it was almost time, I decided it wasn’t good enough.
I have a video of me, drinking coffee, with the comet up there, but then, for the photo, I wanted to have some autumm vibes, that’s when I started to move and try different compositions.
It will be improved, I’m sure of that. Thank you for the kind comments.