StarTools

Hi, I have a new setup that I hope is going to work out for imaging.

So I have 2 scopes that have the same focal length (400mm f5) one is ed and the other an achro. On the ed I will have a 600D with a CLS CCD clip filter and on the achro a modded 450D with a 12 Nm Ha CCD clip filter. These will both be on a dual saddle barr with guiding done with an Orion 50mm guide scope and a QHY5.

I will be running the whole lot using APT and PHD but I cannot use dithering as I am using 2 instances of APT and I am sure the different camera file sizes will cause them to go out of sync.

Now to the question. Once I have all my Ha and normal data how do I combine them seeing as they do have different file sizes. I know I will have to stack the 2 lots as individual stacks in DSS with their own lights, darks and flats but can Startools help me from there or do I still need to put the stacked outputs through DSS again ?

Hope this makes more sense than when I wrote it.

Hi,

Makes total sense!
StarTools currently doesn't handle compositing image sources that are of a different size (2x2 binned sources excepted) - this is more of a pre-processing thing, so you'll need some other way to match the size and align the data sources before they can be imported into StarTools. Combining Ha with (L)RGB is pretty straightforward and just involves creating a new synthetic luminance frame using the Layer module.

Cheers,

Ivo

admin wrote:Hi,

Makes total sense!
StarTools currently doesn't handle compositing image sources that are of a different size (2x2 binned sources excepted) - this is more of a pre-processing thing, so you'll need some other way to match the size and align the data sources before they can be imported into StarTools. Combining Ha with (L)RGB is pretty straightforward and just involves creating a new synthetic luminance frame using the Layer module.

Cheers,

Ivo

Hi Ivo

After many hours research I have found this programme (http://www.aurigaimaging.com/) and wonder if you have used/seen/heard of it.

Although it would seem to be the answer to a maidens prayer I am concerned that it will have manipulated the data to such an extent that Startools will not be able to process it afterwards. i.e. no tracking as the data is stretched.

Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

I don't have experience with this program, but I've heard of some people using it.What concerns me a little bit is the statement "RegiStar supports 8- and 16-bit depth internally, but will read higher depth FITS images.", but 16-bit depth should be enough in most instances.

Something I haven' looked at yet, but which could be useful for your purposes is Regim (free); http://www.andreasroerig.de/regim/regim_e.htm

There is CCDStack ($199.95 USD) as well, which is pretty much the 'gold standard' for registration and stacking (and is fairly user friendly).

And, of course, there is PixInsight (approx $235 USD), which performs registration and stacking equally as well as CCDStack in all tests and comparisons that I have seen, but there are certain frustrations associated with its operation (and my personal gripes with its lossy approach to signal processing).

However, I do really need to add a simple star alignment procedure to StarTools - it's just convenient.

admin wrote:Hi Steve,

I
However, I do really need to add a simple star alignment procedure to StarTools - it's just convenient.

That would be awesome, as I'm sure it would work as well as the rest of StarTools
Che

Hi Steve,

I can vouch for Registar......it is the standard for aligning images.....works a treat.
CCDStack is also very good and, of course, is a complete processing package.
Also, ImagesPlus will meet the needs.

But for just alignment purposes you can't beat registar.

bud