Beginner Stacking Software

[Startrek (Martin)]

I welcome advice from all you experienced astrophotographers out there on what stacking software a beginner should use to get started with ( either free download or for purchase )

Backyard EOS
Registax
PixInsight
Deep sky stacker
AutoStakkert
And a million others available ???

PS: I should have mentioned “all round” stacking software for all objects DSO’s , planets and Moon

Appreciate any advice

Thanks in advance

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Martin,
depends on the camera and final requirements.

For Planetary/ Lunar/ Solar the camera used is usually a fast frame camera and Registax (5 or 6), Autostakkert (2 or 3), ImPPG will do good stacking.
Suggest SharpCap or FireCapture for camera control.

For other stuff your camera control/ acquisition software should have stacking capabilities. I use AstroArt to control all my cameras and pre-process/ process the results.

Just my 2c

[Startrek (Martin)]

Hi Ken,
My scope is a GSO Bintel 150mm newt at f6 on a HEQ5 mount and camera is a stock canon 600D. I’ve been successful up to now in capturing excellent single images of DSOs up to mag 6 , planets and lunar vistas etc..

Cheers
Martin

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Martin,
DSS ( Deep Sky Stacker ) seems to be the go to for DSO targets. Easy enough to use and will handle any camera file type I can think of.

For planetary I am using AutoStakkert which at first glance looks a bit complicated but does a good job. I then transfer the image to Registax6 to do wavelets.

After that images are processed, tweaked etc in Photoshop.

Those three are all free software and a good starting point. As you said there are lots more to try till you find the one that suits your requirements for ease of use and results.

Almost forgot , get BYEOS ( Back Yard EOS ) for your Canon camera control, just brilliant and well worth the $50 or so it costs.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Brent,
I don’t think Photoshop is free!!!!!
The best alternative I’ve found is the latest PaintShopPro does 99% of the PS stuff at next to nix. Very cost effective!!

[Startrek (Martin)]

Hi Brent,
Yes I have researched BYEOs on the O’telescope site for my camera control , looks like an excellent program ( it’s going to be so much more enjoyable sitting looking at a high quality 15.6” screen rather than squinting at a tiny LCD at all different angles like a contortionist) plus my PC will be housed in a purpose built enclosure away from stray light when I’m viewing in Sydney.At my holiday home (semi dark site ) it be fantastic.

I was told by someone at Bintel that Regitax is no longer supported and you should be using AutoStakkert now

Any comments ?

Martin

[ZeroID (Brent)]

CS2 is free, it was released to the public by Adobe about 3 years ago to get wannabes hooked. But I wasn't referring to that for my 'three'. They were DSS, Autostakkert and Registax respectively. Sorry for the confusion.

Substitute for Photoshop would probably be the latest version of GIMP. Every bit as powerful and comprehensive. And free. I just happen to be more proficient ( read; learnt from more mistakes !! ) with Photoshop, PixInSight just confuses me, sorry afficianados.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

BYEOS will make focusing a breeze then with it's FWHM screen.
Did not know that about Registax but I just use it for wavelets on solar\lunar\planetary videos, does the job.

Had a look at ImPPG last night. Not heard of that one but it seems to be aimed more specifically at solar imaging according to the author. Does deconvolution and wavelets very well apparently. May try that as an option next time I see the sun.

Always looking to learn and improve.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Many thanks to those who responded

So I guess I will use the following -

BYEOS for camera control

Deep Sky Stacker for DSO stacking

AutoStakkert for Lunar and Planetary stacking

What would you all suggest I use as a beginner for overall processing the final image ??

Thanks in advance

[sil (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

I was told by someone at Bintel that Regitax is no longer supported and you should be using AutoStakkert now

Any comments ?

Well Its not being developed anymore and quite old, so some recent camera formats may not be supported. I also dont see the point in people using it after autostakkert as if you enable sharpen it does its own wavelets processing which comes out great. I always find when people do further wavelets etc the result really shows its been overprocessed. Just my 2c.

For planets I run my captures through PIPP first to center the planet and crop to around 500 pixels square since I done want to waste time processing the surrounding empty space, unless I'm interested in showing moons. I get PIPP to process to a SER file debayering as needed too. The SER file I just drop into AutoStakkert to process to PNG files (one unsharpened, and one sharpened, normalise to 75%. Then I just crop for taste and save to jpeg if i want to put online, or often just put the png on my astrobin gallery.

Solar and lunar just dump data into AutoStakkert and again its sharpened output only needs cropping not further processing. (Again MY PERSONAL taste other have THEIR opinions). These are all free options.

For deep sky objects I recommend AstroPixel Processor (NOT free). As a generally beginner friendly processing package and fills the gap between DSS and PixInsight nicely and its defaults give you a 95% perfect result so does good for newbs but also has lots of features to tweak as you learn and the terminology is familiar to that in PixInsight (which is my personal choice as the pinacle for DSO, but AstroArt, Nebulosity, etc are up there too) APP is a good price too and a stable product now (its relatively new, but I wouldn't put it in the same league as PixInsight, AstroArt or Nebulosity, more a notch down like StarTools but not by much and there's no scope control so if thats a consideration I think AstroArt may be the software you are looking for.

I use AutoStakkert for solar system processing, 80% pixinsight and 20% astrpixelprocessor for starscape, nebulae, galaxies etc. sometimes photoshop for cropping, labelling, exporting to JPEG, but not processing.

[sil (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

What would you all suggest I use as a beginner for overall processing the final image ??

PixInsight. Preprocessing your captured data should include flats and darks too and the process aligns (registers) the images against a target image and then stacks (integrates) ALL the data into one single file with a high bit depth per pixel. Ideally 64bit/pixel. I dont know what DSS produces but you want to be able to save the highest bit depth your software allows to a FITS or TIF format file. All this does is increase the signal to noise ratio in the image (its one image, not layers) and unless theres an option to stretch at the end of stacking its going to look just black basically.

So for processing your final image (levels adjustment usually as a start) you want something that will load this stacked file. I dont think photoshop loads FITS files (the standard in astro photography) plus i think it mostly only gives you 8bit resolution in levels/curves adjustments (256 steps) so it can be difficult to bring out the signal buried deep without bringing out too much noise as well. I do all my adjusting in PixInsight, its tools give you lots of granularity to stretch accurately with 64bit data, I assume contemporary packages do as well. Maybe others stretch roughly in DSS and save as 16bit tiff and process that in photoshop/gimp but you should get some options on how to work.

Some hindsight advice: Whatever software you use the integrated file created from preprocessing, Always save this file immediately as FITS with highest bit depth BEFORE you do anything at all to it, dont stretch or crop or anything. Work from a copy of this file and never this original file. As you try different software, follow different tutorials and learn you can always take a copy of this file and reprocess it in the future and see how your processing has improved. That file is the starting point for processing as alignment and integration processes rarely change/improve dramatically so save yourself the hours it can take preprocessing each time.