Stacking programs for LRGB images advice needed

[Alchemy]

Its been quite a while since I entered discussions here, my astronomy took a back seat to other hobbies, work and some issues that hampered the whole process, including the need to build a new observatory, the change to a mono camera which had issues and eventually was replaced under warranty, plus the weather in general...... Whole bunch of things

I have now got the mono camera functioning fine I have been doing some Ha mono things (and wouldnt you know it ive got one of the AstronomiK dodgy Ha filters from about 2007-8 ) and just using DeepSkyStacker which suited that just fine, but I'm hoping that there's a better ( cheap not $600 worth) program that will allow me to calibrate my L images at 1x1 and do the RGB at 2x2 and then align and merge the whole lot doing resizing alignment etc...... I'm sure you know what I mean. Given I've not followed closely what's going on I'm sure things have improved and new programs have entered the game.

What in general is the simplest approach most people find to work.

Up until now I've avoided the LRGB thing as one shot color was so convenient and easy, but I've got an interest again, so this seems the logical thing to do.

If I can download the programs could you provide a link .

Thanks
Clive

[Paul Haese]

Clive, take a look at ccdstack from ccdware. Good programme.

[Alchemy]

Thanks Paul , downloaded the file, now to get it working, looks like a bit of ground to cover,

Thanks

[2stroke]

The only thing i don't like about ccdstack is paying extra for the dam plugin for star alignment, though 90% of my stuff is on the down low hahah. I found Adam Block's Making Every Pixel Count - The Complete Tutorial of CCDStack Version 2 the most in depth guide to using it ever and turns anyone into a pro. Only a newbie myself though this software really suites LRGB and really wasn't suited to osc not that it cant be done.

[Alchemy]

Thanks for the comment Jay.

Ordered the instructional videos, will watch them before blindly going in.

Don't know anything about the plugin for star alignment, im assuming it's a stacking program, should include aligning the stars DSS does that and it's free.

Am I missing something here?

EDIT ..... Been to the ccdstack site and found this on some screenshot comments

Registration of multiple files just got a whole lot easier. Star Match, new in Version 2, provides automatic alignment based on star matching. It requires similar image scale (e.g. can accommodate very small adjustments due to filters and such). provides precise registration automatically. Star Snap uses star centroids to calculate the necessary transform(s). FFT is an automatic registration that does not rely on stars. Manual alignmentfprovides full manual control over shift, rotation, and magnification. CCDIS is a robust star pattern alignment that ccommodates different image scales. Choices of resampling algorithms have been increased to give you the best choice for your data and system parameters.

Perhaps version 2 has fixed that.
Im going to presume the CCDIS plugin is required if doing images with a different scale ie different cameras etc?
Surprising amount of processing for about a 3 meg download....

[Bart]

Try PixInsight and have your stacking, calibration and processing in one place, forget about 5-6 pieces of software to get it all done.