stacking question

[Harpspitfire]

if there a 'benefit' to buying images plus then using the freeware deepskystacker?- i dont really care about the extra processing adjustments, i think i can do this in PS- what i mean is the basic stack- why is images plus a $170USD better then -$0-?- thx john

[Dennis]

Hi John

ImagesPlus has a very powerful image alignment, registration and centering function. I have used it to align images that had field rotation and it worked really well. I also use it to crop and align batches of images. For me, these functions are worth the investment alone.

Cheers

Dennis

[bojan]

Deepskystacker did for me what Registax could not: Align rotated images with stars without too much hassle, and the result was just what I expected.
It is a fantastic, real value. For no money.
Bojan

[avandonk]

If you just want stacking you cant beat RegiStar. It will happily stack images from different optics. Focal length and any image distortion (barrel or pincushion) is immaterial as it distorts all the images to the reference frame so ALL stars superimpose very accurately.
I dont use ImagesPlus to stack as I think RegiStar does a better job of 'difficult' images. It is not cheap but like all good things worth the money.

Bert

[Harpspitfire]

ok, i used the new regi4, deepskystacker, and ROT, plus the 'trial verion' of IP, depending on the image- one 'might' do better then the other- but what im really looking to do is- *example*- i took 8- 60 sec DSLR subs of M31, i cant seem to 'stack' these to bring out the dust lane detail- sometimes it just seems if i stack 10 images- its no better then my best 'single' image

[jase]

I second Bert's comment. RegiStar (http://www.aurigaimaging.com/) is a fantastic program if you simply want to stack images. It does it like no other digital processing tool ive played with. Relatively simple to use, it great for aligning/registering the images prior to further processing in Maxim or PS-CS2.

There are plenty of tools out there, it just comes down to personal choice and how well it works for you.

[sheeny]

Harp, how are you stacking the images? If you are averaging them, your final image will be less noisy. If you sum them, your final image should have increased dynamic range and hence contrast, which is what I expect you want to do to bring out your dark dust lanes.

However, if your initial capture time is too short, no amount of stacking will bring out the faint detail that wasn't captured in the first place.

Registax will only average the stack I believe, Registar gives you the option of either averaging or summing.

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Bert

I have not seen or used RegiStar so cannot make any comparisons between it and ImagesPlus. One nice thing about ImagesPlus was that it allowed me to centre and crop a batch of Lunar eclipse images where the eclipsed limb was shrinking and it did an excellent job of centring the images in a cropped square for an animation. Of course, this function is only useful if you want to batch process Lunar, Planetary, Solar or other extended images.

Cheers

Dennis

[spearo]

Hi
For what it's worth:
I use Deep Sky Stacker for stacking RAWs (i'll use the latest registax for AVIs when I get back to trying planetary stuff). The latest version of DSS is even better and faster than the earlier.
it gives all sorts of options for stacking (mosaic/standard/average, median/maximum/etc etc )
It's quite powerful and does the job for me.
The author Luc is based in France and is very responsive to questions through a Yahoo support group. I see him respond to all posts/questions usually within the day or the next day.
and best of all, it's free. I'm always very impressed by professionals who donate their work/time for the betterment of society.
frank