'nother Problem

[shaneaust]

Okay, now that I've settled the question of how to resize images, I've another one.

I have tried umpteen times to use a number of inage stacking apps, but with zero success. I guess I'm not understanding the principles involved.

What I'm doing is taking a number of pics of the same object (say, for example, Saturn!), then opening all of them in one of the stacking apps (I currently "use" RegiStax). This is where I come unstuck.

Am I then supposed to try somehow to get all the images lined up so that the object (Saturn) is in the same spot in all of them?? How do I do that?

I have other questions, but I'll leave it at that for time being - I think this is the one that's most crucial, in my case.

TIA.

[ronnierigel]

Gday

You need to elaborate by what you mean "zero success".

What type of files are you trying to stack? Are you uploading an avi file??--it sounds from your question that you're only loading up a "few pictures". For planetary imaging you need many "pics" (=frames) and hence use avi files.

The procedure:
In Registax upload your saturn avi file saved using your toucam imager

The first procedure is to place the alignment box around the planet and press align. Registax aligns the images! Work your way thru the optimize/stack and wavelet screen.

In my experience if there is a lot of variation of the position of the image between frames registax may not do such a good job centring. There is thru this forum a useful tool called ppmcentre but I would suggest you conquer using registax first before introducing another learning curve!

Let us know how you get on!

ron

[Kal]

I'll see if I can help you with another one Mick :)

This is my 'vanilla' registax process:

* Open registax
* Click 'select' and then open all of the pictures you want stacked. I usually select all the pictures I want to stack first and put them in their own directory, then I goto that directory, select the first file, and then shift-click the last file and all will be highlighted
* Your curser will now be a box when you mouse over the first image that is shown on screen, move the box over the top of saturn and click ontop of it to 'mark' it as your alignment point
* Click 'align' (note, sometimes you will lose alignment on a frame, you have the choice to either deselect the frame, or you can also maually put the box over the centre of saturn again so manually tell it where to align to)
* Click limit
* Click 'Optimize & Stack'
* Click 'save image'

Hope this helps!

[shaneaust]

Many thanks, Andrew and Ron - what I was doing wrong was not aligning the first image properly. Once I did that, it worked fine!

Thx guys!

[shaneaust]

Ron, I hadnt considered the "many frames" angle, but will. I am currently trying to...ummm..."modify" my Toucam's shutter speed and the camera is out of action. Hopefully I will have it fixed shortly and will use it on Saturn.

Thx again.