Pre-startools processing

[Chris85]

Hi all,
A similar question was asked by John a few months back, but it didn't gain much traction and I have a slightly different focus..
I've been out of the game for quite a while now and wonder what people use these days to align, stack and register their data, particularly for people who use Startools? I've used Maxim and Nebulosity in the past. I liked Maxims ease of use when handling calibration files but I don't want to buy the full package just for that. Any other recommendations? Astro Pixel Processor looks interesting. Do I jump on the PI bandwagon?
Cheers!

[Outcast]

Deep Sky Stacker works very well & it's free

[Startrek]

I’ll second that for Deep Sky Stacker ( aligning and stacking )
I also use Startools V1.4 great processing software for beginner to intermediate
Very intuitive and no levels and curves to worry about , you process as you go and see your results immediately plus you can go back and redo easily

[The_bluester]

I always found DSS to be a real hassle colour management wise. While it is not free (I am on the renters license where Astro Pixel Processor comes out at about two dollars a week) I can't see myself going back. For different woklflows you can even spit out a full RGB image at the end of it from RGB or narrowband data where each channel has been processed seperately, but in the same workflow. You throw every sub under the sun at it, assigning each group you load to a channel (L, R, G, B, HA etc) and allow it to integrate each set then combine them as you wish at the end.

The learning curve is a lot steeper than DSS but IMO the difference in results is chalk and cheese. The only thing I would like it to have is a "Save settings" function as you have to set up from scratch each time, which is based on the idea that all data sets are different so you set up accordingly each time.