OSC Processing workflow advice needed ?

[cventer]

Is there any consensus on best workflow for processing OSC images ?

Been a long time for me doing any processing and was used to LRGB processing. This OSC stuff is doing my head in.

Seems like there are several options for processing and wondering what most are using.

Main question is around splitting RGB into channels or not ?

seems like some do the following

Option A
1. using RAW fits, subtract darks, bias, flats
2. Debayer output of step 1 to get color images
3.Align/regsiter Images
4. Stack Images using appropriate method eg mean, median, sigma etc...
5. Load stack into photoshop and process as normal with curves, levels etc... on the RGB image

Option B
1. using RAW fits, subtract darks, bias, flats
2. Debayer output of step 1 to get color images
3.Align/regsiter Images
4. Stack Images using appropriate method eg mean, median, sigma etc...
5. Split Stacked Image into separate RGB images
6. Create and RGB image in phtooshop by copying in each eimage into its RGB layer

I have also heard of some doing
Option C
1. Debayer all RAW fits files first including lights, darks, bias, flats
2. Process lights by subtracting darks, flats, bias from lights
3.Align/regsiter Images
4. Stack Images using appropriate method eg mean, median, sigma etc...
5. then continue with steps and either option a or b


Option B is a fair bit more work. Wondering if its worth it ? Also with option B do you also need to create a Luminance layer ? if so what best way to do this ?

So in short can anyone with exprience doing OSC imaging give an overview of thier workflow steps and tools they use ?

[atalas]

Hi Chris

Being an Astroart user It's option A for me, and as far as creating a Pseudo Luminance I find the best way is in PS channel mixer where you can look at using the best signal from the Red and Green channels and discard the Blue which is generally very noisy an lacking in detail in a OSC.

The one other thing I will say is that after stacking I'll split channels and normalize backgrounds to the Green channel before moving on to PS.

This will balance your color bias and also overall color balance quite well which is a big plus when moving Into PS.

[gbeal]

When I used CCDStack, and to be fair you don't say what software you have or intend using, I started like all three options. After calibrating though I then debayered into R, and then saved these files. I then registered, normalized, data rejected, and combined, saving the result as "R".
Back to the calibrated images and did it all again for G, and then B.
Once done, I then used the Colour combine menu and made the RGB image.
This, with SX M25C files and an aged PC, caused me no end of grief, the PC choked after about ten images.
I sprang for Images Plus and now just use the automated system, plug and play really.
Louie is right though AA5 is a winner here too, but at the time I sprang for IP, AA5 wasn't about.
Gary

[cventer]

Thanks Gents

I currently use Regstar for registration, Nebulosity for QHY image stacking and CCD Soft for my SBIG camera.

I have played a bit with DSS as well but not happy with artifacts generated in the stacks.

I have thought about CCD Stack but the QHY10 has very big files. FITS are 19mb and Tiff around 59mb. I have heard CCSack does not handle this too well.

I have an old version 1.69 of Images plus. Sounds like upgrade option to latest Images Plus is the go.

Not sure I have time to learn astroart though it sounds pretty good from the website.

[RickS]

I'm trialing CCDStack with QHY-12 FITS files of 29.4MB and it's working just fine. I do have 12GB of RAM and I'm running Win 7 64-bit to take advantage of it, though...

[gbeal]

Let me throw in here though that the biggest problem with my use of CCDStack is the old PC I am using, the files are too big for that. Newer multi-threaded PC's should be OK, and especially CCDSTack 2.
If I was doing it again, try AstroArt 5, the download copy is available, and Louie and Mike are about to answer questions.
IP also has a download version, try them both, then decide.
AA5 will control your scope/camera and process. IP is available with or without Camera control. No scope control.
Gary

[cventer]

Ok thanks Gary

I have a very fast pc I use for gaming so should be ok if I use that
It's a over clocked 5ghz, 12gb ram, Watercooled 64 bit os with dual gtx 570's in sli mode.

Sounds like I need to spend some time trying a few options and see what I like best.

[gbeal]

Heck, makes my single core dinosaur look positively old.
If you are starting from scratch, try the three downloads, Images Plus, CCDStack2, AstroArt5, not necessarily in that order.
Gary