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Hi Peter,
Backyard EOS will only allow you to control the camera from the laptop rather than have to use the shutter button, however, it allows you to set up complex imaging runs where the shutter time and ISO can be varied from step to step.
It is not for editing, but you will see the results displayed on the screen as each picture is taken. The ascom plugin for Backyard EOS allows the program to "dither" between each image taken which tells the mount to slightly move between each image so that when you stack the final sets of images, any hot or dead pixels in your camera aren't in the same spot and therefore when the stacking program tries to detect these, it does a better job at removing them. Its not strictly necessary, but I have tried it and it works (a bit tricky to get the timing right before the next photo is due to be taken in the sequence)
PHD is a free program that displays the image from the philips webcam and also (using the ASCOM driver) learns and controls the mount to "tell" it via the data cable to move back to a star if it drifts away from where the camera sees it.
I plug my hand controller on my HEQ5 Pro into my laptop's DB9 serial port and set the controller to "PC Direct mode" and then start Stellariumscope, which uses the ASCOM driver to interface to the computer. Then I start PHD and select the Philips camera, set it to loop every 1 sec (max the gain on the camera settings) and see stars in the guidescope. Once I see a suitable star, I select the mount and then click on the star and press the guide button.
Once I do this, PHD "learns" the orientation of the camera to the mount by pulsing West and then East, followed by North and then South (using the mount's motors) to determine how much it needs to PUSH or PULL the mount in those directions based on how far it is seeing the "star" move when it does its learning.
That then calibrates the PHD to the mount and once its finished, the box around the star will turn green and have green cross hairs, indicating you are guiding using PHD.
You can now FIRE away using Backyard EOS on the target you have on the screen (if its already there) or alternatively, pause guiding, slew to the target using Stellarium or the hand controller, set guiding again, and then start your captures.
Once they are taken, I use Deep Sky Stacker to debayer the RAW images from the camera (or you can use Jpegs if you want, it accepts both) and then stack them together to improve the signal to noise ratio.
Then I save these to TIFF and edit them in Nebulosity or Photoshop CS3, or Digital Photo Professional (canon)
So, Backyard EOS is simply a capture program, controlling and taking photos from your PC remotely rather than you having to press the button on the camera and set all the settings using the dials and menus on the camera itself.
PHD is to view the webcam images and guide the scope to keep it on track.
Photoshop CS3, or GIMP (free) or Digital Photo Professional (free with camera) can be used to process the images taken.
Lots of info, sorry, hope it helps.
Cheers
Chris
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