Better than Registax: AviStack

[noice (Michael)]

Hi there,

There's quite some furore in the german moon and solar imaging community and I'd like to share this with you guys.

The software is called "AviStack". Find it here: http://www.muk.uni-hannover.de/%7Eth.../AVI_Stack.zip
Check back once in a while because there are updates every 2 or 3 days right now. There are new features as well as bug fixes, but it should run just about every DMK and toucam file just fine.

Why do I think it is better than Registax? With a 640x480 picture, it easily uses 1000-1500 points of alignment (!) and this makes the stack very distortion free. It doesn't take longer than Registax with say 10 alignement points, though!

The resulting stack is somewhat softer than with registax, but use the registax wavelet filter on the avistack stack and be surprised. You can easily use twice the filtering and it won't introduce noise, resulting in a crispier picture with less noise in it.

Alas, you have to download a execution environment for it. It's called IDL and you can download it here: http://www.ittvis.com/download/downl...&submit=Submit

You have to give your email for downloading, but don't fear that, as it is a reputable company. You don't have to register after installation (which would cost quite some bucks), as you only need the VM (virtual machine) to run the avistack application. The VM is free of charge.

Avistack is using an english interface, but the documentation in the pdf is german. It's somewhat self explanatory, but if you're having problems, feel free to ask.

You definitely should try this one out, it gives better images of luna and sun. Not yet sure how it performs on planetary images, as I'm not into that.

Michael (not the Author, also a Michael )

[TrevorW]

Thanks Michael for the input, I'll add the link(s) to my pile of growing software.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Thanks for the heads up Michael. I will definitely give it a go even though I always use Registax for stacking my planetary images.

I would love to see a comparison of some planetary images stacked from both Registax and AviStack to see if there is any noticable difference.

May be an interesting project?

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Michael,
I've tried a couple of times now to download the IDLVM files ( 256Mb!!!!!) but can't get past the first/ second screen!! Have submitted address and email but then "Your web request cannot be actioned"
Any ideas.................

[noice (Michael)]

Hi!

some first comparison pictures can be found here: http://www.astrotreff.de/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=73354
It's a german forum, but I guess one can see the difference anyway. Differences are not THAT big. For me, the software just feels better and I get better details over the whole picture while Registax tends to sharpen details in one area and blur others, regardless of how many alignment points I specify. Also, alignment times with Registax with 40 or 50 alignment points are really high, while one can wait for Avistack to align with 500 points.

About downloading the IDL VM, I don't know. Did you activate your account and log in? If everything fails, we may PM and get things done

[Matty P (Matt)]

Originally Posted by noice

Hi!

some first comparison pictures can be found here: http://www.astrotreff.de/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=73354
It's a german forum, but I guess one can see the difference anyway. Differences are not THAT big. For me, the software just feels better and I get better details over the whole picture while Registax tends to sharpen details in one area and blur others, regardless of how many alignment points I specify. Also, alignment times with Registax with 40 or 50 alignment points are really high, while one can wait for Avistack to align with 500 points.

Thanks for the link Michael.

AviStack does appear to produce a much sharper and less noisy image than Registax. A good example is the Mars image at the bottom of the page. The AviStack image has almost no noise and sharper detail.

[noice (Michael)]

Now with english manual, as well as new version:
http://www.muk.uni-hannover.de/%7Etheusner/links/

[Lester]

I copied the program, but couldn't open it. Just got a page full of random letters.

I am keen to give it a try, if I can open the program.

[MichaelT (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Lester

I copied the program, but couldn't open it. Just got a page full of random letters.

Hi Lester,

did you install IDL VM? Is the .sav file properly linked to IDL VM?
You can also try to start the IDL VM first and then open the avi_stack.sav file from there.
I hope this helps.

I downloaded the file and it is working without problems on my computer.

Btw.: I am the author of the program and stumbled across this page doing a Google search . I am amazed that my program already made it to the other side of the planet!
If you have any additional comments please feel free to contact me/post them here. I also hope that the English manual is understandable. If you notice any grammatical/spelling mistakes I'd be happy to know about it. That also applies to the menus and buttons within the program.

Download and manual:
http://www.muk.uni-hannover.de/~theusner/links/

Cheers,
Michael


ps: are those impressive Jupiter images yours I saw in the cloudynights forum?