Trialling CCDSTack - is it better than DSS for a DSLR user?

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

ouch. CCDStack+CCDIS+new PC. I'd better spend a bit more time collecting and processing photons before I grow out of DSS!

[RickS (Rick)]

Marc,

Originally Posted by multiweb

Normalization to the sub with the best contrast (measured in CCDIS)

I'm giving your process a go. I have CCDIS, but it's not obvious to me how you determine the contrast of each sub. Can you give me a hint?

Thanks,
Rick.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Marc,



I'm giving your process a go. I have CCDIS, but it's not obvious to me how you determine the contrast of each sub. Can you give me a hint?

Thanks,
Rick.

Hi Rick, you need to look for the sub with the lowest FWHM, lowest Aspect Ratio and Highest Contrast Ratio.

[jase (Jason)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Registration to the sub with the lowest FWHM (measured in CCDIS)

You know that you can measure the FWHM of a single star in CCDStack by double clicking on it right? Just want to check! If you register all your subs first, when you double click on that star, it will tell you the FWHM difference for that star across the stack. This provides a quick check option.

This of course is only a single star measurement. From something more comprehensive, CCDInspector is the go when it comes to FWHM measurements.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by jase

You know that you can measure the FWHM of a single star in CCDStack by double clicking on it right?

Jase: I had discovered that when I went looking in the help file, thanks.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Hi Rick, you need to look for the sub with the lowest FWHM, lowest Aspect Ratio and Highest Contrast Ratio.

Marc: I can find the Aspect Ratio and Contrast in CCD Inspector. I haven't been able to figure out a way to get them from CCDIS. It doesn't really matter, so long as I can measure them somehow.

I have a copy of the Adam Block DVD on order. I expect it will dispel many mysteries when it arrives!

Thanks,
Rick.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by jase

You know that you can measure the FWHM of a single star in CCDStack by double clicking on it right? Just want to check! If you register all your subs first, when you double click on that star, it will tell you the FWHM difference for that star across the stack. This provides a quick check option.

This of course is only a single star measurement. From something more comprehensive, CCDInspector is the go when it comes to FWHM measurements.

Yes if the subs are reasonably 'aligned' out of the camera before registration. Otherwise you have to blink through a few in the stack and keep on double clicking. I like checking the FWHM before registratioin though because the algos will always modify the FWHM of the registered subs and it usually becomes bigger than the original FWHM. The beta version of CCD Stack V2.36 has now native FWHM out of the box so you don't even have to click on a star and you get FWHM before registering as you load subs in the stack, bayer or mono. It has a lot of new neat features as well. It shouldn't be far off now.

Rick, in CCDIS: Settings>Display Columns then add Aspect(%) Contrast Ratio and FWHM then press OK. You can also tick AutoOpen on the top left corner of the interface and select the directory where your subs are sved. So they will be evaluated in the stack as soon as the camera dumps them in that directory. It's handy to keep track of your FWHM, Focus, Tilt, etc... are going during your imaging run.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Rick, in CCDIS: Settings>Display Columns then add Aspect(%) Contrast Ratio and FWHM then press OK. You can also tick AutoOpen on the top left corner of the interface and select the directory where your subs are sved. So they will be evaluated in the stack as soon as the camera dumps them in that directory. It's handy to keep track of your FWHM, Focus, Tilt, etc... are going during your imaging run.

Sorry, Mark. I've finally figured out why I'm confused. When you've been talking about CCDIS I thought you meant CCDIS/P, the plug in, and I assumed there was some way to see Aspect, Contrast, etc. directly in the CCDStack GUI. Now I realize you mean CCDInspector and everything suddenly makes sense!

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Sorry, Mark. I've finally figured out why I'm confused. When you've been talking about CCDIS I thought you meant CCDIS/P, the plug in, and I assumed there was some way to see Aspect, Contrast, etc. directly in the CCDStack GUI. Now I realize you mean CCDInspector and everything suddenly makes sense!

Cheers,
Rick.

Yeah CCDIS is CCD Inspector -sorry. I don't know about the standalone plugin. I think it's best to buy the program as it does a lot more than registration. Actually the new CCD Stack version coming has a star match algo that is very good too and on par with CCDIS if not better with undersampled data and same scale images.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Yeah CCDIS is CCD Inspector -sorry. I don't know about the standalone plugin. I think it's best to buy the program as it does a lot more than registration. Actually the new CCD Stack version coming has a star match algo that is very good too and on par with CCDIS if not better with undersampled data and same scale images.

No problems, Marc

The plugin is bundled with CCD Inspector, and I already have both. My workflow looks like it will eventually involve at least 5 or 6 different pieces of software.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RickS

No problems, Marc

The plugin is bundled with CCD Inspector, and I already have both. My workflow looks like it will eventually involve at least 5 or 6 different pieces of software.

Well yeah it's a bit like that. Some tools do a better job than others. There isn't a whole in one solution yet.

CCDIS is great to select your subs. I pick the sub with the best FWHM regardless of contrast or even it is has a satellite trail or a plane passing through it, doesn't matter as long as it has the tightest stars and the bigger numbers of stars too usually. Then I stick a "_" in front of the file name. Then I look for the sub that has the lowest contrast ratio number in the stack and stick a "-" in front of the filename. I register to "_" and normalise to "-". I also pick "-" as the reference for data rejection.

[RickS (Rick)]

Thanks for the tips, Marc!

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

Bringing up an oldish thread. I would like to give Ken Crawford's "Digging out the Details" process ago http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Presentations.html. One of the steps is to Deconvolve using CCDStack. Firstly, data has been collected from a modded Canon 30D. The picture I have loaded into CCDStack is one in which I used DSS for stacking/calibration --> loaded into CS3 --> curves/grey point/black point --> converted to greyscale (pseudo luminance) --> load into CCDStack.

The first step after clicking deconvolve (process tab) is to then click auto-select stars. This is where the problems begin. It doesn't select stars. You can manually (double-click) stars which I do and then it should bring up star details including FWHM but it doesn't. It just brings up general info about the area clicked e.g.

rectangle {X=2107,Y=522,Width=3,Height=3}
diagonal 4.24
# pixels 9
# rejected 0 (0.00%)
mean 22,041.78
STD 1,854.25
S/N 11.89
median 22,018.00
int mode 19,568
min 19,568.00
max 25,194.00
R:G:B ratio 1.00 : 1.00 : 1.00

Any ideas?

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

If you are about to spend money, I'd suggest you check out what PixInsight can do.

I agree. CCDStack is good, but it does nothing that PixInsight can't do and of course PI does a whole lot more. I go from image acquisition in Maxim to stacking and processing in PI. Two pieces of software do it all. Also, when you look at the costs involved $US199 for CCDStack (approx $AU191) which is only a calibration and stacking program vs PI at 171 euros (approx $AU217) for calibration, stacking and superb image processing, Pi offers much more bang for the buck.
Geoff

[Eggmoon (Geoff)]

Wow....

Been reading this thread... and am in awe of all of you guys! I have been doing imaging for a whole two months now... using BackyardEOS, Registax and AVIStack... and have been having a lot of fun with it.

Seems I have a lot, lot, lot to learn... even reading this thread has been a learning experience. I have learnt I know almost nothing!!

Keep the information flowing guys... all very interesting and educational.

Geoff

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

I have tried PI but it doesn't run on my Windows XP 32-bit system.