Too much astronomy software?

telecasterguru (Frank) · #1 19-07-2009, 04:22 PM

How much is too much astronomy software?

On my desktop I have PhotoLib, Gimp, Photoshop, CCD Stacker, Deep Sky Stacker, Registax, Easy HDR, Autostar, Starry Night, K3CCD, Picture Style Editor and PHD.
Do I need any others or is this enough? No wonder my computer is groaning under the strain.

Frank

leon · #2 19-07-2009, 04:46 PM

Frank that seems like a fair collection, and plenty to do all your processing of images, then I have to admit i tend to have a few,

they just seem to keep coming.

Leon

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #3 19-07-2009, 05:08 PM

How much is too much?

Phil · #4 19-07-2009, 05:24 PM

Well don't worry i have a little bit on my computer.
Photoshop CS3
PhotoshopCS4
Maxim DL5
Astro Planner
Real Sky
Star Atlas Pro
The sky six
Starrynight pro
Regi star5
Jupiter 2
Star Tag2
IS-WCS
Satscape
Alignmaster
Aberrater 30
Dynmic HDR
Gimp2
Alsclock
Als Retile
Lucom Record
IC Capture
K3CCD
New Astronomy CCD Calc
Stellarium
Weather link
And there is more.
I think i need to clean my computer up.
Phil

peter_4059 (Peter) · #5 19-07-2009, 05:37 PM

You guys arn't trying hard enough...

PS CS3
Alignmaster
Astroplanner
Bahtinov Grabber
Envisage
Cartes Du Ciel
CCD Calc
Deep Sky Stacker
DSLR shutter
EQ Align
EQmosaic
EQtour
Focuspal
Guidemaster
JAC virtual crosshair
K3CCDtools
Magnifier
Nebulosity2
NMEAtime
PHD
Virtual Moon Atlas
AstraImage
Autostitch
Background subtraction toolkit
C2A for windows
Celestia
Craterlet
Easy HDR
etamcap
guidemate
hocus focus
Irfanview
Metaguide
Neatimage
Orbitron
PCFE
POTH
Registax 5
RGBSplit
Stellarium
Virtualdub
Wcctrl
Wincolour

CoombellKid · #6 19-07-2009, 05:50 PM

I've got

Paint
Notepad

Cheers,CS

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #7 19-07-2009, 06:50 PM

I've 38 programs that are either specifically for Astronomy or programs that I use for my Astronomy.
There are a few of the Astronomy specific ones I don't use yet, but might do someday. So I won't remove them.

leon · #8 19-07-2009, 08:00 PM

Bugger,

and I thought I had to many at 9 programs

Leon

Jen · #9 19-07-2009, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Bugger,

and I thought I had to many at 9 programs

Leon

Kevnool (Kev) · #10 19-07-2009, 10:02 PM

Cant have enough, The ones that i dont use are in cold storage not on the computer.
Cheers Kev.

renormalised (Carl) · #11 19-07-2009, 10:06 PM

You can't have too many at all. They can't all do everything you need and some do things better than others, so it's best not to throw any away. You never know when you might need them!!!.

Jen · #12 19-07-2009, 10:11 PM

well i only have Stellarium at the moment
oh boy have i got some catching up to do

Peter Ward · #13 19-07-2009, 10:43 PM

Humm.... when CD's first replace 1.4m floppies, the terms "shovelware" and "bucketware" came out, as you could pack many many more (often) crappy programs on this "new" media with no real additional cost.

Tools I use most:
Essential to run the obs: The Sky6/T-Point/AutomaDome/NMEA- Time/ClarityII
To run the CCDs, filter wheels, adaptive optics: CCDops+planet master/CCDsoft/MaxIm5/Lucam Recorder
To reduce the Data: MaxIm5
To process the data: Registax 5/MaxIm5/Pixelinsight/ Photoshop CS4 (or CS3)

How much is somewhat irrelevant. Perhaps a better questions is:
Does it do what you want? Do you understand which tools need to be used to achieve the result?

AlexN · #14 19-07-2009, 11:02 PM

I keep it simple...

CCDSoft - SBIG control
Nebulosity 2 - Other Camera control
PHD - guiding
Deepsky stacker - stacking
Photoshop CS4 - processing
The Sky 6 - target selection/identification ~ mount control.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #15 19-07-2009, 11:32 PM

Like Alex, KISS theory rules...

Canon EOS Utility...capture
PHD/GPUSB Nudge...Guiding
Dark Adapted...seeing at night!
Canon DPP...image assessment at the scope/laptop, TIFF conversion from RAW later.
ImagesPlus...stacking/calibration
Nebulosity 1.8...aligning Ha with RGB images
PS CS4...everything else!

Also run freeware version of Carina's SkyGazer4.5 for an entertaining way to see what's up!!

TrevorW · #16 19-07-2009, 11:52 PM

Simple

Stellarium
PHD
DSLR Focus
DSS
Maxim DL
Pixinsight LE
PS

dugnsuz (Doug) · #17 20-07-2009, 12:03 AM

OOPS!!!
Neglected to add my PS Plug Ins/Actions!!!

Noel Carboni's PS Actions
Russell Croman's GradXTerminator Plug in
Noise Ninja
Various other actions..."Smaller Stars" and a couple from Chris Schurr's site.

Bye
Doug

telecasterguru (Frank) · #18 20-07-2009, 12:12 AM

There sure is a lot of software out there.

Frank

Barrykgerdes · #19 20-07-2009, 08:15 AM

Hi
With all the poor seeing weather we have you need lots of planetarium type programs for the cloudy nights. I have 20 or 30. most you will have never heard of.

Then there are the viewing programs to look at everyone else's pictures (plus all the folders you store them in).

Next the camera guiding and processing along with the other telescope controllers.

Then all the programs to calculate orbits, eclipses astronomical events etc. I wrote over 100 in basic for my own use.

If you haven't got 200 astronomy related programs on your computer yet you have a long way to go.

Barry

stephenb (Stephen) · #20 20-07-2009, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

well i only have Stellarium at the moment
oh boy have i got some catching up to do

I wouldn't stress about it Jen. The imaging side of our hobby is intriguing but I have always mainly been a visual observer. So I have:

Stellarium
Jupiter 2
Registax
Gimp
Paint Shop Pro 7
Canon EOS utility programs