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DSS or other freeware?

Kirscovitch

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Kirscovitch

Kirscovitch

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Had some issues with my laptop (again) and had to redownload a bunch of stuff. Stellarium and Registax to name a couple. I was about to download GIMP again but I have had good results using the software that came with my 1100D to process images so I don't know yet about downloading GIMP again. Plus I think I might break down and buy Lightroom as I have a good friend who does professional photography and can show me the ins and outs for free. 

Just wondering though what other freeware programs or fairly cheap programs are out there for stacking deepsky objects or if DSS is the best bang for the buck? Reason I ask is that although I did think DSS was easy to use and did get some good results from it, it was a total pain in the Bottom to get it downloaded and installed and I'm just not looking forward to doing it for the 3rd time....

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I love the reasonably priced AstroArt 5 for stacking and calibrating. It is incomparably faster than DSS and far easier to manage. I like the fact that you load everything (darks, flats, bias if used, lights) into boxes on one page. On the next page you can choose what you want the programme to do with them. And on a third page you have excellent and effective filters for column repair, hot pixels, etc. This layout is clarity personified. 

When you get odd results you can eliminate the possible culprits by removing them from the boxes. You can change the stacking algorithms in a click. 'Sigma, Median, Average etc) and see in a few seconds which works best.

And you don't have to use darks if you don't want to. You can make and use a bad pixel map and bias instead. This works best for me.

Olly

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carastro

carastro

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I'm really surprised that you had trouble downloading DSS, it was one of the most straight forward bits of software I have downloaded and I'm not a whizz at IT stuff.  

There is Iris which is free, but it's not easy to use, think you need to have a mathematical mind to operate it.

There are programmes like Astroart £120, Maxim (need a mortgage) and Nebulosity I think that was £40 - £60, can't quite remember. 

To be honest,  if you want free or cheap I don't think you could do much better than DSS, it does a pretty good job on the whole.  

Carole 

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I'm really surprised that you had trouble downloading DSS, it was one of the most straight forward bits of software I have downloaded and I'm not a whizz at IT stuff.  

There is Iris which is free, but it's not easy to use, think you need to have a mathematical mind to operate it.

There are programmes like Astroart £120, Maxim (need a mortgage) and Nebulosity I think that was £40 - £60, can't quite remember. 

To be honest,  if you want free or cheap I don't think you could do much better than DSS, it does a pretty good job on the whole.  

Carole 

Heheh, I can't even afford the deposit... And at sixty one the manual is too long for me to have any hope of finishing it this side of the grave.

Olly

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Kirscovitch

Kirscovitch

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I'm really surprised that you had trouble downloading DSS, it was one of the most straight forward bits of software I have downloaded and I'm not a whizz at IT stuff.  

There is Iris which is free, but it's not easy to use, think you need to have a mathematical mind to operate it.

There are programmes like Astroart £120, Maxim (need a mortgage) and Nebulosity I think that was £40 - £60, can't quite remember. 

To be honest,  if you want free or cheap I don't think you could do much better than DSS, it does a pretty good job on the whole.  

Carole 

 Downloading is fine. Extracting the RAR files and installing them is what I keep having issues with. I've been trying for the last hour to extract them and nothing is working.

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carastro

carastro

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I know what you mean about RAR files as I always have problems with them, but I have no recollection of having to extract a RAR file and my latest download was only a few months ago.  The file that I have to extract is a .msi file. 

I'm not going to get into this any further as I'm no IT expert, except to say something seems to be quite different between your installation and mine. 

Carole

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  • 2 weeks later...
AlienMoon

AlienMoon

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 Downloading is fine. Extracting the RAR files and installing them is what I keep having issues with. I've been trying for the last hour to extract them and nothing is working.

Same here, there's no .Rar  to unpack mate.. I got two file's one Setup.exe for the 32 Bits systems & the MSI for 64bit systems,

for me this was easy, & i had to install this on a Mac machine. not to sure what was in your packages when you downloaded them.. 

anyway hope you sorted it Pal.

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JimFR

JimFR

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I tried DSS but got odd artifacts on integrated images - streaks and swirls that arent in the originals, and appear yo be random. It will take Pentax PEF files though.

I also wrestle with Iris - this is very powerful but isn't friendly! Always manage to lose colour but the post processing is excellent.

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lensman57

lensman57

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Had some issues with my laptop (again) and had to redownload a bunch of stuff. Stellarium and Registax to name a couple. I was about to download GIMP again but I have had good results using the software that came with my 1100D to process images so I don't know yet about downloading GIMP again. Plus I think I might break down and buy Lightroom as I have a good friend who does professional photography and can show me the ins and outs for free. 

Just wondering though what other freeware programs or fairly cheap programs are out there for stacking deepsky objects or if DSS is the best bang for the buck? Reason I ask is that although I did think DSS was easy to use and did get some good results from it, it was a total pain in the Bottom to get it downloaded and installed and I'm just not looking forward to doing it for the 3rd time....

After a while I finally managed to come to terms with Pixinsight, not cheap but great package and the post processing is as simple or as comlicated as you'd like to make it. As for stacking the Batch Pre Processing Script is very simple to use and for total control freaks there are the individual tools for Star Alignment, Image Integration, Drizzle tool and so on. I still use DSS at times but I get better results with PI and so far no weird artefacts. The price is heavy but the package is worth it. AstroArt 5 is also another simple to use package with useful tools, it can even reshape some of the stars caused by bad guiding.

A.G

A.G

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