Best Registax Settings?

[Astrosurf]

I'm disappointed with my Saturn captures from the other night and suspect it's my settings in Registax. I'm not too sure how to get the best-quality frames. I particularly don't know what it means by 'Lowest quality' Does it mean the lower the number the few bad frames it stacks? I have it set at 90. What would you recommend?

Settings - with quality at 60:

[Astrosurf]

Well, gave up  stacking in Registax and went for Autostakkert, then Wavelets in Registax. Noticeable improvement.

Registax:

Autostakkert:

[Astroboffin]

Nicely done, I prefer Autostakkert, and as you found, I also find registrax to complex, more than I think it need to be...

Regards

AB

[Owmuchonomy]

AS!2 is much simpler to use and produces better results in my hands.  A lot of folks like you did drop the .tif file back into Registax to use the wavelet function to sharpen.  Personally I find this a complete chore and a bit harsh especially as AS!2 produces a duplicate convolved image by default.  I just use smart sharpen in PS instead of wavelets.  You did well to get Saturn at such a low altitude.  

[Astrosurf]

Thanks guys. I must admit I do like Wavelets. It's interesting that bringing the TIFF back into Registax form AS!2 allowed me to push the Wavelets much further than when it was stacked in Registax, and much less graininess.

[Stub Mandrel]

I've only being trying this for about a month or so,  andI find registax very difficult - you don't seem to be able to change settings for another try at stacking without reloading the image? I can't understand how the quality selection works or how to enable a manual selection from the framelist. There's a desperate need for a Registax 6 manual.

Astrostakkert explains itself much better and I found the experimental derotation works very well - even though my AVIs were 20-second bursts separated by up to a minute putting in the numbers asked for worked like magic.

I use wavelets in Registax and I'm getting the hang of them, but a final unsharp mask and other tweaks in photo-paint often help.

[Astrosurf]

I can't see the derotation setting.

[Stub Mandrel]

Seems its 'field rotation' rather than derotation (as in the unfathomable winjupos).

Its under advanced --> experimental in astorstakkert.

I put in latitude, altitude, azimuth and recording duration and it worked out that over all teh frames there was a total rotation of -4.43 degrees, which is quite significant.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I use AS!2 for planetary, solar, and lunar stacking, and then use RS6 wavelets for planets, and ImPPG LR-deconvolution for solar and lunar. RS-6 stacking is slower and less accurate.

[Bizibilder]

Another vote for AS2! for stacking.  I use Astra-Image 3.0 (freeware) for L-R deconvolution (and other deconvolution routines) and it also has a wavelets function.  ImPPG is also very useful and is far more subtle in its operation than Astra-Image.

[Astrosurf]

The only choices under Advanced are here:

[Leveye]

I shoot AVI and let PIPP pick the best 25-35 percent then on to AS!2 for debayering,aligning and stacking and last Registax for wavelets and RGB align. Then PS and LR to final tweek. This workflow works the best for me. Nice image btw!

[Stub Mandrel]

One advantage of being a newbie - I hacv the latest versions of everything - in this case Astrostakkert version 2.5.1.7

[Astrosurf]

Many thanks all. That's helpful!

Leveye, what settings do you use on each?

Stub Mandrel, what settings do you use on AS!2?

[northcanadian]

I am also finding the AS2! very quick and user friendly.  After a session with quite a few avis to process, I just batch run them through...then wavelets and rgb align/balance in Registax 6. Seems to be quite a time saver sorting out the wheat avis from the chaff also. For some reason occasionally in R6 I get some paving stone kind of artifacts when moving the wavelets sliders(?)

[Stub Mandrel]

> what settings do you use on AS!2?

I'm no expert but for jupiter and saturn I've been using:

I find that if I use drizzle or resample in AS!2, then I get a lot of visible artefacts. Resampling at x2 in Registax or using any resampling amount in Photo Paint works much, much better.

The sharpened images from AS!2 are quite good but look best if you tell it not to include any of the RAW image, problem is they tend to show artefacts if you use any further processing.

[Astrosurf]

Many thanks!

I use 80% of frames. Is that too high? Of course, I could just try it!

[Stub Mandrel]

I usaully try 254, 50 and 75 if there isn't an obvious drop-off in the quality graph.

[Astrosurf]

I'll try that.

[Owmuchonomy]

I find anything above 20% and it makes no improvement. That is still 600 to 900 frames.

[cathouse42]

I dumped Registax long ago, pretty much because I could never get it to work and it sucked up CPU (I have 16gb and 8 CPU's) and I had to end up killing the process more often than not. I don't find it worth the bother any more. It rarely gets updates and is a bit long in the tooth. It desperately needs some love.

I would rather pump my money and time and effort into Pix Insight (if only they offered a student or educational discount).

[Stub Mandrel]

Having tried it under Vista and W8.1, it works far better under W.81. It often pretends to have frozen (even RGNB align can go 'dead' for a minute or two), but if left looooooong enough it completes what it is doing.

It REALLY needs a manual.

[cathouse42]

Having tried it under Vista and W8.1, it works far better under W.81. It often pretends to have frozen (even RGNB align can go 'dead' for a minute or two), but if left looooooong enough it completes what it is doing.

It REALLY needs a manual.

It needs a redesign.

[Freddie]

I find R6 works fine for me and use it all the time for wavelets and stacking my FD solar shots. Given the time Cor and the team have put in to provide this free software, some of the recent comments look a bit harsh to me. 

[Stub Mandrel]

> some of the recent comments look a bit harsh to me.

My apologies if i seem ungrateful for the effort put into R6 - without it I would not have been able to get anything remotely as rewarding from my efforts and might have lost interest. But I do think that, assuming R7 or at least an update, remains a possibility I will dare to make some (hopefully positive) criticism.

It's easy to forget to appreciate the effort put into something like Registax, and I think the real issue is that it hasn't been properly documented. Unlike most programmes what it does is so complex and unfamiliar, you can't get the best out of it by intuition.

So, I think it's unfortunate that V6 appears to have been released, rapidly bug-fixed and then nothing seems to have happened since 2011. There are lots of differences between R5 and R6 and I really struggle to understand how much of R6 works.

I honestly think that most of the problems folk like myself have is down entirely to the lack of documentation for R6. In particular there needs top be better explanation of the workflow - and explanation of how different features interact. Can you use align by COG and alignpoints at the same time? What do you do if it doesn't place any alignpoints? If you manually select frames, does it use them and quality estimation or just one or the other? Lots of niggling little doubts about whether what you are doing is making the end result better or worse - these undermine confidence, when a few lines of explanation (or tooltips) might provide some helpful direction.

I suspect the 'superiority' of Astrostakkert results is down to it's relative simplicity and the fact you can hit the 'go' button, see what happens, and then tweak settings and hit 'go' again - in R6 you have to start all over again.

As a rank beginner it may be I have misunderstood some aspects of the process and program, but perhaps that is part of the reason - those familiar with what Registax does will never be able to see it from a beginner's perspective.

If more work on Registax is planned I'd be happy to send the authors a list of comments and queries - not seeking a personal answer to each one, but as an aid to them in understanding what a beginner needs in terms of explanation and guidance. I'd certainly be happy to be a 'tyro beta-tester' for any new version.