What software?

[Star Gazer]

I'm a real newbie when it comes to astro software, does anyone know where I can find some good detailed reviews. There seems to be a lot of great software out there, but its difficult to see the various pros and cons. Much of what's out there seems quite expensive, so I need to make sure I spend my money wisely.

The three that seem to stand out are:

Astroart

PixInsight

Maxim DL

Maxim DL is probably too expensive for me. PixInsight looks absolutely fantastic in Harry's Astro Shed tutorials, but the interface doesn't look very intuitive and I'd be concerned that if I bought PixInsight I would have to stick to the workflows in in Harry's videos. May be Astroart is for me, but I don't have a good feel for how easy it is to use? However before I discount any package I'd really like to know what people think of these packages., or others I should consider.

Initially I want to be able to capture images with my DSLR and then stack them. I'd also like to be able to remove light pollution as my DSLR is unmodified. If it can assist in focusing and control the mount so much the better.

[rfdesigner]

I always suggest IRIS.

Iris software

It is great for pre-processing. But it isn't photoshop, I've yet to encourage it to do layers.

It does do direct comms to Canon DSLR and webcams, and has lots of different stacking algorithums.

Best bit: it's free.

Derek

[JimStan]

For just plain stacking of raw images, it would be hard to beat Deep Sky Stacker. It is free ( free is GOOD ! ) and there is a large forum devoted to Q&A that is often answered directly by the author of the software, himself!

As far as post stacking image processing, it would be very difficult to top Photoshop, and if you cannot afford the full blown professional version of the program, you can purchase "Elements" for a lot less money. It does have some limitations, but it seems, to me, to be much more intuitive to use than most of the other programs around that claim to be able to do the same things .

JMHO Jim S.

[Sam]

There is a bunch of really great free software out there such as Iris, DSS etc. On the non-free software I haven't used Maxim or Astroart but have used PixInsight a lot so I can't really compare them objectively. PixInsight takes a little while to get used to the interface but once it's been used a few times it becomes quite intuitive and there's quite a communtiy of uses for support.

[ollypenrice]

Astroart is, for me, essentially a pre-processing tool though a little primitive post-processing can be done there. I use it and like it and think it approachable.

I then go via PixInsight into PhotoshopCS3.

PixInsight is an excercise in needless obscurity with regard to the interface, though we Have Harry's translations into human language. It does some things (important things) incredibly well once you have learned to speak Venutian.

But I need CS3. It isn't too expensive on Amazon and later versions are irrelevant to astro-imaging. I can talk to Ps and feel as if I'm touching the picture. The selection tools are the heart and soul of my own approach.

Push comes to shove? I'd use freeware and CS3, then tackle PixInsight later.

Olly