Mac Software For Stacking & Processing

[dazza1639]

I was just wondering what software other Mac users on here use for the processing of there images.

I capture my stuff on my 6 year old windows ME laptop with a toucam II pro, my problems star when I transfer the files to the mac for processing.

• 
  [li]Keith's Image Stacker doesn't want to work on my intel Mac[/li]
  [li]Astroyacker crashes every time you try to load an image [/li]
  [li]Lynkeos works great with mov files but avi files just take forever to process so I either have to convert the avi's to mov using iMovie or do the stacking on my Windows machine at work [/li]
  [li]The Gimp is a great free alternative to Photoshop available for Mac, Windows & Linux but it is quite as powerful or intuitive as Photoshop. [/li]
  

The only other piece of astro imaging software I could find is iCCD which looks like it can do everything sort of like Registax & kCCD all roled into one but it seems that it only works with Starlight Express cameras. Has anyone got any experience with iCCD, do you know if it can be used for just stacking & processing of avi files?

Darren

[themos]

What happened with the ffmpeg library add-on to lynkeos? Did you get that to work?

Otherwise, you seem to be ahead of me on this!

[geppetto]

Do I sense some other closet Mac users on here

Just got a Mac Mini for granddaughters keyboard stuff using Garageband (loads of fun)...

Not thought about any astro software for it, will watch with interest

[Cloudwatcher]

Aah! It's so much better out of the closet but I'm afraid I don't know of any Mac software that might improve matters.

I have to admit I use Registax on the wife's lap top and then transfer resultant image to Photoshop CS on the Mac for

further processing.

[dazza1639]

What happened with the ffmpeg library add-on to lynkeos? Did you get that to work?

Otherwise, you seem to be ahead of me on this!

It does allow you to load .mpg files & .avi files but the speed at which it aligns them is awful about 1 frame every 2 to 5 seconds. the way I see it I have 2 choices for using Lynkeos. 1, Convert the avi to mov using imovie or 2, find a way of capturing the video directly as a mov file on the windows laptop.

The first one works OK but im concerned that I'm losing data during the conversion, and as for capturing the video as a mov file I'm a bit stuck, I can't find any way of doing it on a windows ME laptop. I suppose I'll have to save up for a macbook.

Darren

[themos]

You mean it's much quicker to align frames when it's fed a .mov ? That's really strange, I can't explain this.

What I did on Linux was to first get all the frames out of an .avi into separate files. You can do the same (I haven't tried it yet) with this.

Do you know if it's using the FFTW library for doing the fast fourier transforms? What CPU are you running?

[dazza1639]

I downloaded & installed FFmpeg-SVN6005.zip from HERE

it imports the avi fine but when you run the align it takes forever but with the mov it zips through the 2000+ frames in about 30 secs.

I'm using a 2GHz intel core duo iMac with 1gb of ram.

Darren

[themos]

I've had a look at that FFmpeg package. It puts stuff under /usr/local. There should be a program in /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg. You can run it from a Terminal. You should be able to get help for it with

MANPATH=/usr/local/man man ffmpeg

. Maybe you need to find the correct invocation for turning an .avi into a set of frame files that Lynkeos will then read in. Maybe it will speed up then.

[Robd]

Darren,

As a PC user I do most of my processing on the PC. However for the image stacking I use ImageXsm on a mac. This app is written by a close friend (Steve) who is also into astronomy. Whilst the application is written primarily for processing images from SEMs he has incorporated astro processing logic into it. These astro options are not currently available in the public release.

However he was down with us over the weekend and I raised your question with him.

The astro logic is primarily aimed at processing Nikon .nef, Pentax .pef files and Meade DSI .fts files but I believe it will also process .tiffs as well. The load routines will also process avi files so the bulk of the logic is in place.

Since he is now happy with the Astro processing he will shortly be making those options public.

He is already looking at adding 'movie' stacking to process .mov files ( or whatever his camera produces ) so he has no problem with adding other formats to the astro logic, but he will need sample files for testing.

If you are interested in the app it can be downloaded from his web site at http://www.liv.ac.uk/~sdb/ You can also email him S.D.Barrett@liv.ac.uk - use a message title of ImageSxm Astro - he will then know what it is about. He will probably then give you a link to the latest astro version

The Astro options are primarily aimed at stacking multiple images but will optionally also:-

Subtract Dark

ID hot pixel and remove

Apply gamma ( 1 of 3? levels)

Flatten field

Remove Vignetting

Auto or manual align

Going from memory so I have probably missed something.

On his web site are links to his astro pictures - any that imply multiple images will have been stacked with ImageSxm and I believe he does most of his processing with the app.

Rob

[dazza1639]

Thanks for that I will give it a go.

Darren

[Nessy]

Thanks RobD - great post and look forward to seeing this stuff....

Excellent.

[Nessy]

Also came across all of this for Mac...

http://www.stark-labs.com/

This includes :

Nebulosity (image processing)

PHD Guiding (guide software)

DSLR Shutter (controlling a DSLR)

Shoe-String Focus (focus control software).

I have not had a chance to play yet but this seems to be a winner.....(oh and its donationware).....and looks very, very 'mac'.