Registar - Not sure I get it?

[Sp@ce_d]

I just got Registar but I'm feeling a bit thick now! How do you actually use it?

I was impressed when I tried it out in demo mode. Well, apart from having 30 days left on trial one day and zero the next! Anyway, I was able to align a mosaic from some stacks I hadn't got to work in DSS or Nebulosity so with that and the praise I see on here I jumped in and bought it. But now that I can actually save the image and look at it in another program it's not quite as smooth as I thought and I'm trying to see exactly where in the workflow I should be using it anyway?

It's primarily an alignment (the best supposedly) program right?

ok, so I've been playing with some old data (blame the clouds!) pre processing it in Neb and then feeding it into Registar to align and stack... only it runs out of memory pretty quick! Certainly not able to take many subs at a time. I pray they're working on updating it... I'm wasting a Xeon with 12 threads and 12Gig of Ram running this!

There's a distinct lack of info about on how to use it. Apart from the help.. having found the patch to run old windoze help files on Win7... There's only one tutorial I could find ... AstroMatt - Using RegiStar for Aligning CCD Sub-Frames by Matt

Jeez and I was thinking of trying out Pixinsight.. !! Don't think I have a hope if I can't get my head around this one..

Any chance of some kind soul giving me an idea of how I use this and fit it into the workflow ?

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

do you mean Registax ?

thats a fairly good aligning and stacking software and to what i know is free

[Sp@ce_d]

do you mean Registax ?

thats a fairly good aligning and stacking software and to what i know is free

No.. Registar here.. RegiStar Home Page

Actually, having had a break (well a snooze in front of the telly)

This is making much more sense for the mosaic & crop pad stuff..

AstroMatt - Capturing and Processing Mosaics

[Spikey]

I've also just started using registar. Initially I'm only using it to align pre stacked tiffs such as the RGB. As I figure out more functions I'll let you know

[ollypenrice]

I'm a Registar fan but not for multiple alignments of subs. I guess you can use it for that but I wouldn't have thought it was intended for the job. I stack and calibrate my various channels in AstroArt 5.0 to make master red, green, blue, lum ad maybe Ha images. You could use a freebie like DSS for this job as well.

Then I go to Registar to align (register) all these images together. I use align then 'crop and pad' and save these. Registar is phenomenally accurate for this. Star colour in the corners is consistently the best I've seen. From this point on all your channels are perfects fits onto each other and everything gets easier. I combine RGB in AA5. AA5 is very poor at aligning colour channels which is why I use RS.

I also use RS for mosaics. I align them in RS but don't combine them because it doesn't get the stitching perfectly seamless. I actually join them in Ps, measuring the levels of the overlap on both images with the eyedropper and adjusting them to fit.

The real genius of RS comes for making composites where you apply long FL close ups onto widefields to improve key areas. In the image below the widefield is with a Tak 85 at 328mmFL. Ha for the Lagoon was from an FSQ106 by Tom O'Donoghue. I added RGB overlays for the three emission nebulae from a TEC with 980mm FL.

It isn't an automatic process; you have to play with the overlaid part to balance levels, curves and colour intensity as well as feather them in carefully. However I think you can get a truly seamess result.

Olly

We are also setting up a couple of double barreled instruments here, smaller scopes going for the colour, larger ones for the detail, in parallel cameras. Registar will be essential for combining the datasets.

[Nadeem Shah]

Another fan of Registar here, I usually use the app to align my rgb images correctly or when I have had images compromising from different nights. Here's a little tutorial.

AstroMatt - Using RegiStar for Aligning CCD Sub-Frames by Matt

[Sp@ce_d]

Thanks Olly, that makes things clearer now. For some reason I'd got it into my head that "combine" was it's strength when actually it's "crop and pad". I was thinking I must use it to stack subs and then combine them in RS. Of course in some cases such as mosaics overlap is an issue.

At least I have got RS for the right reason then, phew... I have data taken over several weeks/months of NGC1499, comprising of Ha and OSC (DSLR) at different orientations. So far I failed to align trying Neb or DSS & Ps. RS seems to do the trick with rough jpegs of it so I'm starting from scratch. Now I see where bring it into RS.

Nadeem, Thats the only place I've found any tutorials. In fact this one is more or less what I'm trying to do in the case above..

AstroMatt - Capturing and Processing Mosaics

[ollypenrice]

Thanks Olly, that makes things clearer now. For some reason I'd got it into my head that "combine" was it's strength when actually it's "crop and pad". I was thinking I must use it to stack subs and then combine them in RS. Of course in some cases such as mosaics overlap is an issue.

At least I have got RS for the right reason then, phew... I have data taken over several weeks/months of NGC1499, comprising of Ha and OSC (DSLR) at different orientations. So far I failed to align trying Neb or DSS & Ps. RS seems to do the trick with rough jpegs of it so I'm starting from scratch. Now I see where bring it into RS.

Nadeem, Thats the only place I've found any tutorials. In fact this one is more or less what I'm trying to do in the case above..

AstroMatt - Capturing and Processing Mosaics

Good. What is remarkable in RS is that it can combine different field curvatures and different pixel sizes in the twinkling of an eye.

If you have a colour channel that was not parfocal, for instance, the image scale will be slightly out. When you ask RS to fit it to the others it will slightly resize it as well as just align it.

If you are trying to fit old data together but have issues with overlap because the orientation is different, one trick is to throw everything together into RS and get a pic with some lines on it from the frames overlap. Ignore them and stretch open the image.

Then take a single image which overlaps the visible lines, stretch that, and use it as a Ps layer to conceal the unwanted lines.

In RS it is important to crop off edges before combining because they always show artefacts.

Olly

[4lefts]

i'd never heard of this program until i saw this thread, so thanks! can it align images taken in altaz to remove the field rotation?