Noob advise on stacking.

[Mr Moff]

Morning guys,

I was wondering if someone could explain stacking for me?

I just ordered a laptop for imaging, and my current setup is,

Canon 1100D

Skywatcher 200p on a heq5.

I did some searching and it seems that registax is popular. Is that the one to use or is there anything better?

I've done a few months imaging but couldn't process anything because I didn't have a working laptop, so all I had was one shot at a time so I've got much to learn.

Is there any other advise for getting started?

[atmenterprises]

I've only done DSO and star stacking and I use Deep Sky Stacker for that. Not sure what kind of object you're looking to stack.

Stacking is the process of taking multiple images of the same object then having the software take all of the images and merge them into one. This brings out more detail because anomalies are eliminated (or reduced, I should say) in the process. It also helps increase the signal since you're combining multiple exposures of the same object instead of just one exposure.

[ollypenrice]

Lots of people use free Deep Sky Stacker but personally I don't like it because I don't know what it's doing or what order it's doing it in. Maybe I could read more and fathom it but I'm afraid I havent done so. I use AstroArt 5.0 for stacking. The options are very coherent and you have plenty of filters to play with.

Registax is really for small files from fast frame (video) cameras with small chips.

You should shoot and stack RAW files, not JPEGS, and read up on darks, flats and bias frames.

The effect of stacking on the final image quality is unbelievable and diminishing returns don't set in till you have a fair old stack. I keep going till I have forty when I can.

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=1793644788&k=r8HTK72

[Mr Moff]

Great stuff, I'll give them a try. I'm into taking pictures of everything so I'm hoping to play with some images that I've recently been taking.

Hopefully the laptop should be here in the next couple of days so at least I can spend a few days fiddling while the weather is rubbish.

Thanks for the replies.

By the way, olly those images are amazing.