Stacking images

[clunsey73]

Very new to this - and just wanted advice for a user friendly piece of software to stack images of star fields - I looked at registax but I believe its specifically for planets - so would like some input?

[JB80]

Deep Sky Stacker is probably the most common used for stacking stars.

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

Depends on what camera you are using though, you may have to download the beta version from the yahoo group.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DeepSkyStacker/

[clunsey73]

OKay had a quick look at it - so darks I get - what are flat frames? and how do you generate them? I presume they are for subtraction?

[JB80]

Well I may not be the best to ask as I have never used them successfully, basically they are taken to help remove vignetting and uneven illumination. I'm sure someone can explain better.

The idea is you switch your camera to AV mode and use a flat white target, say an open page of note pad on your laptop or tablet. Let AV mode take it automatically and then you take note of what settings the picture was taken, switch to manual again apply the settings and then take a run of flats.(Am I even close here guys?)

They aren't neccessary though, you can stack your lights and darks and it will work fine without flats although the final picture may have vignetting. Just try DSS and see, you don't even need darks if you didn't take any.

[clunsey73]

Yeah - I didn't take darks - but I need to - the ambient temperature here at night is about 26 deg c so I have a lot of noise, but I got a stack I was happy enough with for my first go! It was also windy and anything longer than 8 s exposures were very poor! Lot of vibration. OKay - I wont bother with flats just now - but next time I should go with darks!

[clunsey73]

I've seen some beautiful pictures of M8 on here, so mine is a bit shameful - but hey I'm just glad to get my first ever deep sky pic! I have a focal reducer on order since I am pretty limited to short exposures with my setup.

[Scott]

mate... If you're happy with an image then it's a good image. whilst it's good to try and improve your photography, you do it for you, not us.

Oh, and by the way, I'd be chuffed with a start like that . I use flats and darks, some only use darks, some don't use anything other than their subs. I just figure if theres something that can help me then I'll use it. good luck and enjoy

[clunsey73]

Totally agree - to be honest I'm just happy to get anything, I wasn't even expecting to see nebula very well with my scope so its been a bonus to learn what you can see! It is also great just as a record of what I'm looking at - and a souvenir!

[Tinker1947]

DSS has a large help file built in,,,,,,,,

[clunsey73]

I might get round to opening that then sometime, usually I just jump in and play.