Lunar mosaic software

[james_screech]

Up to now I've used iMerge to create mosaics, however I was wondering is there anything better? Specifically is there a (preferably free) app that will when required stretch/squeeze images so that they match on multiple points?

Thank you

James

[Cornelius Varley]

Have you tried Microsoft ICE ? http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I really like AutoStitch 64. Free and essentially fully automatic.

[james_screech]

Thanks for the two suggestions I'll have a look at them both.

James

[Robd]

Hugin is another good one - http://hugin.sourceforge.net/.  I find that Microsoft Ice is good when it works, but if it fails to match a frame then it just leaves it out and there is nothing that you can do about it as far as I am aware. I know nothing about Autostitch 64 so can't comment.

Hugin will run with minimal intervention but there is the facility of manually adding alignment points when it fails to find them.

Rob

[james_screech]

Having tried all three, hugin kept crashing, Ice and AutoStitch both worked. However I found ICE was better as the final image had least artefacts and would also save in more file formats. So I think I will go with that for now.

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have found Autostitch64 VERY impressive. I have many data setson which MS ICE and Hugin bork comprehensively: mainly big (30+ pane) solar, but also a couple of big lunar mosaics. Autostitch just eats them up and produces the goods. The only drawback is that it only exports JPEG. Below is my first lunar effort: 33 pane, automatically stitched.

[Sleepy Kiki]

That is certainly impressive and absolutely seamless, great work sir

[Psychobilly]

Another MS ICe User here.. although it does throw a wobbly from time to time when I resort to Photomerge and manual repair in PS CC...

Here's a 67 PAne IR pass taken with a DMK21AU04AS from when I was a glutton for punishment...

LunarMosaic26-01-2010 Quarter Scale by psmithuk, on Flickr

or full scale here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16736484@N07/15265735403/in/photostream/ might need to download it to have a look around...

Peter...

[cray2mpx]

I still like iMerge. Here is a 12-pane mosaic from the Oct 2014 "super moon" done with my Edge HD 8" SCT and a QHY5-L IIc camera at prime focus and f/10 (2000 mm focal length). Each of the 12 segments is the stack of the best 200 frames (out of 2000 total frames) using AutoStakert 2. The attached image is downsampled for this upload.

cs,

Cray

Vienna, Austria