Time lapse software recommendations and advice please

[Helen]

I'm off to Arizona on Friday and hoping to take advantage of dark skies    I thought some all-sky time lapses with my ASI 120mc might be cool (as the camera is really light and runs off USB).  I haven't done this before at night, so currently trying to get quickly up to speed before going.

Can anyone provide some advice on capture programs please - I tried skystudiopro on my big laptop (Win 7) and it worked fine, but last night when I tested on my Surface Pro 3 and win 8.1 it was temperamental  .

I struggled getting perfect focus - any tips or tricks (not sure how I could make a bahtinov mask for a lens 3mm across )

And finally processing - how do I remove hot pixels etc?  I was trying to just record a movie, but is it best to take stills, batch process and then put together as an animation?

Many thanks

Helen 

[m.tweedy]

i use this

http://timelapsetool.com/en/Features

shoot just as jpegs with dslr and the programme does the rest

[Helen]

Thanks

[m.tweedy]

try making a Y (lord mask) easier and lets more light through

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/optical-theory/fraunhofer-diffraction-and-its-effects-on-aperture-masks-a-primer-r1953

with the dslr i did not bother with darks flats bias as the timelapse is 35 frames per second it would be impossible to distinguish them. also was not bothered about a little trailing as it actually smoothed out the sequences (in my opinion)

however it was a dslr and i do not know the asi to comment on that

i can only find tutorials with dslr

http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/creating-a-starlight-time-lapse-video--photo-17382

hope it helps in some way

[Helen]

Brilliant links - many thanks   I'm taking my Canon 1100d as well, so plenty to experiment with.  Now need to find time amongst the work and packing to make some Lord masks 

Helen