DSS crashing

[Moonshed]

I am having problems with DSS crashing. Initially it would crash because I had enabled "Drizzle" but since turning it off it works just fine. However, this was when I was only stacking Light frames, usually about 30. (I turned off drizzle at a members suggestion saying it was probably down to insufficient memory and that fixed it). My laptop has 4 GB of RAM. Since then I have added Offset/Bias Frames, without drizzle, and again it worked fine. When I then tried adding Flats together with Offset/Bias it crashes again. It does not say why it crashed, just a warning triangle with an exclamation mark and the letters DSS, not a lot of help really but can only assume memory again.

So this is my question: Is it that 4 GB RAM is not enough? I couldn't find anywhere how much RAM DSS actually requires. If so is there a work around, short of buying a new laptop (which isn't going to happen because I am about to buy a PoleMaster) If there is no workaround I will have to make do with just adding Bias only or Flats only and reducing the number of subs. It seems to handle 15 subs a lot better than 30

Thanks 

Keith

[ChrisLX200]

Use DSS to make master bias, flat and dark frames then just load those single maters with your lights

ChrisH

[Moonshed]

6 hours ago, ChrisLX200 said:

Use DSS to make master bias, flat and dark frames then just load those single maters with your lights

ChrisH

Thanks Chris, I did not realise that was what the Master Frames were for, I wrongly assumed they were just a part of the stacking process. I will give that a go as soon as I get a chance this morning. I feel a bit daft now lol!

Cheers 

Keith

[Marci]

With regards RAM + Drizzle... yes, the 4Gb is your limiting factor. You need much more (and a 64bit OS) if you intend to turn drizzle on! (Or you have to downsample all of your images)

[The Admiral]

But isn't DSS a 32-bit application, so it can't access more than 4GB can it? Or have I got that wrong?

Ian

[Marky1973]

You can select an area of the image to stack as well if you like - if you have a galaxy (for instance) in the middle of the screen then you can "crop" the image in DSS by clicking and dragging a rectangle (iirc) that can sometimes help speed up stacking and was how I managed to get drizzle to work without crashing. If you are stacking DSLR images that that will slow it down as well, I have notices a massive increase in speed on DSS since upgrading to a CCD where the FITS files are around 2mb each as opposed to 20-25mb RAW files.

[Moonshed]

8 hours ago, Marky1973 said:

You can select an area of the image to stack as well if you like - if you have a galaxy (for instance) in the middle of the screen then you can "crop" the image in DSS by clicking and dragging a rectangle (iirc) that can sometimes help speed up stacking and was how I managed to get drizzle to work without crashing. If you are stacking DSLR images that that will slow it down as well, I have notices a massive increase in speed on DSS since upgrading to a CCD where the FITS files are around 2mb each as opposed to 20-25mb RAW files.

Okay, thanks for that, I will use cropping to reduce the amount of data plus not use drizzle. I get my best results when I only use lights anyway, soon as I add in bias frames or flats things go a bit haywire. I will just keep it short and simple, that works just fine.

[Astrofriend]

Hi Moonsheed,

You didn't write how big your imagefiles are, how many megapixels?

I can handle my Canon 6D files which is 20Mpix, calibrate with masterbias, dark and flat files. No Drizzle, but the debayerDrizzle worked (not the same as a 2x Drizzle) with my old Canon 5D 12Mpix camera.

I will say that flat calibration of my Canon raw files often don't work very good, especially for the red channel.

As said above, DSS is an old software today and no further development. It's a Windows 32 bit software and can't handle more memory than you already have.

 

You can try Fitswork also which I use in combination with DSS, I have a tutorial here how to start:

http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/tutorials/tutorial-fitswork/tutorial-fitswork.html

 

It's free, but even this software is a Windows 32 bit software with it's limitations.

 

/Lars

[Moonshed]

13 minutes ago, Astrofriend said:

Hi Moonsheed,

You didn't write how big your imagefiles are, how many megapixels?

I can handle my Canon 6D files which is 20Mpix, calibrate with masterbias, dark and flat files. No Drizzle, but the debayerDrizzle worked (not the same as a 2x Drizzle) with my old Canon 5D 12Mpix camera.

I will say that flat calibration of my Canon raw files often don't work very good, especially for the red channel.

As said above, DSS is an old software today and no further development. It's a Windows 32 bit software and can't handle more memory than you already have.

 

You can try Fitswork also which I use in combination with DSS, I have a tutorial here how to start:

http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/tutorials/tutorial-fitswork/tutorial-fitswork.html

 

It's free, but even this software is a Windows 32 bit software with it's limitations.

 

/Lars

Hi Lars,  I have now managed to sort out DSS and have it running okay on my laptop now. Not sure what the problem was, just made more space on my hard drive and twiddled with DSS a bit.

Cheers, Keith

[wornish]

There is an earlier thread on here that explains how you can use drizzle  in DSS by selecting smaller Regions of Interest.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/220586-deep-sky-stacker-out-of-memory/

[Moonshed]

1 hour ago, wornish said:

There is an earlier thread on here that explains how you can use drizzle  in DSS by selecting smaller Regions of Interest.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/220586-deep-sky-stacker-out-of-memory/

Thanks Dave, I had a look at the link which was very interesting, even though some of the computer related stuff is a bit beyond by limited knowledge of these infernal/incredible machines? I have had the same error message as in  the final post, an exclamation mark in a warning triangle, which appears to be because too much data is trying to be processed from large chip DSLR, which is my type of camera. But as long as I limit my Lights to about 20, do not use drizzle, and use the Master Offset/Bias and Flat Frames instead of all the originals, it then seems to run okay. Have yet to prove it will be okay with adding a Master Flat frame but feel pretty sure it will be. I will let you know.  Cheers, Keith