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Registar users - was it worth it?


Demonperformer

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I am looking at an imaging project that is going to entail different cameras, with different filters on different nights - all while setting up and taking down on each session. As a result, I have been thinking that purchasing Registar may be the way to go - I have heard some wonderful things about it. But the price of $179 (~£139) is giving me pause ... that much for a program that does nothing else than aligning results I get ... which is something DSS is supposed to be able to do for free ...

So I guess the question I want to ask users of this program is: Does Registar really make this process £140 easier (a.k.a. will I get frustrated trying to do it with DSS:BangHead:?); or am I going to regret parting with the cash, with it just sitting on my computer unloved and unwanted ??

Thanks.

 

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What you can do in DSS is register different filters to each other, but last time I looked you can't re-size in DSS.

You can also do the same thing in Pixinsight, if you want to get into that, but that too entails a purchase, don;t know how much as I have never been interested in using it. 

Carole 

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I will just say: Astro Pixel Processor....

€150 outright or €60 for a year. 30 day trial available. It will combine different filters, nights and cameras with ease. I have Registar too, but never use it these days... APP is a complete calibrate, register and stack solution with great initial processing tools too. I complete my processing in Photoshop, but APP does a brilliant job of all the initial stuff. It will do what you are after with ease. It is also probably the best piece of software available for stitching together mosaics.

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6 minutes ago, carastro said:

You can also do the same thing in Pixinsight

I had a look at PI a while back, but the only machine I have that met the required specs is one that does not connect to the internet and you can only do the trial on a machine that does, so I gave it a miss.

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Yes it was at the time and I do still use it on the odd occasion .

For me it has recovered data I could not align anywhere else using Maxim and recently APP. (though APP has only failed on that one image TBH)

 

i am not a Pixinsight user.

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14 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

I will just say: Astro Pixel Processor....

OK, so they are within about £10 of each other. Will need to look into this one a bit more.

14 minutes ago, Ibbo! said:

For me it has recovered data I could not align anywhere else using Maxim and recently APP.

Could you comment a bit about what has been the problem that caused APP not to handle the data in these instances?

It looks as if it could be a two-horse race and would not want to jump the wrong way.

Thanks.

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Well over a year ago (early adopter of APP) it would not align the Ha and O3 of my 4 pane mosaic NB filters of the veil which has been fixed now and did a great job in the end.

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I also had a issue with the rgb not aligning in a recent image but Registar sorted it (I think it was M78 ) that could have been user error though.

 

On the other hand if I remember correctly I was doing a multi pane mosaic of NGC1499 and Registar would not play and APP did it no problem and that is what convinced my to buy it at the time.

 

And I do now use APP for my calibration and stacking of DSO objects.

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40 minutes ago, Demonperformer said:

It looks as if it could be a two-horse race

Unless I've mis-understood it is not a two horse race.

Registar does one thing and one thing only - register images; under certain circumstances it seems able to register images that other packages struggle to handle.

APP is a complete pre and post processing suite; it calibrates, registers, normalizes and integrates. APP will also combine integrated masters using the equivalent of channel combination on steroids in PI but arguably not as well as PixelMaths - if you like that sort of challenge. APP is very good indeed at taking data from different imaging systems taken on different nights and registering and integrating the lot. APP is amazing at mosaics which it does with considerable ease compared with PI. I bought PI two years ago and it is still my first port of call, however, I invested in the Renters licence for APP and it has been money very well spent so far.

I own Registar but now rarely use it as APP does what Registar does with ease - and more!

HTH

Adrian

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40 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

APP does what Registar does with ease

Except when it doesn't - which is why I was interested in Steve's problems with APP.

I have GIMP & PS to handle the files once they are aligned. If APP only aligns 99% of the time so I have to buy Registar for the other 1% that is not a good deal as far as I am concerned.

However, it looks as if problems can occur with both programs when doing mosaics (which are not currently part of my game plan), so I could well opt for APP.

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1 hour ago, Demonperformer said:

Except when it doesn't - which is why I was interested in Steve's problems with APP.

Attached are images from  a four frame mosaic of the Heart nebula taken with my ED80 + Atik428. I used the Mosaic Wizard and plate solving in SGPro to plan the mosaic with a 20% overlap; it should be noted I do not own a camera rotator so I knew the end result may be a compromise, but as it was my first attempt I thought I'd give it a go.

APP failed to stitch the four frames together, the best it could manage was two pairs or adjacent frames as shown below.

Registar failed to register any of the images for integration into a mosaic.

These are the two halves produced by APP.

1992329957_Heart-panes34.thumb.jpg.dc3585e125e8960f6993b309572cf2bc.jpg

62127718_Heart-panes12.thumb.jpg.49174cc9d565f94b5f723d5c845ab5b7.jpg

So APP did not produce a 4 pane mosaic but it did at least produce two 2-pane mosaics. Registar failed to register any of the individual four panes.

Draw your own conclusions.

Adrian

P.S. I've made little attempt to post-process these images - I've stretched them purely for illustrative purposes.

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58 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

 

Attached are images from  a four frame mosaic of the Heart nebula taken with my ED80 + Atik428. I used the Mosaic Wizard and plate solving in SGPro to plan the mosaic with a 20% overlap; it should be noted I do not own a camera rotator so I knew the end result may be a compromise, but as it was my first attempt I thought I'd give it a go.

APP failed to stitch the four frames together, the best it could manage was two pairs or adjacent frames as shown below.

Registar failed to register any of the images for integration into a mosaic.

These are the two halves produced by APP.

1992329957_Heart-panes34.thumb.jpg.dc3585e125e8960f6993b309572cf2bc.jpg

62127718_Heart-panes12.thumb.jpg.49174cc9d565f94b5f723d5c845ab5b7.jpg

So APP did not produce a 4 pane mosaic but it did at least produce two 2-pane mosaics. Registar failed to register any of the individual four panes.

Draw your own conclusions.

Adrian

P.S. I've made little attempt to post-process these images - I've stretched them purely for illustrative purposes.

Interesting stuff. Though I’m not surprised that neither managed to stitch the top and bottom halves together - there appears to be no overlap between them at all!

As regards the Framing & Mosaic Wizard - if you plate solve an image with your setup first in SGP it registers the rotation angle of the camera, then when you use the F&M Wizard it displays the mosaic boxes in the appropriate rotation. So long as you don’t move anything, the mosaic will match up perfectly for stitching.

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3 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

As regards the Framing & Mosaic Wizard - if you plate solve an image with your setup first in SGP it registers the rotation angle of the camera, then when you use the F&M Wizard it displays the mosaic boxes in the appropriate rotation. So long as you don’t move anything, the mosaic will match up perfectly for stitching.

Thank you Gav. It was the first time I had used the Wizard and in true "who needs an operating manual" fashion I just pitched in and had a go. I've learnt quite a bit! Indeed there is no overlap - haha! But it does prove that Registar is not the magic bullet so many claim. Like every piece of software it has limitations that it doesn't know it has and you have to discover - whether you read the manual or not ;)

Thank you again for your advice. Just need some clear skies now to have another crack at it.

Adrian

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From what has been said, it appears that both programs do the registering almost every time, but neither is 100% guaranteed. However, these problems seem to be related to mosaics, which are not on my agenda at the moment.

* APP: about £10 cheaper, provides additional image-processing capability, can be used unrestricted on any compatible machine I own, provides a full (saveable) version for 30 days free.
* Registar: about £10 more expensive, only does one thing, is restricted to a specific machine with the need for additional access codes (which may be refused) if I change machines, and the free trial won't let me save anything until I've bought the full program.

So, unless I am missing something, it would seem that my best course of action is:
(1) Wait for clear skies (this may take some time!)
(2) Acquire my 7 sets of data for my target (LRGB+3*NB)
(3) Get trial version of APP and process the result within my 30-day trial period
(4) If it copes with that, buy APP; if not, try Registar.

Thanks.

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Hi Peter

The owner's licence allows "access to download the latest APP version with updates and bug fixes", although it does say "in case of a big upgrade of Astro Pixel Processor in the future, that introduces new features or structurally enhances the user interface, you could be asked an upgrade fee if you want to use the upgraded version", but I would still be able to continue using the version I was running.

The owner licence is 2.5x the rental licence, so in practice, I would have paid more from day 731 than it costs to buy (€180 vs €150). Subject to how many of these "upgrade fee"s are likely in a 2/3-year period (anyone know how many there have been in the last three years?), I'm not sure the rental licence would be a good fit for me.

Thanks.

 

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I purchased an Owner License at the time APP was first released in 2017. There have been many updated versions, but I have never had to pay an upgrade fee.

About my only criticism of APP is that it is constantly being worked on and improved with better implementations of its functionality and new features added quite regularly. This is wonderful, but it also means that I want to reprocess everything with each new release as it creates a better result!!!

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3 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

So, unless I am missing something, it would seem that my best course of action is:
(1) Wait for clear skies (this may take some time!)
(2) Acquire my 7 sets of data for my target (LRGB+3*NB)
(3) Get trial version of APP and process the result within my 30-day trial period
(4) If it copes with that, buy APP; if not, try Registar.

Sounds like a very wise plan to me... if you have any questions about using APP, don’t hesitate to ask. There are various tutorials on the APP website which are very helpful. 

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I am sure that for you APP seems to be the best choice, I haven't tried it but heard good things about it, but already had Registar long before APP was available.

Just wanted to correct one statement though:

Quote

* Registar: about £10 more expensive, only does one thing, is restricted to a specific machine with the need for additional access codes (which may be refused) if I change machines,

Yes it does only do one thing, but does it well.  But if you need to put it on another machine you can get extra licence codes, I have it on about 3 laptops and a desktop currently, where I have two laptops for a dual rig, one laptop which I am now retiring, and my Desktop where I do all my main processing.   I have never had a problem to get an extra licence from Auriga imaging, and they have always been most helpful. 

Examples:

I was in France at Olly's place a few years ago and getting bags of data when I suddenly realised I did not have Registar on my laptop.  Eeeek, can't manage without it.  E mailed Auriga imaging from France and they E mailed me back within a few hours with a new installation code.

I got a 64bit laptop and Registrar would just not install on it.  Contacted them and they gave me absolutely excellent customer support and talked me through changing something in the registry (I think it was),  something I would not have a clue about and something I would not have dared to do on my own.  It was also a learning curve for them too they said in case they encountered some-one with a similar problem. 

I can't fault them. 

Anyway, if APP is the one you have chosen, I hope it works out for you.

Carole 

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Thanks for that, Carole.

Clearly you have had a good example peri enceladus with them and I have NO reason to believe that is also true of every other user.

However, the licence agreement states that additional keys may be provided, but they "reserve the right to deny requests for additional licence keys". 

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Could well be.

20+ years ago I knew someone who wrote computer games. I asked him about software protection and his reply surprised me. "Never bother. It costs a lot and any protection you put on the disks is merely an invitation to every hacker out there to find and publish ways of circumventing it. Anyway, 90% of my sales are to people who have tried a pirated copy. Why would I want to stop that?"

OK, things have moved on a bit from posting 3.5" floppies, but I guess the principle is still the same. Similar to the way APT works.

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here is a 9 pane job APP did with no problem (except the waiting time) that Registar failed on.

It is not imune to user errors though as yesterday it would not calibrate the "L" subs as some idiot used some 1x1 binned flats rather than 2x2.

 

The secret of mosaics is a decent overlap.

 

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