Registar - worth it?

[iapa]

Is registar worth the $175 cost of purchase? 

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Personally, no....

[ollypenrice]

Absolutely, yes, but I speak personally. I use it all the time, on all projects, but sometimes its role is fairly minor. Sometimes it's critical. What do I do with it?

- align colour channels when, exceptionally, my regular software (AstroArt) fails to get it perfect.

- align L to RGB. All sorts of software will do this but I process RGB first, look at the data and edge crop as necessary in search of a perfect crop to take into DBE. The first thing I then do with my L layer is align and crop it to fit the RGB in Registar, after which I know it will be a perfect fit over the processed RGB.

- align, resize and crop/pad existing data to fit new data on a target. Many of my best images are composites of data taken years apart with different setups. Registar deals with this in a couple of clicks.

- align, crop and pad data from our dual rig so that these data act as though they had come from the same instrument.

- construct mosaics, including mega-mosaics like my collaborations with Tom O'Donoghue on Orion and Yves Van den Broek on Cygnus-Cepheus.

- make small crops during a processing job knowing that I can go back to earlier data and use Registar to make it fit the later crop in five seconds. Very relaxing.

- combine data an wildly different resolutions (camera lens with 2.5 metre focal length) to consider new projects.

And more but my wife is calling me!

Olly

[old_eyes]

I have watched Olly work his magic with Registar and can attest to his mastery. Registar is on my ‘to be purchased’ list, once I am beyond the processing basics.