Where to Stack.

[Figgis]

Hello All.

                  I'm looking for options for Image Processing, who uses what and why do you like it?

Edited September 28, 2023 by Figgis
ommited word

[tooth_dr]

Hi

Where is the poll??!

[Figgis]

No-one?

 

[StevieDvd]

I use Siril to stack and use scripts to make it easy.  I also have Pixinsight for the rest of my processing but I am by no means an expert.

Siril is free, Pixinsight and it's add ons can be an expensive one-off purchase but worth it in my opinion.

[WolfieGlos]

I use Siril or ASTAP, both are free and do a great job.

Siril has always done a great job, but I find it loses colours in broadband targets so I use ASTAP for those instead. Not tested on the latest release yet.

Edited September 29, 2023 by WolfieGlos

[happy-kat]

Star trails starstax or sequator

DSO deep sky stacker or siril

Processing star tools, GIMP, affinity photo

[PhilB61]

Siril for pre-processing and stacking, I also prefer to do this manually rather than with the scripts. Very quick and lots of control at each stage.

More recently almost exclusively use Siril for post processing, with the latest version having Starnett++ integration and powerful GHS functions. Prior to this I used Startools and GIMP for post processing. Also sometimes use Neat Image as a very final stage of noise reduction after all other processing is complete (I only have the free version which is limited to jpegs, hence final stage only) usually have to tone down the default settings otherwise it can make images look very "plastic"

 

[cjdawson]

It depends on what I'm imaging.    But for this I'll assume we're talking Deep Sky.

For this, I tend to use Astro Pixel Processor for stacking, then switch to photoshop for post processing, though I've just got PixInsight and intend working that in before photoshop.    Going to be interesting to see how that turns out.

As for why, to begin with - I've had better luck with stacking using APP than I did with deep sky stacker (though that did work)   I just prefer the output from APP.

As for photoshop, I already had it and found that it worked for my image processing.   Though, I'm trying to push myself as far as possible, so have bought PixInsight as it I've seen the results lots of people get from that, so figure that it's worth exploring.