What software to use to process DSO

[acharris77]

Hi all, I had my modified 840k back from Andy at Astronomiser, and I am happy but I was wondering what software do you use to process the images of DSO after they are taken, as I think looking at a guide I found by Andy that the DSO is saved as a AVI file.

I was wondering then what software to use, as for planets I use registax and was wondering if it is the same process, and also if I take say 15 avi's at 15 secs a time, how do I manage to process all the avi's to build up the finalised image.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as just when I got a basic understanding of how to do planetary and lunar, I go and get a camera modified to take DSO, which I got some understanding but not the processing bit. Thanks again.

[johnh]

Hello Anthony, my LX toucam was my first mono CCD and I used Registax which allows calibration. I also used AviRaw which allows you to deselect egg shaped stars contained in your avi stream.

AviRaw 1.4 :: AstroTips.com - Astronomy Software and Amateur Observation Resources :: Astronomy Freeware, Shareware and Commercial. News, Downloads, Reviews, Photos, Classifieds, Forums.

You will probably need several hundred if imaging a galaxy and I stack all of them with Registax once I have removed the egg stars, Regx lets you stretch and sharpen, contrast+gamma for basic processing. Also take a dark avi usually 10 individual for hot pixel removal. Stack your darks without alignment with Regx and save as bmp dark. Using Noel's Actions with PS Elements will give very nice 8bit processing to bring the best out of your final stack Actions also has a nice frame to complete.

If you have several stacked results from several avi's from different nights be sure to match the rotation of the CCD - then avg stack those with 2 point align to get the final super stack. Initial histogram stretch can be done in Regx so as to see the object without saturating then into Actions.

JohnH.