I did it! Woohoo! Now Registax advice please!

[Astrosurf]

Hi all. I've just managed my first attempt at astrophotography, with pics of the Moon, with a simple webcam. It's very rough but I feel as if I've leaped a huge hurdle and I'm ecstatic!:hello2:

I've downloaded Registax and it seems rather complicated. I'll be able to work through it but can anyone give me pointers on how to get started and any tips?

Alexxx

[Demonperformer]

OK, I am fairly new and get half-way reasonable results so hope these very basic guidelines help [apologies if I am aiming this too simple]

Presume you are using registax 5 - other versions may be different

top LH corner - select to load the avi file

Set size for alignbox - I tend to use 128, or 64 if image is small or lots of movement from frame to frame.

Press Align - once complete the bottom of the screen will tell you how many frames have been selected

Press Limit - and then press 'optimise and stack'

When it has finished, it will take you through to the 'wavelet' page. The first thing I tend to do is adjust the brightness/contrast - bottom RH corner - I usually find bringing the top slider in line witht he lower one works reasonably well. I then tend to play with the sliders on the left - don't really know what they do, but by increasing the first three you can improve the image quality. This is an area where one can experiment with all sorts of options without really knowing what they do, just try something, if it improves keep it, if it doesn't reverse it.

When you are satisfied press the DO ALL button - this applies all your changes to the entire image rather than just the middle bit.

On the Final tab, you can adjust the colour settings - again it tends to be 'play and try' for me - others may have a more scientific approach.

When happy, press SAVE IMAGE - bottom LH corner.

One final tip - always keep the original AVI - you never know when you will want to have another go at getting a better result.

Hope this isn't insultingly simplistic and that it helps.

OK just re-read your original post:

Moon pics so:

*Alignbox size I use 128 and try to centre it on a small crater somewhere near the middle of the screen, unless the avi drifts a lot, in which case find a small crater near the edge that has most room to drift

*Untick the 'colour' box at the top of the screen - if you get a message asking if you want it in colour, say no

*Wavelet sliders: 1 set to about 70, 2 set to about 50 and 3 set to about 30 produces the sharp images that I like, but that is a subjective opinion and you may think the results produced are awful.

*You won't need to worry about the colour settings on the Final tab

Best of luck

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sorry to jump in like this but here's as good a place as any to ask this.

If i have a single image of say Orion that i really like can i duplicate the image many times and then stack them all in Registax?. Will there be much improvement or am i just adding the same data ontop of each other so i will only still see the original image?

Much obliged.

[jgs001]

Congrats on the capture Alex, look forward to the results. The only thing I would suggest, is to set to multi point alignment. This will bring up a new box with 2 tabs. Click the second tab, and click estimate align points, then proceed from there with clicking align.

Paul, I really don't know. I've not tried it, but you don't want to use registax for deep sky images, you want Deep Sky Stacker.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Good thinking John. I do have a nice Orion with M42 showing, so i am hoping to bring that out more.

Thanks.

[Saturnalia]

This may be useful:

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/44740-primer-registax-tutorials-old-new.html

[Helen]

Well done Alex!

Helen

[Cornelius Varley]

Sorry to jump in like this but here's as good a place as any to ask this.

If i have a single image of say Orion that i really like can i duplicate the image many times and then stack them all in Registax?. Will there be much improvement or am i just adding the same data ontop of each other so i will only still see the original image?

Much obliged.

Stacking the same image will not work, you are just adding the same data so not improving on the original image. Registax works by adding data from large number of different images so improving the signal to noise ratio. Also registax is more suited to lunar and planetary imaging not DSOs.

Peter

[Astrosurf]

Thanks guys, you're brilliant! I don't expect very good results this first time.

I also took pics of Mars but it was so bright it was burnt out so I put on the Moon cover, or whatever you call it , to make it less bright. What should I have done??

[jgs001]

I wouldn't worry about the results Alex, it's all good practice. I'm sure it'll be good. As for Mars being burnt out, the best bet is to reduce the gain on the camera, you want the gain to be as low as possible.

[brianb]

As for Mars being burnt out, the best bet is to reduce the gain on the camera, you want the gain to be as low as possible.

Reduce the exposure (increase the frame rate on some cameras). Increasing gain increases noise, but you don't want the exposure to be longer than about 1/15 or 1/30 sec unless your seeing is unusually steady; some of us do work with the gain turned pretty high when shooting at high focal ratios (for maximum resolution) but then we shoot thousands of frames!

If you're shooting with auto exposure, disable it - auto exposure simply doesn't cope with small dots in a field of black. Reduce the exposure till you can see the dot beginning to darken, then fine tune the focus - you should be able to see some surface details on the monitor screen.

[Astrosurf]

Reduce the exposure (increase the frame rate on some cameras). Increasing gain increases noise, but you don't want the exposure to be longer than about 1/15 or 1/30 sec unless your seeing is unusually steady; some of us do work with the gain turned pretty high when shooting at high focal ratios (for maximum resolution) but then we shoot thousands of frames!

If you're shooting with auto exposure, disable it - auto exposure simply doesn't cope with small dots in a field of black. Reduce the exposure till you can see the dot beginning to darken, then fine tune the focus - you should be able to see some surface details on the monitor screen.

The webcam I have (borrowed!) doesn't appear to have these options. It's very basic!

[Astrosurf]

I wouldn't worry about the results Alex, it's all good practice. I'm sure it'll be good. As for Mars being burnt out, the best bet is to reduce the gain on the camera, you want the gain to be as low as possible.

I can't see 'gain' in the webcam's sw. It's very basic! What else could it be called?

[Astrosurf]

This may be useful:

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/44740-primer-registax-tutorials-old-new.html

Many thanks!

[jgs001]

What webcam is it you're using Alex ?

[Astrosurf]

What type of file should I save the images as? I was told png is good.

[jgs001]

I normally save as bmp if making a mosaic (iMerge takes bmp's directly), or tiff if not, for editing later.

[Astrosurf]

I normally save as bmp if making a mosaic (iMerge takes bmp's directly), or tiff if not, for editing later.

Many thanks!