The Astro & AP Software Primer -- Wading Through The Disarray Of Titles
Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 11:21 pm
Before we begin, this material was developed by me for a class I have taught a number of times. This is only a discussion on AP software titles. I do not provide any techniques for use or recommendations as to which title may be better than another. Also, all freeware is listed first and the order in which the titles appear is arbitrary. Additionally, this primer does not include smartphone/tablet specific software -- that is for another post currently under development.
This post is for astrophotography (AP ) beginners and as such will only cover DSLR /CMOS deep sky object imaging and DSLR /webcam planetary/lunar imaging software, keeping in mind that there is a huge overlap, in software features, between camera type specific approaches.
In this post, I will try to break this endeavor down by category and by using flow charts so you get a feel of the flow for using different pieces of software
Planetarium programs, planners, and atlases let you find out what is up in the sky and help you plan your observing andAP session. Many of these titles interact with your image acquisition software and your telescope mount.
With camera control software, you can use your computer to control all of the functions and settings of your camera
With webcam control software, you can use your computer to control all of the functions and settings of your guiding/planetary imaging webcam
Focusing the camera can be done by manual focusing and visual inspection of the Live-view image on the computer screen or the camera’s LCD; or using the acquisition software's automated process if you are equipped for that
This is where we have to break into two camps: deep sky object images and planetary/lunar images. We’ll start with deep sky object images using aDSLR .
This is where we use the camera control programs because long exposure deep-skyAP is best achieved by shooting many shorter duration exposures. Faint deep-sky objects may require several hours’ worth of 3-10 minute exposures that are later stacked (combined) during image processing. The following programs automate this potentially hours long (even all night) image acquisition process. To repeat:
Advanced Astro Imaging requires the "calibration, aligning and stacking" of all the .raw images. Your calibration frames (darks, flats, bias) and your object image frames (what we call “lights”) are “stacked” (combined) into a single “master” image. In other words, “Stacking" means combining and aligning many individual short exposures; your “light” frames and your calibration frames into a single “master” image. These processes (calibration, aligning and stacking) used to be a done separately (and still can be if you want) but it’s not needed anymore as dedicated astro image stacking programs will do all these steps in route to producing that “master” single image.
Planetary/LunarAP is best achieved by shooting thousands of video frames this can be done with either a dedicated webcam or the video feature of your DSLR . The reason we use video files for this type of imaging is to take advantage of a phenomenon known as “lucky” imaging. Lucky imaging takes advantage of the fact that even a moving atmosphere has brief periods where the seeing is exceptionally calm. So if you take enough video frames, being captured at a reasonably high frame rate (>30 frames/second), then you will capture frames that occur during that brief lucky seeing period. This video file is later stacked (combined) during image processing into a single master image. The following programs automate this fast moving image acquisition process. To repeat:
Image stacking for Planetary/Lunar Images is a multi-step process for your video file. Let’s say your video file has 1,000 frames in it. We would like to review each frame and grade it based on how clear the image is. Fortunately, we don’t have to do this manually. The two main image stacking titles will automatically do this for you. Obviously, it will take your computer some time to work its way through all those frames. To make this lengthy process easier we use an additional title that pre-processes all those frames so a lot of the work is already done before we put it in the stacking software.
Once your images are calibrated, aligned and stacked giving you a Master Image, you will want to “stretch” the histogram to bring out faint detail. Then you can correct for things such as color balance, and increase the contrast and saturation to make faint details more pleasing artistically. You will probably also want to apply some type of noise reduction and sharpness, and you may want to apply even more sophisticated enhancement techniques.
Now that your stacking software has given you your single master image, it is time to apply some artistic enhancements (contrast, saturation, denoise, sharpen, etc). The following software titles apply to both types of images with a few exceptions.
By automatically following a star (tracking) and then making small corrections in right ascension and declination (guiding), higher tracking accuracy is obtained. This allows for long-exposure deep-skyAP .
Autoguiding involves using a separateCCD or Webcam attached to either a second smaller telescope or an off-axis guider connected to the focuser of your imaging scope. We do this to monitor a star's position within the guide camera’s field of view and the guiding software sends corrections to the telescope's mount to “guide” or hold that star motionless in that field of view. This higher accuracy compensates for inaccuracies in the mount's tracking abilities.
These programs perform useful additional functions like allowing you to plate solve, open FITS format files, perform noise reduction, and create thumbnails for indexing and archiving, etc.
These filters and actions work inside of Photoshop and perform specialty functions for astronomy, such as gradient and noise reduction
The type of software and the order in which you use it is usually determined by what type of object you are imaging.
These are two major object categories - Deep Sky objects and Solar System objects. These two different categories highly influence the procedures you use from planning all the way to looking at YOUR pretty picture on the computer screen.
This presentation on software doesn’t even address the hundreds of websites that can aid in your efforts to image the night sky. All of the areas that we used in this post to categorize the software can also be used to categorize the websites that provide many similar functions. Additionally, the web has hundreds of tutorials for using just about every title mentioned. Final thoughts:CCD (and now the newest CMOS ) camera, there are only a few extra titles that may interest you. By then you’ll already know what they are.
I hope this post has helped you gain a better understanding of not only the plethora ofAP related software titles, clearing up the disarray and confusion this growing number of titles has caused, and their place in "flow" of creating an astro image.
Let's make this a living document because the titles are somewhat "perishable", so additions, subtractions, and suggestions are welcome.
Happy imaging,
JT
PS , I have now entered attachment hell!
This post is for astrophotography (
- •
AP is a procedurally complex and detail oriented endeavor
•AP software can be amazingly complex and has a very steep learning curve- This is one of the reasons why instruction vs. personal discovery is so important – there are just not enough hours in the day/week/year/your life to learn more than a handful of these titles
- • Fortunately for us, a lot of them are FREE!!
• Fortunately for us, I will not be covering them all!
This Post’s Approach
In this post, I will try to break this endeavor down by category and by using flow charts so you get a feel of the flow for using different pieces of software
- • You will notice that there are quite a few multi-purpose titles and many with identical/overlapping features
• The first section will show the categories and software that are at your disposal to plan, acquire, and process an image
• The second part will be object specific (DSO vs. Planetary) and how the procedural flow will determine which software titles are used for that particular object
Astro Imaging Software Categories Overview
- • Planetarium Programs, Atlases, and Planners
• Camera Control –DSLR and planetary imaging webcam control for this post
• Software Assisted Focusing
• Image Acquisition Automation
• Image Calibration, Aligning and Stacking
• Image Correction and Enhancement (Post-Processing)
• Autoguiding Software
• Photo Utilities
• Photoshop Filters and Actions
Planetarium Programs, Atlases, and Planners
Planetarium programs, planners, and atlases let you find out what is up in the sky and help you plan your observing and
- • Stellarium {$Free}
• Cartes du Ciel {$Free}
• SkyTechX {$Free}
• Virtual Moon Atlas {$Free}
• C2A (Computer Aided Astronomy) {$Free}
• AstroPlanner – Aids in planning, visualization, and logging
• SkyTools 3 – Mostly for visual use but definitely aids in planning
• SkyMap Pro
• The SkyX
• Starry Night Pro 6/7/8
Camera (DSLR ) Control
With camera control software, you can use your computer to control all of the functions and settings of your camera
- • N.I.N.A. (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy) {$Free} – Camera and equipment control (color filters, auto-focusers, and mounts), Image acquisition
•APT (Astro Photography Tool) - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, and mount control.
• BackyardEOS & Backyard Nikon - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, drift alignment assist
• Sequence Generator Pro – controls equipment - cameras, color filters, auto-focusers and mounts
• Nebulosity 3/4 - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
• Images Plus Camera Control -DSLR control, focusing, image acquisition automation
• Maxim DL -DSLR andCCD control and image processing
WebCam Control
With webcam control software, you can use your computer to control all of the functions and settings of your guiding/planetary imaging webcam
- • AmCap - {$Free}
• SharpCap - {$Free}
• Fire Capture - {$Free}
• Astro Snap - {$Free}
• K3CCDTools - {$Free} version – Somewhat dated
Assisted Focusing Software
Focusing the camera can be done by manual focusing and visual inspection of the Live-view image on the computer screen or the camera’s LCD; or using the acquisition software's automated process if you are equipped for that
- • Bahtinov Grabber - {$Free}
• Focus Max {$Free} - Focusing software that automates focusing if you have a motorized focuser that works with Maxim DL
• N.I.N.A. (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy) {$Free} – Image acquisition, controls equipment - cameras, color filters, auto-focusers, and mounts
•APT (Astro Photography Tool)
• BackyardEOS/Nikon
• Sequence Generator Pro
• Nebulosity
• Images Plus Camera Control
• AstroArt
• MaximDSLR
Image Acquisition Automation
This is where we have to break into two camps: deep sky object images and planetary/lunar images. We’ll start with deep sky object images using a
Deep Sky Image Acquisition Automation Using a DSLR
This is where we use the camera control programs because long exposure deep-sky
- •
DSLR Shutter {$Free} - image acquisition automation
• N.I.N.A. (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy) {$Free} – Image acquisition and plate solve
•APT (Astro Photography Tool) - Image acquisition and plate solve
• BackyardEOS
• Sequence Generator Pro - Image acquisition and plate solve
• Nebulosity
• Images Plus Camera Control
• AstroArt
• MaximDSLR
Image Stacking For DSLR
Advanced Astro Imaging requires the "calibration, aligning and stacking" of all the .raw images. Your calibration frames (darks, flats, bias) and your object image frames (what we call “lights”) are “stacked” (combined) into a single “master” image. In other words, “Stacking" means combining and aligning many individual short exposures; your “light” frames and your calibration frames into a single “master” image. These processes (calibration, aligning and stacking) used to be a done separately (and still can be if you want) but it’s not needed anymore as dedicated astro image stacking programs will do all these steps in route to producing that “master” single image.
Image Stacking Software for DSLR Deep Sky Objects
- • Deepsky Stacker (
DSS ) {$Free} - Image calibration, alignment, and stacking
• IRIS {$Free} -DSLR control, image acquisition automation
• Regim {$Free} - Image calibration, alignment, and stacking
• PixInsight – Advanced and very powerful image calibration, alignment, stacking, and post-processing
• Nebulosity - Image calibration, alignment, and stacking
•AIP (Astronomical Image Processing - Image calibration, correction, enhancement
• Images Plus – Image processing
• AstroArt - Image calibration, alignment, stacking
• Maxim DL - Image calibration, alignment, and stacking
Planetary/Lunar Image Acquisition Using a Webcam
Planetary/Lunar
- • AmCap - {$Free}
• SharpCap - {$Free}
• Fire Capture - {$Free}
• Astro Snap - {$Free}
• K3CCDTools - {$Free} version
Image Stacking For Planetary/Lunar Images
Image stacking for Planetary/Lunar Images is a multi-step process for your video file. Let’s say your video file has 1,000 frames in it. We would like to review each frame and grade it based on how clear the image is. Fortunately, we don’t have to do this manually. The two main image stacking titles will automatically do this for you. Obviously, it will take your computer some time to work its way through all those frames. To make this lengthy process easier we use an additional title that pre-processes all those frames so a lot of the work is already done before we put it in the stacking software.
- • PIPP (Planetary Image Pre-Processing) {$Free} -- Crops each frame, selects only the best quality frames (you decide how many) to speed up the stacking software
• AutoStakkert! 2 or 3 - {$Free} -- for stacking planetary images
• RegiStax 6 {$Free} - for stacking planetary images
Deep Sky Object Image Correction and Enhancement (Post-Processing)
Once your images are calibrated, aligned and stacked giving you a Master Image, you will want to “stretch” the histogram to bring out faint detail. Then you can correct for things such as color balance, and increase the contrast and saturation to make faint details more pleasing artistically. You will probably also want to apply some type of noise reduction and sharpness, and you may want to apply even more sophisticated enhancement techniques.
Planetary/Lunar Image Correction and Enhancement (Post-Processing)
Now that your stacking software has given you your single master image, it is time to apply some artistic enhancements (contrast, saturation, denoise, sharpen, etc). The following software titles apply to both types of images with a few exceptions.
This software is where the “magic” happens!
- • IRIS {$Free}
• GIMPshop {$Free}
• Photoshop
• Photoshop Elements
• PixInsight
•AIP (Astronomical Image Processing)
• Nebulosity
• Images Plus
• AstroArt
•StarTools - post-processing for noise reduction, fine detail enhancement, and color calibration
• MaximDSLR
• Registax 6 {$Free} – used to enhance your planetary images with its “wavelets” function
Autoguiding Software
By automatically following a star (tracking) and then making small corrections in right ascension and declination (guiding), higher tracking accuracy is obtained. This allows for long-exposure deep-sky
Autoguiding involves using a separate
- • GuideDog {$Free}
• PHD 2 {$Free}
• Metaguide {$Free}
• Guidemaster {$Free}
• AstroArt
• MaximDSLR
Imaging Utilities
These programs perform useful additional functions like allowing you to plate solve, open FITS format files, perform noise reduction, and create thumbnails for indexing and archiving, etc.
- • AstroTortilla {$FREE} – Plate solving freeware
• Platesolve 2 {$FREE} – Plate solver
• All Sky Plate Solver {$FREE} – Another plate solver
• Dark Library {$Free} - Sort Dark frames by EXIF temperature data
• EXIF Reader {$Free} - Reads EXIF data, also a thumbnail and image viewer
• FITS Liberator {$Free} - FITS file format image handling software
• Noiseware Community Edition {$Free} - Noise Reduction software
• Background Subtraction Toolkit {$Free} - Remove gradients and vignetting
• IrfanView {$Free} – Very powerful image viewer and manipulator
• Picassa {$Free} - Thumbnail and Image Viewer and database
• StarTrails - {$Free} - Stack individual frames to create a star-trail image – way cool!
Photoshop Filters and Actions
These filters and actions work inside of Photoshop and perform specialty functions for astronomy, such as gradient and noise reduction
- • Astronomy Tools - Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions for various
AP techniques
• Annie's Astro Actions - Astrophotography specific Photoshop actions
• Noise Ninja - Noise Reduction filter
• GradientXTerminator - Removes vignetting and gradients
• HLVG – Hasta La Vista Green – Removes the “green” tint a lot of images acquired during processing
Object Specific Processing Flow
The type of software and the order in which you use it is usually determined by what type of object you are imaging.
These are two major object categories - Deep Sky objects and Solar System objects. These two different categories highly influence the procedures you use from planning all the way to looking at YOUR pretty picture on the computer screen.
Deep Sky Object Flow
Solar System Object Flow
Websites
This presentation on software doesn’t even address the hundreds of websites that can aid in your efforts to image the night sky. All of the areas that we used in this post to categorize the software can also be used to categorize the websites that provide many similar functions. Additionally, the web has hundreds of tutorials for using just about every title mentioned. Final thoughts:
- • Remember – All software has a user interface that you may or may not like
- Experiment, see what fits your needs, abilities, and preferences
- Keeping in mind there are only so many hours in the day to learn new software
I hope this post has helped you gain a better understanding of not only the plethora of
Let's make this a living document because the titles are somewhat "perishable", so additions, subtractions, and suggestions are welcome.
Happy imaging,
JT