What astronomy / astrophotography software do you use? Anything goes · Steven Fanutti · ... · 26 · 964 · 24

Claudio Tenreiro:

Adel Kildeev:
tried PI, but my laptop was too old for this advanced software

I have PI license however, the last version will not run on my computer anymore...so, either I move into SIRIL or I must buy a new computer...more likely the first option .

Adel Kildeev (Starminer68)

Claudio Tenreiro:

Adel Kildeev:
tried PI, but my laptop was too old for this advanced software

I have PI license however, the last version will not run on my computer anymore...so, either I move into SIRIL or I must buy a new computer...more likely the first option .

***Sorry to hear  I tried Siril for stacking and got weird results -thousands of damaged pixels, probably, I was wrong and mix something up or it was a problem with bad flats or darks… I should try again with new lights, darks and flats. DSS is not bad but has no brain at all, refuse to callibrate the same camera and scope images, very primitive and outdated software.

Mars

Adel Kildeev:
Interesting and usefull information…. Or to use cooled mono camera with narrowband filters, having good master darks and flats… and great results without complicated manipulations with background settings…. Just an idea 🥸

Steven Fanutti:
Here are some examples that I did purely in GIMP using manual stacking and editing. I took the original photos about a decade ago using a telephoto zoom lens on a Vixen Polarie. I was attempting to capture the Veil Nebula, but only captured a trace of it. I didn't use any special filters at the time and I was about a year into astrophotography.

Here's a single unprocessed image. It's not much to look at:


Here's the result after stacking and some basic editing:


And here's the final edit that I just completed, with "new" noise reduction techniques that I learned. I didn't take any flat or dark images at the time and the vignetting is quite obvious:


Here's the same area reprocessed, taken with a larger telephoto lens on a fixed mount. I found that untracked astrophotography greatly reduced vignetting because the sky glow gets distributed more evenly across the image. I also learned that although short exposures don't really bring out faint deep sky objects, they are excellent for bringing out star colours:


Here's a technique that I learned in GIMP for noise reduction. Make use of the Gaussian blur feature. Here's generally how to do it:

(1) If your image has layers, flatten the image. This will be your Background layer.
(2) Duplicate the Background layer and apply a modest blur (Size X, Size Y ~0.75). Call this layer "Star Blur" and place it above the Background layer. Set the opacity to 100%.
(3) Duplicate the Background layer again and set it as the top layer. This time, apply a very strong blur (Size X, Size Y ~255). Call this layer "Sky Glow Blur) and set the opacity to 50%.
(4) Flatten the image and apply your brightness, contrast, etc. adjustments.

Also save every version as a new file so that if you make a mistake, you can go back without necessarily having to start over. I export my files in JPG, PNG, TIF and PSD formats in addition to saving the XCF files. That way, if I decide to switch software, I can switch over easily.

I applied this exact technique to an old image of Dubhe where I was privileged to have my heavy telephoto lens piggyback mounted on a tracked telescope. This was also done purely in GIMP, ISO 3200, 10 x 30s exposures:



So that's where my photo processing is at present. Although manually stacking can be tedious and time consuming, it gives you full control over processing. I wanted a processing method that I could always rely on in case automatic stacking fails.

@Steven Fanutti