CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Softwares used for my CCD images

Hi all,

In the CCD imaging several parameters are important to have excellent results : High end mount, good optics, very good CCD camera, a nice observation site (even with a bit light pollution) and............. softwares.

My message will be about the softwares.

If you only use one software to take, to combine and to process, you will be limited. Not because your software is bad but because a few parts of that software will not be as good as another software or a few parts will not be included.
Sometimes, I've seen ,for an object, one filter in a software was better that the same in another software.

I use several techniques and several softwares to process my CCD pictures.
In first, the most important thing for a CCD image is the total time of exposure. If you check my pictures : 03h05min., 14h25min., 10h15min..........

With a lot of exposure time you could process your pictures more easily.

The softwares I use are :

-MaxIm DL CCD 3.xx
-CCDSoft v5.xx
-SBIG CCDOPS 5.xx
-PRISM 5
-SBIG CCDSharp
-Ray Gralak Sigma Beta 11 Soft
-Russell Croman Sigma combine Soft
-Ron Wodaski Deebloomer & Gradients Removal plug-in
-PhotoShop

Each time for each image, I use ALL these softwares.

I use MaxIm DL CCD to take all my selfguiding pictures and my dark frames with my ST-10XME/CFW-8A and also with my SBIG AO-7 Adaptive Optics.

I use PRISM 5 to take my flat-field frames. PRISM calculates, automatically, for each image, the correct exposure time and It saves them on your hard disk.

I use the Ray Gralak Sigma Beta 11 soft to combine my Dark frames, my Flat-field frames, my Bias frames.
In the field, I take 5 or 6 dark frames at the end of the night with the same exposure time and at the same temperature. I take 12 flat-field images on a white screen with a soft uniform white light.
The Ray Gralak Sigma software allows to remove the hot pixels, the cosmic rays that hit the CCD chip for the dark frames. It allows too to have a smooth final flat-field frame and to improve the noise in the final dark frame.

After that, I use MaxIm DL CCD, for my night images, to substract the dark and the flat-field.

When my night images are processed, I use the Russell Croman Sigma plug-in to combine them. The Sigma allows to avoid the artifacts in your final light image. The Sigma is more efficient that the median. The Sigma keeps all the S/N and removes the artifacts. The median does not keep all the S/N but removes the artifacts. Sometimes, the PRISM 5 Sigma combine mode gives a better result, that depends of the object, S/N......etc.
For example, the Sigma mode in Prism 5 has given a better result on my NGC-891 galaxy but on my NGC-6992 & 6888 the Russell Croman Sigma plug-in was better.

For my RGB images, I use MaxIm DL CCD or CCDSoft. In this case too, an object can give a better result with MaxIm DL CCD or with CCDSoft 5. Several tests are necessary for that.
Of course, to have my R image, my G image, my B image, I use a Sigma software (PRISM 5 , Ray Gralak or Russ croman) to have the final image for each filter.

Before to combine all the parts of my image, I use several filters of several softwares (PRISM 5, CCDOPS, MaxIm DL CCD..) to improve the detail in my luminance picture.

I combine my Luminance image with my RGB image in PhotoShop thanks to the Rob Gendler's method. To me, MaxIm DL CCD and CCDSoft don't give a Great result when you combine the LRGB image.

This method is bit long but It give me an outstanding result.

Regards,

Florent

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