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Jaxdialation
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 1759
Loc: St. Augustine, FL
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I'd put CCDStack at #1 since you can get workable RGB images out of it sometimes. So that is where I'd start. Other than that, I'm with you.
Quote:
In order:
1.) Photoshop
2.) CCDStack
3.) MaxIm (might be higher if you needed acquisition software)
You won't get much from AIP4win...just too dated and clunky.
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John
Someone please make sure that when I die, my wife doesn't sell my astro gear for what I told her I paid for it. SST/Tak/RCOS/SBIG/CCDWare
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Jaxdialation
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 1759
Loc: St. Augustine, FL
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I'd get Wodaski's book over AIP4WIN any day. That is where I'd start before any software.
Quote:
Thanks for all the input!!!
I was leaning toward the aip4win because of the book mainly.
It looked as though it would answer any questions I might have about imaging.
I know absolutely nothing about imaging and didn't want to buy something that I would outgrow after a few months. I would definately use the gimp and iris and such, but I need to learn what I need to do to the images before I can research how to do it.
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John
Someone please make sure that when I die, my wife doesn't sell my astro gear for what I told her I paid for it. SST/Tak/RCOS/SBIG/CCDWare
New Zhumell Owner? Read this: New Zhumell Owner Upgrade Mega Thread
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sang33ta
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/08/08
Posts: 539
Loc: UK
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Before paying for imaging software I urge anyone to try GIMP first because it would be rude to ignore a free gift horse without even looking it in the mouth first http://gimp.org/downloads/ 
When they say 8 bit these days it doesn't mean 256 colours it refers to 8 bits per channel Red + Blue + Green + Alpha = 32bits total or 16.7 milion colours + an alpha channel. It's enough for anyones eyes unless you are working in monochrome.
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Hioptic 152mm f12.5 Maksutov
Celestron Advanced CG5-GT Mount (Mr Noisy!)
Meade 4000 Super Plossl Set
Casio QV-2900UX
Got fed up of waiting for Meade ETX-150 so put this together for £500/$1000
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Jared
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/11/05
Posts: 1852
Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S.
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Quote:
When they say 8 bit these days it doesn't mean 256 colours it refers to 8 bits per channel Red + Blue + Green + Alpha = 32bits total or 16.7 milion colours + an alpha channel. It's enough for anyones eyes unless you are working in monochrome.
I can't say I agree with you when you are discussing deep sky images in particular. The typical exposure is so skewed to the lower end that (unless you have performed a stretch before you bring it into Photoshop) pulling shadow detail out of an 8-bit/channel image quickly leads to posterization.
Personally, I would definitely want software that at least allows curves and levels adjustments in 16-bit/channel mode. In the Photoshop family, that means version 7 or later. Even better would be Photoshop CS or later so that you can do virtually everything in 16-bit mode. I'm not sure whether Paintshop Pro or Gimp offer fully featured 16-bit modes yet, but I would consider that critical in my post processing software.
For terrestrial photography where much less aggressive curves are the norm, I believe you are correct that 8-bits per channel is usually adequate.
Assuming one already has software for image acquisition, my choices would be:
- CCD Stack
- Photoshop CS or later
If one doesn't have acquisition software, my choices would be:
- Maxim DL
- Photoshop CS or later
If on a budget and you already have acquisition software, my choices would be:
- Nebulosity
- Gimp or Paint Shop Pro
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- Jared Willson
- Fluorostar FLT-110 w/ TEC optics
- Vixen VC200L
- Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO
- Stellarvue SV80S
- Takahashi Teegul SP Mount
- STL-11000
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