Hello all.

 

I am new to this, so bear with me.

 

I finally got the opportunity to take RGB shots with my DSI pro II. M42. Not very good, but I wanted to try to "merge" them. So after fidling my way through Registax to stack each group, I put them into IP to merge the colour groups. Had to align them due to rotation issues, (no drizzle, thats next... so is a guide scope...), so the resulting colour shot was poor, but it gave me something to play with.

 

Now here lies the problem.

Once I merged the three together, IP still lists the image as the first image I entered (in this case "aligned M42 blue"), and I can't seem to save my merged image. If I just save image,it opens up black and white when I re-open it. If I export image, when I reopen it it is scaled waayyy bigger, and it is still B+W.

 

I am plodding my way through this, and trying to not get too discouraged, so any advice on this minor problem would be great.

Also, any thoughts on how to add a Luminesence stack to these RGB ones with Ip or Registax? Best way without Maxim etc?

Any good books recomended on the CCDimaging and processing subject for the beginner?

Best Regards,

Mark Campbell

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Best Regards,
Mark Campbell

Hi, Mark

I highly recommend "The New CCD Astronomy" by Ron Wodaski:
http://www.newastro.com/newastro/default.asp

Another fantastic resource is Don Waid's tutorials:
http://www.waid-observatory.com/articles.html

And for the best compilation of DSI-specific "how to" resources, check out the Files & Links sections at the Meade_DSI Yahoo group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Meade_DSI/

HTH,

Chuck

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Chuck Reese
CDIP Certified: Nebula, Galaxy, Solar System, Stars & Clusters Imager
CDIP Mentor: Nebulae & Solar System Categories
For information on the Certified DSI Imager Program, see:
http://autostarsuite.net/forums/1427/ShowForum.aspx

I learned how to do LRB imaging using RonWodaski's "The New CCD Astronomy".

When I first started with my DSI Pro I did basic RGB processing using Autostar Suite Imaging Processing (ASIP). To make a long story short...

1) Acquired the source images. Save all uncombined images as FITS.

2) Using Envisage offline I'd preview the source images to sort out and delete the bad ones.

3) Load the useable source images into ASIP as a group (one group for each color). Do a one- and two- star alignment, then median combine them, save the result as a FITS. From this I'd get one combined image for each color.

4) Load the R, G, and B images into ASIP as a group and align them (usually just a two-star alignment unlss the alignment was way off to start with). Now I have three aligned R, G, and B images.

5) Using RGB Merge I'd load the R, G, and B images one at a time as as I did so I'd set the blak and white points using the Std.Dev. (Standard Deviation) function. This usually works fairly well. For more advanced work I'd set the black and white points manually.

6) Save the result as a BMP.

Since getting Photoshop I still use the same basic process except step 5 is done in Photoshop, I still use Envisage/ASIP to align and combine my source LRGB images.

-John

 

Hi John:

When I open I use ASIP and Group-New for each color FITS file, I only see a completely black image and so I cannot see a star to select for the alignment.

I know the R,G,B FITS images are good because I can open then in Envisage and see the stars.

Any thoughts?

 

Tony.