DeepSkyStacker is a freeware for astrophotographers that simplifies all the pre-processing steps of deep sky pictures and is specialized in RAW files from DSLRs.
Automatic registration of a set of pictures
Automatic detection of stars using all the picture area
Preview of registered stars
Sub pixel registration
Automatic derotation
Automatic creation and use of offsets, flats and darks frames
Sub pixel alignment and stacking
Supported bitmaps formats : 8, 16 et 32 bit colour and monochrome TIFF files, 16, 32 and 64 colour and monochrome FITS files, JPEG, BMP, PNG
Native use of RAW files from most DSLRs (CR2, NEF, CRW, ...) without using an intermediate file format (TIFF or other).
Darks, Flats and Offsets computed from and applied directly to the RAW picture before any
interpolation.
Stacking methods: average, median, kappa-sigma clipping, auto adaptive weighted average, entropy weighted average, maximum...
Preview of all pictures (including RAW)
Simple post-processing with RGB levels, luminance curve and saturation adjustments.
Save the resulting picture to 16 and 32 bit TIFF or FITS files with or without adjustments applied.
Simple and intuitive user interface
Optimal memory usage: the same amount of memory is required to register and stack
10 or 500 pictures.
Optimal CPU usage: fully multithreaded with optimal use of duo/quad/multi processors.
And much more...
In short: after a shooting night you give all your pictures (light frames, darks frames, offset/bias frames, flat frames) to DeepSkyStacker and you go to bed. The next morning you can see the result and start post-processing.
