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.

• Registering
• Stacking
• Simple post-stacking processes to quickly view the final result.
• Saving the resulting picture to a TIFF or FITS file (16 or 32 bit)

Features:

• 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.

USED FILE FORMATS:
RegiStax can read/write many input/output file-formats. In version 3 the amongs webcammers popular RAW-AVI format has been added to allow direct processing.

INPUT
* NEW:Multiple AVI (bypassing the 2Gb filelimit)
* NEW: Direct RAW AVI debayering (incl. usage of raw darkframes)
* NEW: PNG lossless compressed files support (input 8/16 bit/channel)
* AVI (8 bit/channel; optimized for NON-compressed formats)
* BMP/JPEG (8 bit/channel)
* TIFF (8 and 16bit/channel)
* FIT (16 and 32 bit/channel; multiple channels in one file NOT supported)

OUTPUT
* NEW: Registered AVI-sequence output (non-compressed)
* NEW: PNG lossless compressed files (16 bit/channel)
* JPEG (8 bit/channel)
* BMP/JPEG (8bit/channel)
* TIFF( 16 bit/channel)
* FIT (16/32 bit/channel; multiple channels in one file NOT supported)

Features include:

REGISTRATION
The registration in RegiStax V3 has been optimized to run a lot faster and give the user more options to select images. The 3 new quality estimation methods allow better initial quality estimates.

OPTIMISATION

STACKING

WAVELET PROCESSING
The main power of RegiStax is located in the wavelet tab. This is where all the registered and stacked image information can be used by the user to enhance the image.

It supports the long exposure mode of Vesta-SC webcams as well as the RAW mode.

Features include:
- Simple image acquisition or real time integration
- Long exposure acquisition with the following cameras (modified following Steve Chambers' design) : Philips Vesta-SC, Toucam-SC, Quickcam Pro3000-SC
- Image resolution up to 800x600
- Focusing aid based on a star's apparent size (FWHM), along with sound indicator for remote tuning
- Focusing aid on complex objects,along with a sound indicator for remote tuning
- Image stabilization and automatic tracking of the object in the camera's field of view.
- Automatic Dark or Flat-Field processing
- Can let you make pseudo long exposures without tracking needed.
- Automatic image selection based on each frame's quality (planetary imaging).
- Manual or automatic saving of bitmaps.
- Very fast and precise Polar aligning aid using two popular drift align methods : Bigourdan and King.
- Can display a configurable graduated reticle
- Can measure objects in real time.
- Can measure the P.E. (periodic error) of your mount displaying a graph, as well as tracking speed error.
- Can help you determine the declination of a star.
- Motion detection (for shooting stars).
- and many more....