free image stacking software for astrophotography

#FREE IMAGE STACKING SOFTWARE FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PRO#

This occurs when the stacking calculations can’t keep up with the rate at which frames are arriving. If your frame rate is very high (several frames per second) you may see a warning that some frames are being dropped. Note that the histogram always shows the levels of the stack held in memory, so adjustments to the colour sliders and the level stretch do not change this histogram (they do change the way the image looks on screen, how it is saved when using ‘save as seen’ and the mini histogram graph).

#FREE IMAGE STACKING SOFTWARE FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PRO#

SharpCap Pro users also have the ability to adjust colour balance using the colour balance adjustment sliders if you are imaging with a colour camera, and have the use of the auto stretch (lightning bolt) button. If you need very fine control of their position then hold down while dragging sideways or move the mouse above the graph while dragging sideways – both will cause the bar to move more slowly and give finer control. Moving the ‘Mid Level’ line to the left is usually a good starting point as it stretches the fainter parts of the image, bringing out detail in galaxies and nebulosity. You can adjust the rendering of the stack by moving the three level lines (black, mid, white) on the histogram. While live stacking is active, you will see some information at the bottom of the screen, including a histogram of the stacked image and details on the number of frames stacked and total exposure. Having a medium to high gain is often a good idea, as this gives a better range of values on each individual frame and the noise that a high gain generates is removed when many frames are stacked together. It’s a good idea to get your camera settings configured before beginning a live stack (or restart the stack by pressing ‘Clear’ after changing them).

Once the Live Stack button is pressed, SharpCap will immediately begin stacking frames and will display the stacked image instead of individual frames. Mono, Raw and RGB modes are all supported by live stacking, but you are likely to get the best results (and the best performance) from either a Mono or Raw mode. Select a supported camera and then press the ‘Live Stack’ button on the toolbar. In practice, you will require a camera that can set an exposure of about 1 second or more to have a chance of picking up enough stars for alignment to work. In SharpCap 3.0 and above, all cameras support Live Stacking. Images will appear before your eyes as the number of frames in the stack grows and noise levels will drop as the final image is averaged over more and more frames. You don’t need to have a separate stacking program either as SharpCap will automatically add each new frame to the stack and display the stacked image for you. Instead of taking a relatively small number of exposures of several minutes each to image a galaxy or nebula, SharpCap will take hundreds of images, most likely with an exposure of a few seconds each. Live stacking – a video astronomy technique – is a great way to observe deep sky objects without needing cameras capable of very long exposures, highly accurate mounts or cooled cameras. This also includes the ability to subtract dark frames and perform flat frame correction as part of the stacking process. SharpCap now has the ability to perform live stacking of multiple frames from all types of camera.

Free image stacking software for astrophotography