10/13/2021 0 Comments Star Stacking Program For Mac
Stacking in this software is perhaps the best compared with other free software.I recently tried out a new software program for star stacking called Kandao Raw+. The best astronomical image processing software for Mac and Windows. The Astrometric STAcking Program, is an astrometric solver, stacker of. The projects purpose is to provide a community based remote setup that can be collaborated on on Star Gazers Lounge - the data is. Stacking and saving your data. Astro Pixel Processor ('APP') is a paid stacking solution for Intel-based Windows, macOS and Linux OSs.This will give you a top layer that is identical to the combination of all underlying layers. How does Kandao Raw+ work?Step 2: Use Shift+Alt+Command+E ( Mac ) or Shift+Alt+CTRL+E ( PC ) and merge all to new layer. But I was pleasantly surprised and the short summary is that Kandao Raw+ works extremely well and even handles problematic cases which cause difficulty for programs like Starry Landscape Stacker and Sequator.Kandao Raw+ wasn’t specifcally for designed for star stacking but it is a natural use case.Whatever software you use for image calibration will almost certainly also do aligning and image stacking. This approach combines multiple images taken in rapid succession to reduce noise and increase detail. But dont worry, if you miss youll capture some stars and theyre pretty cool.Kandao Raw+ (KR) uses computational photography algorithms similar to what Apple and Google developed for smartphones to increase image quality. Step 3: Open the Photoshop noise reduction program of your choice and run it on the new layer from step 2.If youre successful, the program will move to the next tab, Stack, and.This is a single image although I took a stack of 15 images. However, Kandao Raw+ handles this case like a champ and really impressed me.For example, here is a test scene taken with a 14-24mm Sigma dg dn lens at 14mm, f/2.8, 13s, ISO 3200. This has caused problems for me in Starry Landscape Stacker (SLS) where I have to do a lot of clone stamping to fix the resulting artifacts. Blending trees with motionAs any experienced astrophotographer knows, things dont always work perfectly - the guide star is lost - a cloud passes by - and again Voyager is designed for.The hardest example for star stacking is photographing the night sky through trees, vegetation, or other foreground objects that move. There are probably a bunch of other image processing tricks such as handheld super resolution and night sight but you may need to be a scientist in computational imaging to understand what is happening at a detailed level (this is beyond my paygrade).
Star Stacking Program Software Is PerhapsSome branches exhibit a bit of ghosting or duplication in the image. There is streaking in the sky near the edge of the tree canopy where the leaves and branches move. Shown below are the single exposure, Starry Landscape Stacker and Kandao Raw+ images.Because SLS can’t get the mask perfect to isolate the tree branches, we see a number of anomalies in the stacked image: Image processed in Lightroom with default settings except for +2 exposure.You can download the full size jpegs (at 40pct quality) here: single exposure, Starry Landscape Stacker, and Kandao Raw+.Lets look at a few crops: Crop 1: gaps and movement in tree canopyBelow I’ve taken a crop from the scene where the edge of the tree canopy is visible as well as gaps between the branches. Taken at 14mm, f/2.8, 13s, and ISO 3200. ![]() The simplest program to use and only requires loading the images. What are the differences between Kandao Raw+, Starry Landscape Stacker, and Sequator?From a workflow perspective, here’s how I see the differences: This does not happen with Starry Landscape Stacker. Click on the image to see it enlarged at 200%.Around large stars, I noticed that Kandao Raw can generate some artifacts and it appears to emphasize the noise (instead of reducing it) resulting in a salt & pepper ring around the star. Crop 3: large starsClose-up of large stars, from left to right: single exposure, Starry Landscape Stacker, and Kandao Raw+. As with the previous example, KR also correctly handles the case where stars appear in a small gap between branches. Requires selecting the sky (although it provides some automatic selection algorithms and tools for manual revision). One of the first stacking programs available that was relatively easy to use (lots of tutorials available). Available for both mac & windows and is free ( download it here). May generate some small artifacts around large stars. This is particularly important to me because I love photographing objects like trees which may sway in the wind.Because of the simplicity of KR, availablity for mac/windows, and price (free) I suspect that it may become much more popular and perhaps even a standard in landscape astrophotography.Finally, I’ve just started to use Kandao Raw+ and I probably haven’t fully discovered all of the pros and cons of the software. It eliminated one of my pain points, stacking stars when there are foreground objects that both move and occlude the sky. Unlike SLS there are no automated tools to help in this process.I think Kandao Raw+ is very promising for star stacking. You must manually select the sky region. The main advantage is that Sequator is available for Windows and is free (no Mac version). I suspect there may be other cases where the software fails – I’ll update this article as I come across any issues. These probably wouldn’t be difficult to correct but you would still need to manually find them and retouch them.
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