What AP processing software do you use?

[Conor]

Personally, I was always a fan of GIMP (Which I write plugins for)
but I recently bought PixInsight, which is outstanding.

How about you guys?

[Trevor Woodrow]

Hey, I am by know means the best at this but always willing to share. I currently use CCDops for flats and darks (and shooting), Maxim Essentials for combine, CS2 (with the Carboni tools) for the most of the heavy lifting and Microsoft Digital Office Suite to add the finishing touches.

Just got Maxim DL Pro but waiting for clear skies to break it in. I've seen some great images that have been created with Gimp and PixInsight. Good stuff.

-t

[Charles Dunlop]

Maxim DL, and rarely do I touch up photo's as I like raw data, but I do have a copy of photoshop 4 on my setup.

[Steve Coates]

I've been using PS CS5 with Noel Carboni Astronomy Tools plug-in and Russell Cromin's GradientXTerminator plug-in. I've seen a lot of good work done with GIMP. Does GIMP supporting 16 bit channel yet? I think that will be huge when it does.

[Federico Luciani]

Just a question. I'm a newbie with Photoshop - but I'm familiar with a lot of graphic tools; does Gradient eXterminator keep what it says? I use PixInsight but for a world of reasons at the end I've to stretch a lot, so color gradients are a constant struggle...

[Conor]

I can't believe no one else uses PixInsight! It's a really awesome piece of software.
It's cross platform (Linux, BSD, MacOS, Winblows); x86, x86_64.

Yeah, it would be nice if GIMP supported 16 bit colour. Perhaps I should free up
some more of my time to contribute to the project. I think it has the potential to
be a real gem in the AP toolkit. If any of you have decent C programming skills,
you should check out their plugin API; It's a piece of cake to integrate your work.

[Federico Luciani]

Here is one. It's a wonderful sw, but learning curve isn't so easy. A "pro" astro software - perhaps too much for me!
Truly awesome: ACDNR, DynamicBackgroundModelization, HDR.

[Conor]

I couldn't agree more. Those utilities are a joy to use. I haven't seen results like them in other programs.

[Conor]

Hey Steve

I'm a Linux/BSD geek, I don't use windows either. Thankfully, PixInsight is primarily developed for Linux and there's a Mac build as well! I recommend the 64 bit version, personally, as they seem to be a bit more stable and many of the procedures seem optimised for 64 bit CPUs. Certainly worth a look, if even for the trial! Glad I spent the money though; I wouldn't use anything else.

Conor

[Charles Dunlop]

Used MaximDL pro last night for the first time. pretty cool. No complaints. Will combine tonight and use some of those preset filters on the program.

[John O'Neal]

For image planning I use CCD Calc. To capture images and focus and frame I use Canon's Live view feature and stock software.

For stacking I use Deepsky Stacker for Stars and Comets and Registax for Planets.

I use PS CS2 for image processing. Add-ons include Gradient Xterminator, Annie's Astro Actions and Astronomy Tools.

[Bernard Miller]

Hi,

I use CCDStack to get my Luminance and RGB images, then Photoshop to do the final processing.

Bernard

[Jeff McFarlin]

I capture/stack/pre-process in Maxim DL Pro, and then move everything to PS CS5. I use various plug-in's in PS.

Jeff