DeepSkyStacker

Taking pictures of the night sky is a bit difficult and the results may be less than satisfying. With a good camera, a lot of practice and some processing, your deep sky pictures will look better. Before you start working on the images, you must go through a number of pre-processing steps, which can be simplified with DeepSkyStacker. You just need to load your frames, make a few settings and let the application work.

DeepSkyStacker is freeware and it can be installed in a few moments. The software works on Windows 2000, XP (SP2) and later editions, up to Windows 7. You can also use it on Windows 2003 Server without any problems. With a modern day computer, you don't need to concern yourself about the system requirements.

The first thing you need to know is that DeepSkyStacker is not a post-processing program, so you should not expect to find options for noise reduction, unsharp masks and so on. You still need a third party software, like Photoshop, when you are done with DeepSkyStacker. The interface is quite simple and it contains a series of options for loading light, dark, flat, dark flat and offset frames.

The software lets you combine multiple pictures, taken from the same angle, to increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The results will be more luminous or colorful. By combining pictures and increasing the SNR, the noise level will be reduced significantly, allowing you to stretch the histogram further. In this way, you can increase a picture's level of detail and colors yourself. Obviously, the more pictures you combine, the better the results.

Once loaded, you may click one of the hyperlinks, on the left side of the interface, to register your images. A small window will show up, with options for setting a star detection threshold, detecting hot pixels automatically and more. You may also tick an option to stack the pictures after registering them. Before you start, you can make a wide range of settings, on a separate window. It is possible to select recommended settings as well.

DeepSkyStacker is capable of working with RAW files, from various DSLR cameras, without using intermediate formats, like TIFF. The best part is that it won't drain your computer's resources, even if you are registering a huge amount of images. If you have difficulties understanding some of its features, you can find tutorials and various instructions on the developer's web site.