From: "David Illig" <yag@davidillig.com>

Date: November 9, 2005 10:22:53 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Camera for guiding


Alan Friedman wrote, inter alia:


Here is a recent image taken in poor seeing and stacked in Astro IIDC:


http://www.geocities.com/alanfgag/saturn_103005.jpg


The image is nasty - grainy and over processed - but I did take the time to compare the 

automated Astro IIDC stacking with hand selection in KIS. The detail was identical either 

way. Oddly, the KIS stacks (saved as 8 bit pict images) had a noisey interference pattern 

which was very difficult to deal with - this did not occur in the stacks from Astro IIDC 

which were saved as 16bit Tiff images. 


Yes, but your worst is a lot better than practically everyone's best. I enjoyed your amazing 

presentation at the Macintosh Astronomy Workshop and I have enjoyed seeing your 

astrophotos on the Web. My wife says I am too hard on myself, but every time I make a 

solar system image she says "That's great!" and I say "Yeah, but take a look at Alan 

Friedman's Saturn (or whatever).


What you don't tell us is how many frames you typically capture, where you set the 

confidence level, and how many frames your setting permits Astro IIDC to align and stack. 

I know that that number can vary according to seeing, but some ballpark figures would 

help me and perhaps some others who are trying to learn this art.


Thanks,


David