Astronomy Software – Part 3: Image Processing

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This is the third and final in a series of posts on astronomy software. The first post covered mobile software and the second planning and imaging. This post deals with image processing software.

  • MaximDL
    When I first started imaging, Maxim was my go-to program for data reduction (removing noise, optical train artifacts, and chip artifacts from an image) and image combination. It has a strong set of tools and a fairly easy workflow. It also has the advantage of not being another tool as it is a premier camera control and image capture tool as well. I used Ron Wodaski’s bloom removal tool as I have an ST-10 and blooms are an issue for me.

  • CCD Stack 2
    CCD Stack 2 provides a very intuitive way to understand data reduction and statistical combination of images. You can easily browse through you stack of sub frames to identify bad frames. It has excellent bloom removal. The options for statistical noise removal are excellent. There are tools to automate the processing flow, but I have not used them.

  • PixInsight
    PixInsight is simply an amazing piece of software. Coded from the ground up as an end-to-end astronomical image processing tool, the depth of functionality and tools available for images are excellent. I now do essentially all of my image processing in PixInsight. The data reduction and combination is a little labor intensive, but there are scripts (which I haven’t tried) that can help automate the flow. The tools for gradient removal, background neutralization, color balance, and contrast adjustment (HDR transformation in particular) are absolutely invaluable. I cannot say enough about the quality and capabilities of this tool. The learning curve is steep, but worth the effort. It is multi-platform, available on Windows, Max, and Linux 64-bit platforms.

  • Photoshop
    No discussion of astronomical imaging programs could be complete without mentioning Photoshop. This highly-capable general purpose image editing tool is a professional standard. Many tutorials have been written on using Photoshop for astronomical image processing so there are many resources for learning how to use the tool. For my use, PixInsight, with its large array of astrophotography-specific capabilities, has replaced most of my use of Photoshop. But Photoshop is clearly a top-line tool.