Space Shooter (rolodophone) Mac OS
Astrophotography is closer to science than art, and there is no such thing as “getting it right in camera.” This means you cannot simply point the camera at the sky and snap away.
In astrophotography you cannot avoid post processing your images, so stacking and editing your images serves three main purposes:
- Reduce noise and deal with light gradients and vignetting.
- Improve signal to noise ratio.
- Reveal the faint details in the image.
Image stacking is the technique used to improve the signal to noise ratio, and it is the only noise reduction method that will boost the image details rather than smear them out.
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In this article, we will discuss some of the most popular software available for astrophotography image stacking.
Note: Don’t miss the detailed video at the end of this article, It was created to help show you how to quickly start using some of the stacking software mentioned in this article.
Click here to skip to our Image Stacking Demo Video.
What Does Stacking Photos Mean?
The concept behind image stacking is simple, but to appreciate how it works, there are a couple of things we have to consider:
- A stack can be visualized as a pile of images all stacked one on top of the other;
- Each digital image is formed by a set of pixels, all having a certain value: dark pixels will have a lower value than the bright ones;
In the simplest form of image stacking, the pixels values for all images in the stack are averaged to produce a single image.
What is the purpose of stacking photos?
The result is a single image with improved signal to noise ratio, i.e., with better details and lower (random) digital noise and better details.
The scheme below illustrates the concept.
If the considered digital noise affects the pixel values randomly across the stack, then the result of averaging the stack is that the random component of the noise to the pixel value is significantly reduced.
ISO noise and Luminance noise and Chrominancenoise are examples of digital noises that are random.
The image below shows a real-life example from stacking 30 images from my Sony RX10 bridge camera taken at ISO 6400. As you can see, the original images showed a greater deal of noise (grain) than the stacked one.
The More Images You Stack, The Better
The more images you stack, the cleaner the resulting images are, as shown in the comparison below.
While Image stacking creates a cleaner image, it often softens the image: digital sharpening techniques are then used to recover sharp looking details.
Finally, bear in mind that the progression of image quality is not linear.
If stacking 4 images improves the image quality of 50% respect what you got by stacking only 2 images, to improve a further 50% the image quality from stacking 50 images, you may need to stack 300 images or more.
Image Stacking And Movement
If nothing moves between shots, like in the previous real life example, implementing image stacking is very simple: just group the images and average them to smooth out the noise.
With a moving subject, grouping and averaging the images will not only smooth out the noise, but also the subject itself.
This is the same principle for which long exposures of passing traffic and crowd result in a street image without cars nor people.
This effect is amplified with the number of images used, and the moving subject could simply disappear from the stacked image.
To resolve the issue, you have to align the images based on their content before stacking.
Due to image alignment, you may have to trim the edges of the stacked image to get rid of artifacts, but your target will not be lost.
Note that while in theory you can stack images of a static scene taken with the camera on a tripod, in reality, those images will probably differ at the pixel scale due to micro-movements. It is always beneficial to align the images before stacking.
How To Shoot For Exposure Stacking Your Images
Image stacking can be done with any camera and even camera phones and with images in both RAW and JPEG format.
Nonetheless, some things can be done to improve the final result:
- Lock the focus, so that the camera will not hunt for it between images. This will also help to keep the focus consistent through the shooting sequence.
- Keep the same settings, in particular shutter speed, aperture, and focal length: you don’t want to change the camera field of view during the sequence, nor the brightness of the images or the depth of field.
- If you are shooting on a tripod, disable image stabilization. If you want to shoot handheld, do so only for short sequences at very high shutter speed.
Image Stacking In Astrophotography
Related:Astrophotography Software & Tools Resource List
As said previously, image stacking is a standard technique implemented in any astrophotography editing workflow for,
- A star field from a fixed tripod.
- A deep sky object from a tracking mount.
- The Moon handheld.
- A starry landscape from a fixed tripod or tracking mount.
Every astronomy image will benefit from image stacking.
List Of Photo Stacking Software For Astrophotography
Here is a list of software used in astrophotography for image stacking.
Adobe Photoshop
Complete Image Editor Commercial – Subscription Plan Photography Bundle $9.99 / Month Mac OS X, Windows
Pro
- Versatile
- Available for Mac and Windows
- In bundle with Adobe Lightroom CC, Bridge, Camera Raw, and web space
- Many action packs and plugins available for astrophotography
Cons
- Subscription Plan only
- Can’t be used to calibrate light frames
- Stacking capabilities are somehow limited
If you are interested in photography, chances are you know Adobe Photoshop is the standard in the industry and does not need introductions.
With Adobe implementing a subscription plan for their applications, if you are using Lightroom CC for your everyday photography, your plan subscription will also include Photoshop CC and Bridge CC.
And for astrophotography, Photoshop is what you need. Lightroom cannot stack your images nor perform the histogram stretching, two crucial steps in the editing workflow for astrophotography.
In this article, we have already covered in detail how to stack astrophotography images with Photoshop.
Sequator
Deep Sky And Starry Landscape Stacker Freeware Windows
Pro
- Free
- Easy to use
- Fast
- Suitable for both Starry Landscapes and Deep Sky images
- Can create Star Trails
Cons
- Windows only
- Limited set of options
- Not suitable for Planetary astrophotography
Sequator is an easy-to-use and intuitive astrophotography software for stacking both starry landscape and deep-sky images. It can also be used to create star trails.
While not as advanced as other stackers, it nonetheless allows you to calibrate your light frames with dark and flat calibration frames. It also allows you to remove light pollution, reduce noise, and perform other simple tasks on the stacked image.
Starry Landscape Stacker
Starry Landscape Stacker Commercial, $39.99 Mac OS X
Pro
- Fast
- Easy to use
Cons
- Mac Os X only
- Does not read RAW files
If you are into starry landscapes and you are a Mac user, Starry Landscape Stacker is a must-have.
Easy to use, it allows you to stack and align the sky and the foreground independently by letting you easily mask the sky.
Unfortunately, the software lacks the support for RAW formats, thus forcing you to convert your RAW images in the more heavy TIFF format.
Aside from that, it works very fast and the final image is of good quality. You can also save the sky only, which is useful to further edit the shot in Photoshop or similar editors.
Starry Sky Stacker
Deep Sky Stacker Commercial, $24.99 Mac OS X
Pro
- Fast
- Easy to use
Cons
- Mac Os X only
- Does not read RAW files
- Basic
Starry Sky Stacker is Starry Landscape Stacker brother and it has been created to stack deep sky astrophotography images.
As Starry Landscape Stacker, Starry Sky Stacker is very easy to use and intuitive, although very basic.
If you are a casual star shooter and a Mac user, this could be a good choice for you.
Deep Sky Stacker
Deep Sky Stacker Freeware Windows
Pro
- Free
- Easy to use
- Fast
- Full light frames calibration
- Features Comet stack modes
- Can Drizzle
- Many advanced stack options and methods available
Cons
- Windows only
- Post-processing is quite limited
- Not suitable for Starry Landscapes nor for Planetary astrophotography
Deep Sky Stacker, better known as DSS, is arguably one of the most widely used software to calibrate and stack astrophotography images.
With DSS, you can fully calibrate your images with Darks, Flats, Dark Flats, and Bias calibration frames for the best results possible. Light frames are analyzed and scored by quality so that you can decide which percentage of best images you can stack (Best 75% by default).
A very interesting feature is that with DSS, you can easily combine images taken during different imaging sessions, to produce images of higher quality.
Autostakkert!
Planetary Stacker Freeware Windows
Pro
- Free
- Easy to use
- Suitable for Planetary, Lunar and Solar images
- Stack full planetary disk and lunar surface close-ups
Cons
- Interface a bit confused
- It does not offer wavelet sharpening
- Windows only
Autostakkert!, also known as AS!, is a very popular free software among the solar system astrophotographers. With AS! it is easy to stack both images showing the full Planetary (or Lunar or Solar) disc and images showing lunar surface close-ups.
The interface is a bit confusing, particularly in the beginning, but it is easy to navigate through the different steps for the stacking.
Unfortunately, AS! does not offer wavelet sharpening, which is a widely used technique in planetary and lunar astrophotography. For this, you can load your stacked image in Registax, another freeware software for Windows only that, sadly, is now “abandoned-ware.”
Lynkeos
Planetary Stacker Freeware Mac OS X
Pro
- Free
- Has deconvolution and wavelet sharpening
- It is probably the only freeware planetary stacker for Mac OS X
Cons
- Not very intuitive
- Somewhat slower than Autostakkert!
Lynkeos is perhaps the only freeware planetary stacker software for Mac OS X, sparing you from turning to Windows for using Autostakkert!.
The interface is quite intuitive to navigate, but not when it comes to performing the different tasks.
On the other hand, it offers a deconvolution method and wavelet sharpening, a must-have for a planetary stacker. Definitely worth having a look at it if you are a Mac user.
SiriL
Deep Sky Astrophotography Editor Freeware Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
Pro
- Free
- Cross-Platform
- Active development
Cons
- A bit convoluted and not as intuitive as other stackers
SiriL is a freeware, cross-platform, astrophotography package that will let you calibrate, stack, and develop deep sky astrophotography images.
While not as easy and intuitive as Sequator or DSS, it offers a lot of options and produces good results. There is an active community, and it is under constant development.
Astro Pixel Processor
Deep Sky Astrophotography Editor Commercial $60/Yr Renter License Or $150 Owner License Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
Pro
- Full-grown astrophotography package
- Fairly easy to use
- Mosaics are created with ease and are of great quality
- Active and constant development
- Cross-Platform
- 30-days Trial period
- Affordable yearly subscription
Cons
- Only for deep sky astrophotography
- No Comet stacking mode
With Astro Pixel Processor (APP), you step in the realm of full-grown astrophotography packages, with many advanced options and methods to calibrate, stack, and post-process your deep-sky images.
Compared to PixInsight (PI), the software benchmark for the category, APP is cheaper and way easier to use, which makes it one of the best PI alternatives.
If you decide to buy it, you can choose between the renter’s license for $60/yr, to always get the latest version of APP, or the owner’s license for $150, but you will have to purchase the license again for major update releases.
PixInsight
Astrophotography Editor Commercial – €230+VAT Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
Pro
- It has all you need for astrophotography
- 45 days trial period
- A lot of tutorials and information available
Cons
- Expensive and without subscription plan
- Extremely steep learning curve
- Long and convoluted process
- Needs a powerful computer
When it comes to astrophotography, PixInsight is the software of reference against which all others are measured. It offers everything you may possibly need to produce pro graded images, and it is objectively the best software in the field.
But user experience can be frustrating, as the learning curve is very steep, the editing is long and convoluted, and your computer must be quite recent and powerful to make it run smoothly.
The €230 + VAT price tag is also quite steep: sure it is worth every penny, but this makes PI be even more the software of choice for professional and keen amateur astrophotographers.
A Comprehensive Demo About Image Stacking
In this video, I show you how easy it is to wet our feet with image stacking.
This is particularly true if you use Starry Landscape Stacker, Sequator, Deep Sky Stacker and Autostakkert!, as I showed in the video below.
Conclusion
Image stacking is one of the crucial steps in the astrophotography editing workflow.
You’ll need the appropriate stacker for each type of astrophotography: starry landscapes, star trails, or deep-sky and planetary images.
In this article, we have covered the most popular astrophotography stackers available on the market, both freeware and commercial.
And while Windows users have the more extensive choice, some notable stackers are available for Mac and even Linux users.
It used to be that Mac users were a relatively small group, mostly composed of A/V nerds and graphic designers. And while these disciplines still account for a large portion of Mac people, Apple has gained quite a good deal more of the personal computer market share in recent years. Despite that, the world of non-console gaming doesn't quite reflect this change yet, as evidenced by the fact that the term 'PC gaming' is still generally the preferred nomenclature without actually applying to the OS X.
This is slowly changing. The days of attempting to play PC-only titles in a virtual machine are (thankfully) starting to be a thing of the past. Quite a few titles have been ported over to OS X in the past year or so, and it looks as though more and more developers are starting to realize that PC gamer should also include the Mac users. Heck, Steam got the right idea with porting over to the Mac, so have others. Here's a roundup of some of the most popular titles that are now available for OS X.
Torchlight
Like a prettier, smaller version of 'Diablo II', this action RPG manages to take most of the good aspects of overhead hack and slash games and add a few original touches which make it fairly addictive. Play as a member of one of three character classes who is tasked by Syl, a sage who has lost her mentor, Alric somewhere in a mine beneath the city of Torchlight. The mine is filled with Ember, a substance which is known to imbue both objects and people with magical abilities, but also corrupts the minds of any living creatures with whom it comes into contact for prolonged periods.
Further still beneath the mines are ruined palaces, hanging gardens and other stranger labyrinths filled with monsters and loot. The player is accompanied by a pet in the form of a cat or dog who can carry extra items, aid in fights, heal, and sell off unwanted treasure without the player having to port back into town. While it's not the most nuanced plot of all time, this game is more than an adequate substitute for those who can no longer hold their breath waiting for Blizzard to release 'Diablo III'.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Few games can reduce a grown man to whimpers and tears. This game is one of them.
At the start of the game, the main character awakens in what appears to be the entryway of a castle with no clue as to his identity. He soon finds a note from himself, which reveals that his name is Daniel and that he has forced himself to forget the circumstances under which he arrived at the castle. The note also warns him that he is being hunted by a 'shadow'. Thus begins Daniel's descent into the castle (and- dun dun DUN- The Darkness), where he must discover, via a series of flashbacks, just what the hell is going on, and how to stop it. 'Amnesia' is all from the first person perspective, though to call it a 'shooter' would be misleading, since Daniel cannot actually fight anything. He must stay within areas of light in order to remain sane, and can collect tinderboxes and oil for his lantern. However, he can't stay in the light all the time, or else he will be seen. And if he is seen, he will be attacked. Even if he can't see what's attacking him.
Diablo 3
Whether you love it or hate it, Diablo 3 is arguably one of the best action RPGs ever made. Superior to any of its predecessors, Diablo 3 offers a host of new features, gameplay changes, and, of course, another adventure in the dark world of Sanctuary.
Additions like the new crafting and skill rune systems should expand the experience without straying too far from franchise roots, while alterations to the core gameplay should help to streamline things considerably.
Instead, they've helped eliminate the minor nuisances you had to deal with in the prior games. No more manually picking up each last pile of gold. No more tedious inventory management. This is a smarter, faster version of the Diablo we all know and love, and that's definitely something to be excited about.
Unfortunately, the inclusion of the in-game auction house may hamper some of the enjoyment players may have with the game, but it isn't a deal breaker. Beneath its problems, the game is still a solid action RPG.
Machinarium
Diminutive robot protagonist Josef finds himself in what appears to be a junkyard. After a brief tutorial in which actions and abilities are demonstrated, it is made clear through a few cartoonish flashbacks that some bad robots wearing black hats kidnapped Josef's girlfriend, and strong-armed the little robot himself out of the robot city. Josef then proceeds to re-enter the robot city in pursuit of his lost girlfriend, only to discover that the Black Cap Brotherhood has planted a bomb in the robot city. Josef must then solve a series of extremely creative visual puzzles in order to free his lady, disarm the bomb, and save the city. The soundtrack is particularly amazing, the artwork is charming, but 'Machinarium' is the sort of experience that cannot really be described in any way that will do it proper justice. Just play the game.
Bioshock
Filled with dieselpunk eye candy and tough moral decisions, this eponymous first chapter of the 'Bioshock' series is basically a big middle finger in the collective face of Ayn Rand enthusiasts, proving to many doubters outside the gaming subculture that videogames could be more than just mindless gore-fests.
The player assumes the role of Jack, who has come upon the fallen underwater city of Rapture, built by uber-capitalist businessman Andrew Ryan. Due to an increasing discrepancy between the rich and the poor, and human dependence upon a substance known as ADAM, Rapture has suffered a catastrophic revolt. Jack has survived a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean only to find his way under the surface to Rapture, guided by a man named Atlas. Jack must then make his way through the city, encountering Little Sisters, the carriers of the ADAM, and Big Daddies, the guardians of the Little Sisters. Throughout a series of quests, the truth is slowly revealed to be even stranger than the initial setup.
BioShock Infinite will also soon be hitting the MAC Store in Summer 2013
Left 4 Dead series
Though both of these titles have been out for a few years now, they were only ported to OS X and made available through Steam just last fall, to the enjoyment of all. There are obviously a plethora of zombie-related games out there, and no one would blame a person for being sick and tired of all the lurching and shambling. However, both of the Left 4 Dead games are particularly intriguing in that the co-op mode doesn't just involve playing together, or helping each other out. In certain instances, a player actually needs his or her co-players, like when the player respawns in a locked closet, or needs healing but is not carrying any form of medicine. Teammates can bring one another back from the brink of death with a defibrillator or lure the infected away from other teammates with a pipe bomb. So basically, short of a space virus that actually causes the zombocalypse to happen, this is probably the most realistic simulations available in terms of the need for teamwork. Even though the likelihood of magically finding guns and defibrillators lying around in real life is kinda dubious.
Portal Series
Originally bundled in Valve's 2007 Orange Box for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, this first person puzzle-platformer was intended to be a small bonus game. However, it ended up being so wildly popular that it was ported to OS X and released in May of 2010 via Steam. In a series of jump, gravity and timing puzzles with teleportation as the main mechanic of gameplay, the player (who we eventually learn is a woman named Chell) must overcome increasingly difficult test chamber scenarios at an Aperture Science research facility. Chell is at first guided and then taunted by an AI named GLaDOS, who promises 'cake and grief counseling' should Chell complete the experiment satisfactorily.
Like its predecessor, Portal 2 is also very much worth playing. Set hundreds of years after the events of the first game, the Aperture Science labs are in a dilapidated state, and allow for you to discover what happened at the laboratory once and for all.
The clever gameplay mechanics from the first game return, and are bolstered by a host of all new puzzles involving various forms of liquid paint, lasers, and other physics-bending materials.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
This sequel was a long time coming. Thankfully, it shipped for PC and OS X at the same time. The story picks up four years after the events of the original Starcraft, and follows an insurgent group attempting to make its way across the Terran Dominion. Non-linear gameplay with regard to the campaigns keeps the game interesting, and is a minor departure from the original. However, the order in which the campaigns are done will not interrupt the narrative.
Units remain largely the same, with some additional specialized units available only for campaign play and not in regular multi-player, such as the Terran Wraith, Vulture, and Diamondback. There is also a map editor, similar to the original StarEdit, which allows for customization of terrain and campaigns.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Firaxis's XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a true successor to the turn-based strategy game series by Microprose. XCOM: Enemy Unknown sees the invasion of our cities by an extraterrestrial force that seeks, it seems, to purge mankind from the face of the planet.
Players are tasked with controlling a squad of earth's finest soldiers to take on the alien menace head-on in turn-based combat in locations ranging from dense urban environments to labyrinthine alien structures.
Revived by the makers of Civilization, the new XCOM streamlines everything that made the original title a little annoying to play through and improves upon all of its best qualities for a modern, turn-based strategy game that's like no other.
In addition to being released on the console, the game is quite thankfully playable on both the PC and Mac.
Minecraft
Minecraft began as a PC-only game, but it's since been ported over to the Mac and Linux, where it has enjoyed regular updates consistent with the PC version of the game.
The game's popularity can be attributed to the fact that it plays like a sort of multiplayer game of Lego, in which players can craft castles and kingdoms to their hearts content, or explore the procedurally generated wilderness for adventures that are unlike anything they've ever encountered.
Space Shooter (rolodophone) Mac Os 8
Played both offline and online, the game is fully compatible with its PC and Linux counterparts so friends and family can play the game with each other on servers regardless of whether they're running the game on Windows or the Mac's OS X.
Space Shooter (rolodophone) Mac Os 7
Other awesome games on Mac OS X
Borderlands 2: The framerate may not be the best for the Mac version of Borderlands 2, which is why we haven't thought to include it on this list. When Aspyr (they're handling the port) sharpens up the game' well consider it.
Braid
World of Goo