Paul
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
When you say you bin 2x2, I assume you mean a size reduction to half on each axis. That just averages the four pixels to get a single value for the new pixel. I have been thinking about writing a little program to actually take each channel and sum the pixels in to seperate FITS format files that would actually allow you to see the brightnes increase you get when you bin a normal CCD chip. If you know something that actually does this, I would love to hear about it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In the case of the M31 image I did do a 2x2 average bin because the summed image was already bright and I only
wanted to smooth the image by averaging. The 23 images
were summed in to a 64-bit buffer then scaled to fit a 16
bit buffer.
I recently added a Bin function to ImagesPlus that does
2x2,3x3,4x4,and 5x5 sum, average, and median binning of
color or FITS images. The binned image can be saved as a
JPEG, BMP, 8/16 bit TIFF or 16/32/64 int or float FITS
file. Color files can be LRGB, LCMY, and HSL split and
saved as FITS.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have to be honest, I am using the small fine JPEG resolution more often now. My poor little 550Mhz machine with 256Megs of RAM just doesn't like playing with the big files in MaximDL. Photoshop is ok, but MaximDL gets really slow and spends all night swapping to the disk to get the job done on the big ones. Also, I am still using Photoshop 4 and it doesn't do the 16-bit per channel images correctly.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The jpeg format is only 8-bits, Canon's raw format is 12-bits but you need to convert it to 16 bit per color TIFF to
keep the precision saved in your raws. The batch mode calibrate, align(translate, scale, rotate), and combine methods in ImagesPlus 1.68 are very fast and easy to use.
I took me about 10 minutes to calibrate, align, and combine
the 23 3072x2048 tiffs on a 1500mhz with 512 ram. IP also works very well on my 400Mhz with 128 ram and would take about 25 minutes to process. ImagesPlus uses 16-bit per
color minimum with computations done in 64-bit double
buffers. Next month 16-bit mask operations will be available.
Mike
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
When you say you bin 2x2, I assume you mean a size reduction to half on each axis. That just averages the four pixels to get a single value for the new pixel. I have been thinking about writing a little program to actually take each channel and sum the pixels in to seperate FITS format files that would actually allow you to see the brightnes increase you get when you bin a normal CCD chip. If you know something that actually does this, I would love to hear about it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In the case of the M31 image I did do a 2x2 average bin because the summed image was already bright and I only
wanted to smooth the image by averaging. The 23 images
were summed in to a 64-bit buffer then scaled to fit a 16
bit buffer.
I recently added a Bin function to ImagesPlus that does
2x2,3x3,4x4,and 5x5 sum, average, and median binning of
color or FITS images. The binned image can be saved as a
JPEG, BMP, 8/16 bit TIFF or 16/32/64 int or float FITS
file. Color files can be LRGB, LCMY, and HSL split and
saved as FITS.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have to be honest, I am using the small fine JPEG resolution more often now. My poor little 550Mhz machine with 256Megs of RAM just doesn't like playing with the big files in MaximDL. Photoshop is ok, but MaximDL gets really slow and spends all night swapping to the disk to get the job done on the big ones. Also, I am still using Photoshop 4 and it doesn't do the 16-bit per channel images correctly.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The jpeg format is only 8-bits, Canon's raw format is 12-bits but you need to convert it to 16 bit per color TIFF to
keep the precision saved in your raws. The batch mode calibrate, align(translate, scale, rotate), and combine methods in ImagesPlus 1.68 are very fast and easy to use.
I took me about 10 minutes to calibrate, align, and combine
the 23 3072x2048 tiffs on a 1500mhz with 512 ram. IP also works very well on my 400Mhz with 128 ram and would take about 25 minutes to process. ImagesPlus uses 16-bit per
color minimum with computations done in 64-bit double
buffers. Next month 16-bit mask operations will be available.
Mike
