#PLANETARY IMAGE STACKING SOFTWARE SOFTWARE#

Color through Debayering Digital imaging of the planets burst onto the scene in the early 21st century. A 4-pixel block that only samplesВ one pixel in red should have the red information reducedВ by 75%, right? Wrong! Each pixel in an OSC cameraВ reports information in all three color channels, regardlessВ of which filter is over the pixel, when the image is runВ through an advanced debayering algorithm. This is where a popular misconceptionВ comes into play.

#PLANETARY IMAGE STACKING SOFTWARE SOFTWARE#

Your cameraвЂ™s control software (or your preferredВ planetary stacking program) then separates the pixelsВ into the three respective color channels and interpolatesВ the вЂњgapsвЂќ between the missing pixels on each channel to make a color image. The result is anВ image where 50% of the pixels are recorded though theВ green filters, 25% are red, and 25% are blue-filtered, all onВ the same grayscale image. This 4-pixel block of tiny color filters, arranged inВ a repeating grid of one red, two green, and one blue pixelВ over the entire sensor, was designed to mimic the humanВ eyeвЂ™s response to color and luminosity.

The vast majority of OSCВ cameras use the Bayer filter, named for its inventor, BryceВ Bayer. In order for a monochromeВ sensor to produce a color image, two things areВ necessary: a color filter array (CFA) permanently affixedВ over the sensor, and software to re-interpret the imagesВ as individual color channels. Understanding Color CamerasД«oth CCDs and CMOS sensors in all digital cameras startВ their lives as monochrome sensors. That may haveВ been true a few years ago, but changes in interpolationВ algorithms, chip sensitivity, and stacking software haveВ made this problem a thing of the past. ThatвЂ™s because color cameras are reputedВ to produce inherently lower-resolution images due to theirВ filter matrix, known as the Bayer filter. Online imaging forums are almost universal in theirВ recommendation to use a monochrome camera with separateВ red, green, and blue filters instead of a one-shot colorВ (OSC) camera. But depending on your interests,В you can eliminate the monochrome camera - withВ its complex filter wheels and expensive filters - and useВ a color video camera to record some of the highest-qualityВ planetary images around. Most use a monochromeВ camera with individual color filters to recordВ videos that then are stacked, sharpened, and combinedВ into the final color image. Planetary imagers these days routinelyВ produce high-resolution photos of the Sun, Moon, and planets with high-speed video cameras. Advances in imaging technology should makeВ amateurs give these cameras a second look.Д«y Dan Llewellyn in the May 2014 issue of Sky & Telescope

Planetary image stacking software