Tue, 11/27/2018 - 21:18
Hello all. The recent b Per campaign has inspired me to pick up an inexpensive used DSLR so I can try my hand at photometry for the first time. My first question (of probably many) is to ask which program I should use to process my pictures. Looking for cheap-as-free. Unless there are other suggestions, I've seemed to narrow it down to IRIS or AstroImageJ. Can anyone tell me if, in their experience, one is better than the other? Or if they have another suggestion that would be preferred? Or any other software that would help me out (for instance, I looked at BackyardEOS, but it doesn't support my EOS 300D).
Thanks,
Chase, GJCA
Hello,
I use an eos200d to do dslr photometry.
I use iris for pre-treatment (-offset -dark / flat + stacking)
And then AstroImageJ for photometry.
Since iris does not recognize the raw format of the eos200d, I use Adobe DNG converter to turn RAW images into DNG.
Regards,
Philippe
Hi Phillipe,
That's interesting, you use both. Is there a particular reason you don't use IRIS for the photometry part? Or, put another way, is there a reason you don't do the pre-treatment with AIJ? I was under the impression that both of these programs do both of these tasks, and didn't really think about using both for different parts.
Cheers,
Chase, GJCA
Hi, James:
A great piece of software for both DSLR and CCD photometry is "AIP4Win" -- not free, but only $90 -- and it comes with the book by Richard Berry & James Burnell "Handbood of Astronomical Image Processing", which is a wonderful reference and textbook. See the Willman-Bell website.
Bob B.
Hello Bob,
Thank you for your reply and recommendation. Unfortunately, $90 is more than I'm willing to spend - that's almost as much as I spent for my camera and lens. Maybe a future purchase, but will definitely have to make do with something cheaper right now.
Cheers
Chase, GJCA
I personally always wanted to give C-Munipack a try ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/c-munipack/#screenshots ) but never had the time to do it, but I'm sure others here can give their opinion on it.
Of course if you are an AAVSO member (75 US$ / year, special rates for students and teachers I think) you can use the VPHOT online tool. https://www.aavso.org/vphot
CS
HBE
Thanks for your reply. I've never heard of C-Munipack, which is exactly why I posted the question here. I'll have to dig into that one and see if it's something I like better. Having in hand the guide from AAVSO on how to use IRIS is helpful, though....
Have you consulted the AAVSO photometry manual written by Mark Blackford and his team?https://aavso.org/dslr-observing-manual.
JBD