[fitsbits] Registar - new image matching software!

[Duncan Munro]

Registar is a very interesting new program for Win32 (also runs quite
well on OS/2 with the Project ODIN win32 translator, so it may run
under Linux with WINE).

quote from the webpage ( http://www.aurigaimaging.com/ ):

"RegiStar is a one-of-a-kind program that fully automates the task of
aligning digital astronomical images. It finds matching stars, which
it uses to transform one image so that it is precisely
aligned with another. RegiStar shifts, rotates, and deforms as needed.
It aligns images that are at different scales or orientations, even if
they have been produced with different optical systems. RegiStar works
on film or CCD images, and can register these very different types of
images to each other.

After two or more astrophotos have been aligned by RegiStar, they can
be combined in various ways. Small images can be stitched together
into a mosaic, photos can be stacked to improve image quality, or
high-resolution tricolor images can be formed. RegiStar includes tools
to form these composites, and also allows for images it registers to
be assembled and manipulated using other programs.

RegiStar is the intelligent way to register images. The once tedious
process of accurately registering astronomical photographs is now just
a matter of a single mouse click. With image alignment this easy, it
will change the way you do astrophotography."

Registar would also seem to have some serious scientific value. For
example, comet hunters could compare two wide field 35mm images taken
days apart. Registar would precisely match the overlapping portion of
the images which could then be subtracted. Any new objects would then
be revealed.  

You can test Registar out for yourself by going to the webpage:

http://www.aurigaimaging.com/

where you can download a trial version. Registar is very fast. finding
all the stars in a 20meg image takes less than a minute on my
k6-3 at 475mhz, even while running with the Win32 translator on OS/2.

Clear skies

Duncan
Duncan Munro

http://persweb.direct.ca/dunmunro