| MENU COMMANDS | |
| How to Perform the Command | Description of the Command |
| File : Open and Add Movie | Brings a quicktime movie into the workspace. Details of the interface for opening movies are described in the section on planetary processing. |
| File : Open and Add Picture | Brings one or more single image files into the worksspace. |
| File : Open Dark Frame | Selects a dark frame image. |
| File : Open Flat Field Frame | Selects a flat field frame image. |
| File : Open FITS File as Stack | Opens one FITS file as a red, green, or blue channel of the stack. |
| File : Open Raw File as Stack | Opens one Raw file as the stack. |
| File : Save Stack as 32-bit PICT | Saves the stack as a 32 bit PICT file. |
| File : Save Stack as 48/96-bit FITS | Saves the stack as three FITS files, one each for red, green, and blue, at 16 or 32 bits per component per file. |
| File : Save Stack as 48/96-bit Raw | Saves the stack as a Raw file at 16 or 32 bits per pixel component. |
| File : Open Workspace | Opens a workspace file (the state of the Clips Window). |
| File : Dump Workspace | Dumps the workspace (the state of the Clips Window) to a set of PICT files. |
| File : Save Workspace | Saves the workspace (the state of the Clips Window) to a single file for further processing. |
| Edit : Select All | Selects all the frames. |
| Edit : Deselect All | Deselects all the frames. |
| Edit : Invert Selection | Inverts the frame selection. |
| Edit : Select Included | Selects only the frames that are to be included in the stack. |
| Operations : Create Hot Pixel Mask | Lets you create a mask that excludes hot pixels during stacking. |
| Operations : Set Alignment Brightness Threshold | Lets you assign a brightness threshold for use on subsequent difference-alignment operations. |
| Operations : Align RGB Channels Separately | Toggles whether or not to align the red, green, and blue channels separately. |
| Operations : Power^2 Bounds Dim | Selects the dimensions of the Operation Bounds Rectangle when using the power-of-2 option. |
| Operations : Crop Clips | Crops the frames prior to stacking. |
| Operations : Resample Clips | Resamples the frames prior to stacking. |
| Operations : Sort all clips | Sorts the frames based on the method selected. Details are given in the section on planetary processing. |
| Operations : Sum/Stack all included frames | Produces a 96 bit (32 bits per red, green, blue channel) mean-based (average) stack of the included frames. |
| Operations : Gaussian Blur | Gaussian blurs the stacked image. |
| Operations : Unsharp Mask | Unsharp masks the stacked image. |
| Operations : Laplacian Pyramid Sharpen | Laplacian sharpens the stacked image. |
| Operations : Wavelet Shrinkage Denoise | Denoises the stacked image. |
| Operations : Adjust Histograms/Levels | Adjusts the levels of the stacked image. |
| Operations : Star Beautification | Performs deringing and debloating on stars. |
| Operations : Transform | Rotates and/or flips the stacked image. |
| Operations : Resample | Bins the stacked image 4 to 1 or 9 to 1. Increases the dynamic range by 4 or 9. |
| CLIPS WINDOW COMMANDS | |
| How to Perform the Command | Description of the Command |
| Mouse click/drag with shift key | Makes a selection of the clips for a subsequent operation. Selected clips are marked with a thin yellow outline. |
| Mouse click | Toggles stack inclusion on all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) (excluded clips have a red X over them). |
| Mouse click with option key | Completely removes any alignment on all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) |
| Mouse click with control key | Toggles darkframe subtraction on all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) (darkframe subtracted clips have a 'D' in the upper right corner). |
| Mouse click with control and shift keys | Toggles flat field division on all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) (flat field frame divided clips have an 'F' in the upper right corner). |
| Mouse click with command key | Performs any other command such that all clips are treated like the clip under the mouse. Otherwise each clip is processed separately (can have different effects if a selection of clips includes a mixture of settings). For example, if a selection has some clips stack-included, and others not, the default behavior when clicking on the selection is to toggle each clip individually. Holding down the command key will make all the selected clips match the clip that is clicked on. |
| Mouse click with '1', '2', or '3' keys | Autoaligns by difference all selected clips to the reference frame (the first clip). '1' Autoaligns fastest if the alignment is off by more than about 15 pixels, '2' autoaligns fastest if the alignment is off by about 5 to 15 pixels, and '3' autoaligns fastest if the alignment is off by about fewer than 5 pixels. It doesn't matter too much which method you use. |
| Mouse click with '4' key | Autaligns by centroid all selected clips. This method is less precise than the difference method and should be followed by a difference alignment, but might it might be faster to use this method first. It's up to you. |
| Mouse click with '5' key | Autaligns by cross-correlation all selected clips. Slower than centroid alignment, but it's there if you want it.. |
| '[', ']', '{', or '}' keys | If there are more clips than can fit in the Clips Window at its present size, these keys move back forth through the pages of clips. The square brackets, '[' and ']', move in half pages, and the curly brackets, '{' and '}' move in whole pages. |
| 'R' key | Sets the clip under the mouse to the reference frame by switching places with the first frame. |
| 'D' key | Permanantly deletes all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) from the workspace. |
| 'N' key | Normalizes all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty). Details are given in the section on planetary processing. |
| 'M' key | Median filters all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty). Should be used sparingly, with a low threshold. Primarily intended as a method to fill in hot pixel holes, not as a denoising technique (for which median filtering is commonly used). Denoising is better accomplished through stacking. |
| 'B' key | Debayers all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty). This is for use with RAW modded cameras that receive the Bayer matrix pattern from the camera. Different clips may require different Bayer patterns, so it is recommended to deBayer the reference frame manually, and then deBayer the rest to match it. |
| 'B' key with option key | Removes deBayering from all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty). |
| arrow keys | Manually nudges all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) by one pixel. |
| arrow keys with shift and/or control and/or option keys | Manually nudges all selected clips (or the clip under the mouse if the selection is empty) by 5, 25, or 125 pixels. The number of modifier keys held down determines how large the nudge is. It doesn't matter which of the three modifier keys are used though (holding down shift, control, or option alone, will nudge by 5 pixels, any two of those keys will nudge by 25, and all three will nudge by 125). |
| FRAME INSPECTOR WINDOW COMMANDS | |
| How to Perform the Command | Description of the Command |
| Space key | Forces the Frame Inspector Window to display the reference frame. Otherwise the Frame Inspector Window displays the clip under the mouse. |
| Mouse click/drag | Defines an Operation Bounds Rectangle. |
| Mouse click/drag with control key | Defines an Operation Bounds Rectangle that is forced to be of power-of-2 dimensions. |
| FRAME STACK WINDOW COMMANDS | |
| How to Perform the Command | Description of the Command |
| arrow keys with '1', '2', or '3' keys | Manually nudges the red, green and blue channels of the Frame Stack by one pixel. |