CCD Image Processing

Beginning with a set of raw images, many stages of image manipulation are needed to produce the final image.    The following description is a process that seems to work good for me, but without a doubt, could be improved upon.


At least 3 major processing phases usualy occur to combine an evening's set of raw images into a final color image.   An imaging session typically results in  a few to several dozen raw images, all taken of the same target and using a variety of light filters.   The process begins with image reduction: the removal of electronic noise in the camera, the removal of 'dust donuts' and other optical anomolies, and the correction of hot and cold pixels.     Stage 2 aligns the many separate images of red, green, blue, and luminance or hydrogen alpha, and combines each of them together as master reds, greens, etc.     The next phase deals with combining the color layers into a composite, and finaly adjusting them further if necessary to darken the background or brighten the midrange, sharpen the imate or many other possible tweaks.

The following topics are discussed below:

Freezing the Camera
Shooting the Raw Imaging Set
Image Reduction - Dark Subtraction
Image Reduction - Flat Field Subtraction
Image Reduction - Hot and Cold Pixel Removal
Align Images - Pick a Star
Layer Combine - All the Reds, or Greens, etc
RGB Combine - First Look at the Target's Colors
Luminance Combine - Clear or Hydrogen Alpha
LRGB Combine - Add the Luminance's Detail to the Color Image
Final Image Adjustments - Enhance, Crop, Resize, Done!

Freezing the Camera

An interesting characteristic of the CCD chip  is that it works better as it gets colder.    A slight amount of noise is introduced by the CCD itself, but, the signal to noise ratio actually improves as the chip cools down.   The camera has a built-in bi-metalic refridgeration device that exhausts head with a fan.  This allows it to cool the CCD chip to about 35 degrees C below the air temperature.   There is an optional water pump system that pumps cold water through the camers to remove heat more efficiently allowing another 10 degrees C temperature drop.   

In actual use during the summer, the camera operates at about 10 degrees below zero Celcuis.   In the winter it has imaged at -40, but I normally don't operate it below -30.

Shooting the Raw Image Set

Each color layer in a set of images is made up of  4 or more individual shots.   For all deep sky objects, longer exposure time means better image.  Once the scope is aligned, focused and autoguiding, it is time to finaly start shooting raw pictures.  

CCDSoft can take a sequence of images that make up a set that will be processed later on.  Typically all shots are 5, 10 or 15 minutes long and in the quantity as follows:  luminance (clear or hydrogen alpha filter)  4 to 10 individual exposures, red 3 or 4, green 3 or 4, blue 3 or 4.     This combination of shots can result in 2 or 3 hours of almost continuous exposure on a target object.    It will take another 2 or 3 hours of processing on a PC to make the final composite image.   

Image Reduction - Dark Subtract

The electronics in CCD cameras produce a small amount of 'noise'.   This has a cumulative effect where it accumulates over time, becoming a significant source of errors in the image.  Your digital camera does it too, but you don't see it because your shots are maybe 1/60 of a second instead of 10 minutes, so there is little accumulation time for the noise to grow,  in addition, there is an extremely small amout of light being recieved from typical astronomical targets, often not very far above the noise floor; not exactly as bright as daylight on Earth.

A Dark Image is simply a regular light shot except that the shutter remains closed so no light gets in.   The dark is exposed at the same CCD camera temperature and the same exposure time as the corresponding light shot.    A series of 9 dark shots are taken for each temp/time to correspond with the light images to be processed.   The 9 darks are averaged to create a Master Dark.  

The master dark is mathematicaly subtracted from a light shot of the same temp/time.   The result is an image that no longer shows the effects of electronics noise.  Since darks are time consuming to take and process, it is fortunate that they only need to be taken once.    My Master Dark Library now consists of  master darks for -10, -15, -20, -25 and -30 degrees C, and for 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes at each temperature.  

Image Reduction - Flat Field

Flat fields are not always required, usualy helpful when there is a modest (or more) of the Moon illuminating the atmosphere, and/or when the sky is hazy.   During these conditions, dust or moisture anywhere on the telescope's or camera's optics shows up on the image a 'little dark donuts'.    These can be eliminated with a process similar to dark subtraction.     I use a sheet of white paper that is simply folded at the top two corners and will sit on the end of the scope's dew shield with the telescope aimed about level.  An indirect  low light is cast on the paper and then an exposure is taken.   This is often a shot of 5 to 10 seconds.  Once the time is chosen, a set of 9 flat field images is taken.      Another set of 9 darks of the same time is taken so the flats can be dark subtracted.

Once the flats are dark subtracted, they are averaged into a master flat.    The flat field reduction routine in CCDSoft does the rest.   It cleans up not only the dust donuts, but also vignetting that might be occuring.

The picture below is a sample showing a single flat field image on the left and a master flat field (the average of 9 flats) on the right.  The benefit of averaging multiple shots is quite apparent.
single and master flats


Image Reduction -  Hot and Cold Pixel Removal

Even after doing dark and flat field
subtracts, there are always still some waascully pixels that need to be tamed.    The Remove Hot Pixel and Remove Cold Pixel functions do the trick.

Align Images  - Pick a Small Star

 When combining multiple images, they may not all stack on top of one another exactly.   Aligning images allow them to be combined.  Pick one of the smallest stars that can be easily identified in all images to be combined.   CCDSoft provides a tool to select and center a crosshair on the star in each image, then align all of them at once.  

Layer Combine - All the Reds, or Greens, etc

If there are only 1 or 2 images of each color then just combine them manually.   If there are 3 or more images for each layer such as luminance, then I same them in their own directory (aptly named lum, or red, etc) and use the combine folder function.   At this point there is a single composite image for each of the red, green, blue and probably luminance layers.  The three images below are each a 5 minute exposure and are left to right, red, green and blue:
red green blue

RGB Color Combine - First Look at the Target's Colors

This is where the three rgb color components are first glued together in a computer.   It's also where image processing techniques begin to differ significantly.   CCDSoft is used to combine the r g and b layers together to create a color image which is saved as a .tif file.
rgb combined


Luminance Combine - Clear Or Hydrogen Alpha

Typically after raw image cleanup, there are usualy from 3 to 15 images to combine into a single master luminance.   The CCDSoft options to combine them all at once are:  add, average or median combine.     The difference is subtle and depends on the target and image but I often prefer median combine.   The following image shows a sample comparison between a single image and when nine were combined together.   This is a portion of M33, all 9 luminance exposures were 5 minutes each.
single and 9 combined images

LRGB Combine - Add the Luminance's Detail to the Color Image

Graphics programs like Photoshop do an outstanding job of doing the Luminance  layer with the RGB layer, I use a open source code program called GIMP that does the same combining and adjustment to create the finished image.

Final  Image Adjustments - Enhance, Crop, Resize, Done!

This final task is controlled by taste.    Every computer screen shows the image a little different and there are dozens of ways to fine tune an image.  What are the right choices and how much influence should be used on the image?  Things like sharpen, gamma correction, histogram curves, contrast, R G and B curves, deconvolution a just a few.   I havent even found them all yet.

The following image of M33 shows the final composite:
m33