M42, SER files and Linux

A DMK was placed at the Newtonian focus of an f/5, 6" Newtonian, on a Star Discovery AZ, GOTO mount. A 200 frame, 1s exposure SER file was captured using Nicola Mackin's AstroDMx Capture for Linux on a Linux Mint laptop. The SER file was stacked in Autostakkert! 2 running in Wine, and the resulting 16bit TIFF file was post-processed in the Gimp 2.9.

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Linux, showing M42/43

M43/42 trapezium region

16 bit capture to TIFF and SER files will be implemented before release of the software. This will be of greater values when cameras delivering 12 bits and 16 bits are implemented. Capture cards that offer 16 bit RGB, unfortunately only give 16 bits across all three colour channels 5-6-5 bits per R-G-B, whereas 8 bit RGB gives 24 bits across all three colour channels, 8-8-8 bits per R-G-B.