Group: Milky Way Bows

Stitch programs

Let me share my own experience for those who would love to do a Milky way bow. Its not hard just the right preparation and right programs make all the difference.

I had shots taken some 6 months before I was ever able to put a Milky way bow together. The normal stitch program work well in the day light but fail with the stars in the sky. All the over laps where clearly visible as there was a double lot of stars at each join. This went from Acsoft to photo shop, Light Room and a few others i had on my computer I tried even tried Microsoft ICE on my laptop. it was a few but i found i could make a panorama but i had no control over the result or change manually the auto that the program chose. I finally was at the mercy of Hugin which was free and worked with some of the shots but I seemed to have almost no control over the program much like the others.

www.ipernity.com/doc/1073393/45714664

I found it not very user friendly I did bows with Hugin till I was told get a program that you can control and will handle the night sky evenly, PT Gui.

www.ipernity.com/doc/1073393/45714728

I did trials on all the bows i had made before with Hugin and found that PT Gui was a far more friendly to work with the whole bow looked normal no great overlaps showing extra stars just a normal looking night sky. While it is true you need to do some input of setting control point( the more the better) the results have been worth it. You also have a lot of control over the result and I found the program very friendly to work with. I bought the program and the rest is history as they say. which every program you wish to use and buy take the free trial first to check it out to make sure its what you are comfortable with.

While not a free program I believe the results do speak for them selves. You can pay bigger money for Gigapan Head and program all auto but for the moment I like to use my own head. Hope this helps a few others In there quest to try the elusive milky Way Bow. well worth the effort if you find some one who does them ask what they use and how most people are happy to share.

Steve