Astra Image - Image Processing Software

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Astra Image 3.0 Pro - Features and Benefits Astra Image 3.0 Pro provides you with outstanding tools to analyse, enhance and process your digital images. Highly optimized routines give you the performance you expect from a science-grade application. Faster Astra Image is optimised to work with very large images. Using threads means that the interface is always responsive. The full size, real time previews show adjustments very quickly. Even the mathematically intense fast Fourier transform (FFT) tools will give you results quickly. More Accurate Partial pixel calculations along with an outstanding background algorithm means that Astra Image's aperture photometry produces accurate, repeatable results. Unlike other software, the deconvolution routines in Astra Image are unconditionally stable so you can have full confidence in your results. Information is presented in a logical, easy to follow way so it can be assimilated quickly. Easier An intuitive, easy to use interface means you can be producing great results quickly without a steep learning curve. Deconvolution Example Astra Image can produce stunning results with deconvolution. The deconvolution methods in Astra Image are fast, easy to use and unconditionally stable. That means you get great results fast. Below is an unprocessed image of Saturn. On the right in an image of Saturn processed with deconvolution in Astra Image. The deconvolution function has brought out a wealth of detail on the surface of Saturn and in the rings. Now, imagine what Astra Image could do for your images. Astra Image 3.0 PRO - $129.95
Displaying Images
	+ 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point as well as 8, 24 and 48 bit color images can be opened and processed. + The Display Mode window allows you to set the black and white points when displaying floating-point images. The image display is adjusted in real time as these values are changed. + Cursor information tells you coordinate information as well as pixel value. + Zoom is available from 6.25% to 1600%. The zoom is easily set using the scroll-wheel on the mouse or by the zoom buttons on the toolbar. A custom zoom level can be entered by the user. + High quality prints can be easily produced using the Print tool. Image scaling and position on the page can be set by using the mouse. + Images within a folder can be browsed easily by using the Previous and Next buttons. + Images can be acquired from any TWAIN compatible device including scanners and cameras. + Gray images can be combined into a 24 or 48-bit RGB image. + Images can be calibrated using dark, bias and flat-field frames.
3D Visualization
	+ Three-dimensional surface plots can be easily created from 16-bit and 32-bit floating point images as well as 24-bit and 48-bit color images. + Surface plots can be rotated and zoomed in real time. + Three types of chart are available: smooth surface, stepped surface and tower (pedestal) surface. + Surface color can be chosen on a per-polygon or per-vertex basis. + Surfaces can be colored using a pre-defined palette. + The shininess of the surface can be easily adjusted. + The height of the plot can be easily adjusted. + Light position can be easily changed. + The specular, diffuse and ambient light colors can be easily adjusted. + Three shading models can be used: smooth shading, flat shading and wireframe. + Overlay grid can be turned on or off. + Walls, axes and labels can be turned on or off and their color easily adjusted. + Background color can be easily adjusted. + The surface plot chart can be copied to the clipboard or saved to disk.
Image Adjustment Functions
	+ A wide range of functions including brightness and contrast, gamma, image levels, curves, digital development process (DDP) and histogram equalization are available. + All image adjustment functions provide full-size, real time preview so you can see exactly what is happening. + The digital development process is very easy to use and provides user-selectable edge enhancement. + Easy to understand parameters help to provide confidence in the results. + Hue, saturation and lightness as well as color balance for all three channels can be adjusted for 24 and 48-bit color images. + Individual color channels can be adjusted using Curves and Levels. + Real time preview can be disabled, if desired. + Images can be resized using one of six different methods: nearest neighbour, bilinear, bicubic, Mitchell, Lagrange and B-spline. + Images can be rotated to any angle.
Deconvolution and Sharpening Functions
	+ Maximum entropy, Lucy Richardson and Van Cittert deconvolution methods are implemented giving you a wide choice of functions. + Define Gaussian or exponential point spread functions (PSFs) to correct for many kinds of image errors including focus problems and atmospheric turbulence. + A selectable preview area allows you to see the results of deconvolution quickly. + Deconvolution applied to color images is just as fast as deconvolution applied to 16 / 32-bit floating-point images. + Unconditionally stable deconvolution routines mean you can have great confidence in the resulting images. + Any number of deconvolution iterations can be specified from 1 to 65535. + Wavelet sharpening quickly enhances your images at various scales. This is very useful for all digital images, especially planetary images. + Using wavelet sharpening, details within the image can be selectively sharpened from very small detail up to very large detail. + Convolution filters can be used to sharpen, blur and extract other edge information from an image. + Unsharp masking can be applied quickly. The amount of sharpening and the blurring function can be easily varied.
Alignment and Stacking Tools
	+ Images can be aligned automatically with just one click. + Images can be combined into a single image using an add, mean, median or sigma-clip operator. + Real-time updating shows you the progress of the alignment process. + Red, green, blue and luminance (LRGB) images can be combined into a single color image. + LRGB images can be creating using the HSL or CIE Lab* color spaces.
FFT Tools
	+ Highpass and lowpass FFT filters can be applied to any image. + Both ideal filters and Butterworth filters are available. + For Butterworth filters the filter order is adjustable from 1 to 20. + For highpass filters, high frequency emphasis can be applied to keep the overall brightness of the image. + Homomorphic filtering can greatly increase the contrast and visibility of details in images, especially X-ray and ultrasound images. + The homomorhpic filter can be applied to the RGB channels or to just the luminance channel when processing color images.
Aperture Photometry
	+ Aperture photometry can be performed very quickly and easily on one or more objects. + Aperture and annulus sizes can be adjusted with results updating in real time. + Partial pixel calculations around the edge of the aperture produces accurate and repeatable results. + An excellent background calculation method rejects other objects within the annulus. The user can choose which background calculation method to use. + Accurate centroiding means its easy to get repeatable results. + Photometry results can be combined into a report. The report can be saved to disk as a comma separated value (csv) file, or directly exported into Microsoft Excel. + Extensive data is reported including the aperture sum, background value, signal-to-noise ratio and an estimate of the uncertainty of the measurement. + Aperture color can be changed to aid visibility.
Filters
	+ Convolution filters can be applied to sharpen, blur and detect edges within an image. + Custom filter kernels can be defined up to 5 x 5 in size. Filters can be named, saved and deleted. + Median and mean filters with variable width windows can be applied. + The adaptive DW-MTM filter reduces noise while preserving edge information.
Measurement Functions
	+ Extensive image statistics can be quickly calculated including the mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation. + Statistics can be saved to disk, or directly exported into Microsoft Excel for further analysis. + Detailed histograms can be created and displayed easily. + Histograms can display the intensity, RGB overlaid or separate R, G and B histograms for color images. The chart updates automatically whenever a change is made. + Histograms can be saved to disk, copied to the clipboard or printed directly. + The Y-axis on the histogram can be log scaled so you can see information more clearly. + Line plots can plot a row, column or user-defined line of any length or angle. + All charts can be customized by changing titles, inverting one or both axes, turning on or off grid lines etc.
Metadata Functions
	+ EXIF data can be viewed. EXIF comments can be added while preserving the original date and time of the image. + IPTC data can be viewed and modified while retaining the original date and time of the image. + The FITS header of an image can be viewed and examined easily.
Supported File Formats
	+ Windows Bitmap Files + DirectDraw Surface Files + FITS Files + GIF Files + Icon Files + JPEG Network Graphic Files + JPEG Files + KODAK PhotoCD Files + Portable Bitmap Files + PCX Files + PNG Files + Portable Graymap Files + Portable Pixelmap Files + Sun Raster Image Files + Truevision TARGA Files + TIFF Files + Wireless Bitmap Files + X11 Bitmap Format + X11 Pixmap Format

Displaying Images

3D Visualization

Image Adjustment Functions

Deconvolution and Sharpening Functions

Alignment and Stacking Tools

FFT Tools

Aperture Photometry

Filters

Measurement Functions

Metadata Functions

Supported File Formats