Color through Debayering Digital imaging of the planets burst onto the scene in the early 21st century.
A 4-pixel block that only samples one pixel in red should have the red information reduced by 75%, right? Wrong! Each pixel in an OSC camera reports information in all three color channels, regardless of which filter is over the pixel, when the image is run through an advanced debayering algorithm.
This is where a popular misconception comes into play.
#PLANETARY IMAGE STACKING SOFTWARE SOFTWARE#
Your camera’s control software (or your preferred planetary stacking program) then separates the pixels into the three respective color channels and interpolates the “gaps” between the missing pixels on each channel to make a color image. The result is an image where 50% of the pixels are recorded though the green filters, 25% are red, and 25% are blue-filtered, all on the same grayscale image. This 4-pixel block of tiny color filters, arranged in a repeating grid of one red, two green, and one blue pixel over the entire sensor, was designed to mimic the human eye’s response to color and luminosity. The vast majority of OSC cameras use the Bayer filter, named for its inventor, Bryce Bayer. In order for a monochrome sensor to produce a color image, two things are necessary: a color filter array (CFA) permanently affixed over the sensor, and software to re-interpret the images as individual color channels. Understanding Color Camerasīoth CCDs and CMOS sensors in all digital cameras start their lives as monochrome sensors. That may have been true a few years ago, but changes in interpolation algorithms, chip sensitivity, and stacking software have made this problem a thing of the past. That’s because color cameras are reputed to produce inherently lower-resolution images due to their filter matrix, known as the Bayer filter. Online imaging forums are almost universal in their recommendation to use a monochrome camera with separate red, green, and blue filters instead of a one-shot color (OSC) camera. But depending on your interests, you can eliminate the monochrome camera - with its complex filter wheels and expensive filters - and use a color video camera to record some of the highest-quality planetary images around. Most use a monochrome camera with individual color filters to record videos that then are stacked, sharpened, and combined into the final color image. Planetary imagers these days routinely produce high-resolution photos of the Sun, Moon, and planets with high-speed video cameras. Advances in imaging technology should make amateurs give these cameras a second look.īy Dan Llewellyn in the May 2014 issue of Sky & Telescope
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