Color Imaging with AIP4WIN:
using ver 1.4.25

revised 9:03 AM 11/2/2004 -------------------------
Important: Never work with your original images.  Always be absolutely
certain that you have well protected archival copies because you will be sorry if you don't!
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Darks and Flats:
reduction steps
- be sure you have darks for each light exposure time you used
  (typically 60 or 120 secs)
- you want to median combine darks and save as "masterdarkXXsecs.fts"
with AIP4WIN:
Calibrate|Setup|Basic ...|Select Dark frame(s)
 Browse and select the darks to be combined and click Open
 Select (*) Median Combine and then
 click Create Master Dark
 click Save Master Dark
 fill in data field and Save
 close the Basic Calibration tool

- be sure you have darks for each flat exposure time you used
  (typically B 40 V 8 R 12 I 48 for flats)
- you want to median combine flats (subtracting appropriate darks)
with AIP4WIN:
for each filter
Calibrate|Setup|Standard ...|

 Select Flat frame(s)
 Browse and select the flats to be combined and click Open
 Select (*) Median Combine (or (*) Normalize Median if twilight flats
 check [v] Subtract Flat-Dark
 click Select Flat-Darks
 Browse and select the Darks (of correct exposure time)
  to be combined and click Open
 Select (*) Median Combine
 Click Create Master Flat
 click Save Master Flat (save file as MasterFlatX.fts where X=filter
 fill in data field and Save
repeat this for each filter color

 close the Basic Calibration tool

Lights:
 now apply darks and flats to lights
 AIP4WIN likes to work from stored in memory darks and flats so it
  is important to make sure that the desired dark or flat is in place
Calibrate|Master Frames|Master xxxx Contents 
 will allow viewing the item(s) currently being used.  If you used  
 only one exposure length for lights and have followed the above   
 scheme, the proper master dark should already be selected
 for each filter
- confirm correct master dark and reselect if necessary by
Calibrate|Master Frames|Clear|Dark, then
Calibrate|Setup|Basic ...|Select Dark frame(s)
 Browse and select the master dark and click Open
 Select (*) Average Combine and then
 click Create Master Dark
- confirm correct master flat and reselect if necessary by
Calibrate|Master Frames|Clear|Flat, then
Calibrate|Setup|Standard ...|
 Select Flat frame(s)
 Browse and select the desired flat and click Open
 Select (*) Average Combine
 uncheck [ ] Subtract Flat-Dark
 Click Create Master Flat

-now you are ready to process each light (of this filter)
 IMPORTANT ... do not combine the lights until after darks and flats
 have been applied
open the light with File|Open Image
Calibrate|Manual Calibration|Subtract Dark from Image
 (a new image labeled [yy] dark Subtracted: [xx] is created where
  xx was the index number of the light)
Calibrate|Manual Calibration|Apply Flat to Image
 (a new image labeled [zz] FlatFrame Divided: [yy] is created where
  xx was the index number of the dark subtracted image)
File|Save As FITS
 (be certain to change the name ... I like to add a "p" for processed)
 at this point you can close the light and the dark subtracted images
repeat for all lights with this filter

- now we need to align each image in a single color and combine them all into one composite
Multi-Image|Auto-Process|Deep Sky ...
Select Files
 Browse and select images to be aligned and combined
 Process Type (*) Stack
 Select Master Frame
  (pick the best image of the set.  You may then want to use the
   Display Control to get a Negative Image and adjust the Gamma)
 Alignment (*) 2 Star (preferred, 1 Star if only 1 star available)
 Slave Alignment Star Selection (*) Manual

 now click on the brightest star and then on Star1
 click on a second (widely seperated) star and then on Star2
 click OK and the next image will appear labeled "Slave Image"
 click on your selected star 1 and a small box will show up
 click Star1, then click on your star 2 and on Star2, then OK
 repeat this for the rest of the images
 when all images have been clicked, a frame labled Track and Stack 
  will show up.  This is the aligned and added together image.
 File|Save As FITS this image with a new name (I append an S to
 the object name and filter letter)

- combine as a color image
  first we must register (align) the three color components
File|Open Image
 browse and select the R V B stacked images just created
Color|Process RGB
select the R image as RED, the V image as GREEN, the B images as BLUE
ignore Color Weights and click Register RGB Image Set
do a 2 star registration as before
now save the three images appending an "a" for aligned to their names

- finally (the three stacked and now aligned images should still be   loaded)
Color|Join Colors
select the Red Green Blue sa images and click Auto Color

a Color Composite image should appear.  If you don't like the colors,
play with settings.  When happy, save as a .jpg image by
File|Export|Save as file type JPEG