Suggested workflow for spectroscopy please?

[Gasman]

Hi Guys
Must admit I have not used Pixinsight much since registering my copy for various reasons, I now have more time to learn this excellent software and wondering what workflow you experienced PI guys could recommend for processing spectra please?.
This attached is a typical unprocessed shot from my spectroscope (in png format for the post) using my Atik 314 ccd on a 120mm apo Espirit refractor of the star Vega.
You can see with spectroscopy you don`t have the luxury of beautiful coloured detailed images but the important thing is the variation from left to right of the light/dark sections of the spectra which is then processed through spectroscopy software to show the peaks and troughs as light (emission) and dark (absorption) lines. This leads me to Pixinsight and its reputation for bringing out suptle detail in fits images so what workflow could you guys recommend to bring out this detail please?.
Thanks
Steve

[dayers]

Hi Steve,

I've followed you over to the General section. I am starting to educate myself on the subject. I assume that someone will move the initial replies to General also.

It appears that the Star Analyzer and the ISIS software are the essential pieces, and the Star Analyzer is mounted in the optical path at the CCD or camera focal point. Is that right? If I understand your question, you are wondering how PI can be used to get the most information out of the image.

I may be getting ahead of myself, but can spectroscopy be used to measure red-shift?

Dave

[Gasman]

Hi Dave
Yes you can although I've not done it myself!. One of the guys on one of the spectro forums even took a spectrum from the rings of Saturn from each side of the planet and worked out the direction of rotation of the rings and also the speed at which they were rotating !!!!
 The Star Analyser just fits in place of a filter in the eyepiece or CCD and used the same as a filter, mine was 100lines/mm I believe its available as 200 lines/mm now giving slightly better detail but I used mine for a year or two before progressing to my present Alpy 600 spectroscope
Steve

[oldwexi]

Hi Steve!
Did this for a friend some time ago  .
So,
First calibration business as usual. Dark Subtraction and Flat Division to remove hotpixel and the darkening at the borders left and right.
Than put a preview over the Strip
With PixelMath either pull the median value out of the strip as the strip also vertically changes the brightness;
or with PIxelMath select a single line.
Both PM processes are visible in the screenshot:
http://www.werbeagentur.org/oldwexi/spectra_median.jpg

Than with LocalHistogramEqualization do the contrast stretch
Then with PixelMath: iif(abs((1-$T)*height($T)) > ypos(), 0,$T)
you Display the curves.

Gerald

[Gasman]

Excellent thanks for the info Gerald, most of the terms are new to me `Pixelmath` `LocalHistogramEqualization` etc but I suppose all will become clear when I start delving into PI  .
Dave
I maybe wouldn`t start with ISIS first off, its the software I now mostly use but comes with a bit of a learning curve. Rspec http://www.rspec-astro.com/ is another excellent package too although not free ($99) it comes with a 30 day free trial to get a feel of it, perfect for the Star Analyser!
Steve

[Gasman]

Hi guys and happy Xmas to all in the forum!
Thought I'd post another grab to show the sort of image I'm wanting to get the most detail out of.
This profile of SN2014J I took back in January you can see the two spectra at the top with the resulting plot below! Its the spectra I want to tweak;-)
Regards
Steve