Stratton Star Removal

[steppenwolf]

Sadly, still no response to my email  - Olly, have you managed to progress this any further?

[ollypenrice]

Sadly, still no response to my email  - Olly, have you managed to progress this any further?

Nope, nothing from my end either. They had an ad in Astronomy Now, though, in the same issue as Nik's article. It was a marvellous piece of non communication since, prior to reading the article, I'd looked at it without having the slightest idea what the product was. Fancy moonlighting as a marketing director, Steve? No, me neither!

Olly

[steppenwolf]

Fancy moonlighting as a marketing director, Steve? No, me neither!

There was a time when that was my role but I am sooo pleased to have left all that nastiness behind me!

Nik's article in AN was excellent and provoked me into re-examining the software more closely. I too subsequently saw the advert and, funnily enough, queried its exact meaning and the repercussions for existing users in my email.

In fairness to the guy, I suspect that this software is secondary to his main living so maybe he is just very busy elsewhere?

[dave_galera]

Pah! Not available for Mac.

So I won't bother either.........feel a PI script coming on!!

[ollypenrice]

There was a time when that was my role but I am sooo pleased to have left all that nastiness behind me!

Nik's article in AN was excellent and provoked me into re-examining the software more closely. I too subsequently saw the advert and, funnily enough, queried its exact meaning and the repercussions for existing users in my email.

In fairness to the guy, I suspect that this software is secondary to his main living so maybe he is just very busy elsewhere?

Yes, but I do think that you should, if you rattle the public's cage, be there when they respond.

Olly

[orion58]

I downloaded Straton a week or so ago and have been using it to process narrowband images primarily.  Overall I am impressed with the software's ease of use and results.  I've had to play with the top slider in the parameter box but it is very straightforward.  I've been comparing it to my other method (ImagesPlus Feature Mask).  The differences are subtle - both of them are capable of doing a good job - but Straton is somewhat quicker.

I want to stress that it is too early to form a concrete conclusion but I will say that Straton is very capable software.  Depending on the quality of the data you may find yourself experimenting with a few iterations at different settings before you get the result you want but that is to be expected.  I find that I still have to use the spot healing brush in photoshop to clean things up a bit before I stretch the starless image but that only takes a few minutes.  Note that if your data is extremely noisy you may not like what you see but for narrowband processing where I end up blurring the color before applying the luminosity layer to clean things up, it doesn't matter.

So, I don't know if I've clarified anything or just muddied the water but I'm still using it...

[lensman57]

I downloaded Straton a week or so ago and have been using it to process narrowband images primarily.  Overall I am impressed with the software's ease of use and results.  I've had to play with the top slider in the parameter box but it is very straightforward.  I've been comparing it to my other method (ImagesPlus Feature Mask).  The differences are subtle - both of them are capable of doing a good job - but Straton is somewhat quicker.

I want to stress that it is too early to form a concrete conclusion but I will say that Straton is very capable software.  Depending on the quality of the data you may find yourself experimenting with a few iterations at different settings before you get the result you want but that is to be expected.  I find that I still have to use the spot healing brush in photoshop to clean things up a bit before I stretch the starless image but that only takes a few minutes.  Note that if your data is extremely noisy you may not like what you see but for narrowband processing where I end up blurring the color before applying the luminosity layer to clean things up, it doesn't matter.

So, I don't know if I've clarified anything or just muddied the water but I'm still using it...

I have been experimenting with this  for quite a while and it is most effective in mono images with relatively small stars, perhaps those taken using a very narrow passband NB filter.

A.G

[orion58]

I have been experimenting with this  for quite a while and it is most effective in mono images with relatively small stars, perhaps those taken using a very narrow passband NB filter.

A.G

You could very well be right - the only images I've tested it on have been either Ha, OIII or SII.

[PatrickGilliland]

Hi All and Olly&Co (RE: Payment issues)

I have been using this recently and found it very useful - just posted an NGC6888 in the forums using this tool.

@ Olly & Co: On the subject of payment interface did you email the author directly or the payment company.  I mailed the author on zipproth@icloud.com concerning a few little issues and he was very responsive even offering to rewrite the software the next day for me.  If you have not tried this address it might be worth a go. 

Cheers

Paddy

[Astroscot2]

Has anyone been able to compare Anna's star removal action against strattons?

[PatrickGilliland]

Different tools for different jobs. Stratton can be tweaked more easily to select star versus nebula balance for extraction. However it only works in mono, colour images requires breaking back down in channels for editing. Annies tools a great for masking but by default often get some of the nebula brightest areas though masks can deal with this issue to a degree. Inverting the selection for a quick star mask is also very useful in colour processing while in Ps.

I have also found straton can struggle with very bright stars and have had to mask back in on occasions when using but generally good on typical sized stars.

So no decisive answer I use both and both very well priced suggest both have a place in the image processing arsenal.

Paddy