What can people do with this M31 data?

[alacant]

Hi

Excellent shot. Loadsa detail.

StartTools 1.7. Gave me the chance to get the secondary point spread thingy right:)

Edited February 19, 2021 by alacant

[bottletopburly]

Try Startools it cost nothing to try for as long as you like only difference is you can’t save file though you can screen shot, have a read on Startools website at Ivo Jager’s  @jager945description of what Startools is capable of and full version is around £40 

https://www.startools.org/

[Delboy_Hog]

On 19/02/2021 at 10:36, alacant said:

Hi

Excellent shot. Loadsa detail.

StartTools 1.7. Gave me the chance to get the secondary point spread thingy right:)

Holy Moly, that's a lovely version - lots of faint stuff, detail in the dust lanes, and I love the colour you've got in the stars - that's something else I need to work on - it's white blobs only for me at the moment!  I really must check out this Startools!  What's the secondary point spread thingy?!

Thanks for that - it's comforting to know that there's good stuff in the data.  Like many of us, I've got a lot of projects in mind, but I've taken a number of images where I did something wrong and something doesn't work for some reason, it can get disheartening.  I'm finally getting to the point where I can take a reasonable set of images....I've just got to learn what to do with them!

[Delboy_Hog]

The other thing I'm learning is how different images look on different screens - it's very strange!  I've just looked through the images on this thread again, and they look so different from my phone to the laptop, and different again on my work laptop...how on earth do you know what your image really looks like if it's different to everyone depending on their screen!?

[happy-kat]

On the startools site is a gradient scale chart. It's a good reference to easily see what screens work well or which eat images.

It only needs to look good to the person processing it is my take. Mobiles I find eat images, there's always less stars.

Edited February 23, 2021 by happy-kat

[vlaiv]

1 hour ago, Delboy_Hog said:

The other thing I'm learning is how different images look on different screens - it's very strange!  I've just looked through the images on this thread again, and they look so different from my phone to the laptop, and different again on my work laptop...how on earth do you know what your image really looks like if it's different to everyone depending on their screen!?

Well, everyone should calibrate their screen if they want to properly view images on it.

Operating systems have routine for simple screen calibration - color balance, temperature and gamma. It should be enough to get decent calibration and relatively similar looking image.

Professionals that work in graphic design do their calibration with special devices that measure light coming from screen and adjust that for true (or close to true) color rendition.

[alacant]

6 hours ago, Delboy_Hog said:

secondary point spread

Hi

It's one of @jager945's (I'm sure he'd do better than I at explaining!) algorithms in StarTools. The most realistic modelling I've found of what your image looks like without an atmosphere to blur it. Other methods add noise, artefacts around stars and look unnatural. This one just works.

HTH