Blotches on startools processed image

[AstroNebulee]

33 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I downloaded the files at the top of the thread but surely they are not the unprocessed linear stacks? My honest impression was that they'd been given an inappropriate stretch and some brutally invasive noise reduction. I think you need to take the data back a few steps because what you posted for download is already very badly damaged.

Olly

Yep it's the fits one that's the linear one, I can't remember why I posted a tiff one, I think it was the results from a star tools process. 

[AstroNebulee]

16 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Try fits (right one out of the two posted) - it seems linear.

Here is quick process in Gimp after background removal in ImageJ:

I did nothing to the data except for bin x3 and background removal - just levels / curves in Gimp. Interestingly star field looks far richer than in any other processing above.

Very natural process there, I like it, thank you. My issue came from when trying to remove/reduce the vast amount of stars on the image or as I like to call it crudely crimes against processing. 

[vlaiv]

6 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Very natural process there, I like it, thank you. My issue came from when trying to remove/reduce the vast amount of stars on the image or as I like to call it crudely crimes against processing. 

Maybe look into starnet and processing of starless image?

You can then blend in stars afterwards.

However, I would advise you to deal with the problem on "hardware" level. Part of the issue with the stars is star bloat produced with fast ED doublet optics.

I took randomly two stars with surrounding star field and split channels

Different level of bloat can be seen in different channels. I think that focus is a bit off as well because of this and trying to make stars the smallest in all three channels. It worked for red and green which seem to be equal (with possibly red being focused a bit better than green) - blue is of course the worst.

Taming far edges of the spectrum might help here. It will allow for better focusing (focusing on green) and will remove some of star bloat.

Answer to this puzzle is Astronomik L3 luminance filter.

[AstroNebulee]

10 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Maybe look into starnet and processing of starless image?

You can then blend in stars afterwards.

However, I would advise you to deal with the problem on "hardware" level. Part of the issue with the stars is star bloat produced with fast ED doublet optics.

I took randomly two stars with surrounding star field and split channels

Different level of bloat can be seen in different channels. I think that focus is a bit off as well because of this and trying to make stars the smallest in all three channels. It worked for red and green which seem to be equal (with possibly red being focused a bit better than green) - blue is of course the worst.

Taming far edges of the spectrum might help here. It will allow for better focusing (focusing on green) and will remove some of star bloat.

Answer to this puzzle is Astronomik L3 luminance filter.

Thank you Vlaiv. The zwo filter isn't the greatest in my situation and in another thread I created on star bloat with my 294MC pro, the Astronomik L3 is widely suggested there, so I'm saving my pennies for that one 👍

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by AstroNebulee
Reconstruction

[Bibabutzemann]

Here is my try on your image

For background extraction i used a brand new tool called Graxpert. Learned from it today from the german youtube astrophotocologne, who initiated the project. It works so good and is completely free.

Then i applied slight stretch and color calibration in Siril and removed Stars with Starnet++

I processed the starless image with streatching and heavy noise reduction in camera raw filter.

I also used the clone stamp tool to reduce the large star halos.

Final touch was some defringing of the starlayer in camera raw filter and leveling the background.

 

 

 

 

[AstroNebulee]

8 hours ago, Bibabutzemann said:

Here is my try on your image

For background extraction i used a brand new tool called Graxpert. Learned from it today from the german youtube astrophotocologne, who initiated the project. It works so good and is completely free.

Then i applied slight stretch and color calibration in Siril and removed Stars with Starnet++

I processed the starless image with streatching and heavy noise reduction in camera raw filter.

I also used the clone stamp tool to reduce the large star halos.

Final touch was some defringing of the starlayer in camera raw filter and leveling the background.

 

 

 

 

That's very nice indeed 👍, really natural looking I've not heard of a tool called Graxpert, does in run in ps?I shall give your process a go thank you 

Edited April 26, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[Bibabutzemann]

5 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

That's very nice indeed 👍, really natural looking I've not heard of a tool called Graxpert, does in run in ps?I shall give your process a go thank you 

Its a standalone software only for gradient removal.

It doesnt surprise me that you didnt heard of it. Alnost nobody in this forum heard fromt it, since they released it yesterday

You can download it here , there is also a manual in english. Its really simple to use.

Just crop your stacked image, but dont apply any stretch before using graxpert.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Bibabutzemann

[alacant]

Hi

Try as I may, I cannot reproduce the blotches. Please tell us your process. StarTools produces a file with the steps you took. 

This is just 5 minutes in StarTools-1.8.527-2 taking AutoDev throughout and remaining close to the default values.

Focus: With low end refractors, focus using a mask, then looking at a white star in live view, adjust until the blue fringe begins to disappear but before it goes red.

For expert help, I'd recommend the StarTools Forum.

Cheers and HTH

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by alacant

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, Bibabutzemann said:

It doesnt surprise me that you didnt heard of it. Alnost nobody in this forum heard fromt it, since they released it yesterday

You can download it here , there is also a manual in english. Its really simple to use.

That will explain that then haha, thank you for the link and advice. 👍

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Try as I may, I cannot reproduce the blotches. Please tell us your process. StarTools produces a file with the steps you took. 

I wish I could remember and it's been a while since I processed anything and I am a baffoon and unique 😂 but if I remember rightly the issue starts to arise once I do a star reduction in shrink then after using fringe killer the issue becomes more noticable when using superstructure module. (I like to clear a lot of the smaller stars as possible, probably causing my issue) I shall have to do my basic Startools process and save the log file. I have been practicing in other forms of software, but struggling to find time atm. 

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Focus: With low end refractors, focus using a mask, then looking at a white star in live view, adjust until the blue fringe begins to disappear but before it goes red.

Thank you that's a very handy tip. Will this throw my focus off quite considerably or not really noticable? 

Cheers 

Lee 

Edited April 26, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[AstroNebulee]

On 26/04/2022 at 12:02, alacant said:

Focus: With low end refractors, focus using a mask, then looking at a white star in live view, adjust until the blue fringe begins to disappear but before it goes red.

I tried this last night but I can't zoom in close enough with my 294MC pro in video mode and asiair pro. I did try the smallest roi but still not close enough. I'll think again. Thank you though,the L3 is the answer when I've the pennies 😊