StarTools

Ivo,

I've noticed while I was working on my Helix data that when I had two stars close together and their respective masks touched, Repair would merge them into one star when using the redistribute setting. Is there some way around this other than making sure the masks are separate?

Cheers,
Mario

Hi Mario,

The Redistribute algorithm is really meant for stars that aren't recognizable as such anymore (i.e. stars that so badly deformed they have no central core anymore). The Warp algorithm would be a better choice for images with at least some decent tracking and focus. It deals better with two stars in the same mask 'blob'.

The Warp algorithm assumes there is at least some sort of measurable star core and disk, whereas the Redistribute algorithm assumes that the starlight is just a jumbled mess.

You're correct that, using the Redistribute algorithm, the only way to fix stars that appear in the same mask 'blob' is to separate them by at least one pixel in the mask.

Hope this helps?

Ivo