StarTools

Hi. Last week I downloaded ST and am having difficulty with producing decent images.
I shoot in a white zone so have bad LP. My subs are of M31:
Canon (un-modded) T2i
Sky Watcher 80mm APO on EQ6 mount - Unguided.
Subs - .30" at 50 subs @ ISO 1600
DSS Stacking - Flats, Darks And Bias added to DSS stacking. As suggested I have No Calibration or White Balanced Set. Tiff was saved as EMBED not APPLIED.

The resulting TIFF is blown way out on AutoDev and I have tried numerous times to get a good image in ST. I am a beginner so have been going by adjustments I read about. I know that for my area I need more subs and longer exposures.
Two weeks ago, I shot M31 with just DSLR on a tripod as I was waiting for scope/mount to be delivered. I wasn't able to process the image in ST very well. I contacted Ivo and he graciously did it for me. I was really surprised at the outcome. It was pretty good.
Would appreciate if someone could take a crack at my TIFF in ST. Am VERY curious as to how this could come out. My concern is that is the image poor because of bad LP, bad Data, bad ME...or all of the above.
Dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o67qpiblsmxxw ... d.TIF?dl=0

Thanks for any help.

very quick Autodev Crop Dev HTH

I don't think your set up is so bad, I got this from your tiff file and it's a lot better than my first efforts, so well done: but there are some things you can do to improve matters. Take some flats, they will help with the dust bunnies and any vignetting. If you can orient your camera at 90 degrees so that the long axis is along the galaxy's long axis, it may prove easier to crop and edit. You have some fairly vicious gradients which may be the light pollution you mention and if this caused by sodium lights (orange) you might consider a light pollution filter.

Here's the image in its post Autodev state,but before any other processing. Don't be frightened when you see one like this, a lot of it is treatable: