StarTools

Hello fellow Startools wizards,
I'm fairly new on this. I'm struggling to get decent image of M45. Althogh the flats are missing, the RGB exposure time is 1 h28 mins each and L is 1 min. The LRGB is stacked with Darks (40 subs) If anyone bothers to process the files and share the log I would extremely happy and most likely learning something new as well The files located here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j4mx3qbmk3vg ... lovXa?dl=0
The camera is ASI 1600 MMPro ,2 mins subs, 0 gain, 80 mm doublet. Startools 1,7
Thanks for the attention (and effort)

Hi,

You really need to start taking flats - they are really not optional. Dithering is also important as walking noise is very apparent.
I'm not sure if your bias frames are working correctly, as the data suffers from vertical stripes. Dithering may help here too.

For the moment, I would concentrate on getting your data acquisition and calibration right, without complicating things further by trying to do LRGB composites. Maybe try getting luminance on point first?

As it stands, any workflow would mostly be about working around issues that should really be addressed during acquisition and calibration; e.g. you wouldn't learn too much that would be useful in the long term. Once your data has improved by these simple (free!) improvements (flats, dithering), you wouldn't need the workarounds any more and you'd be working with infinitely deeper, cleaner signal.

Do let us know how you get on!