StarTools

I am a super-noob to both imaging and StarTools, but I have been noticing a recurring artifact in my processing attempts... a neat spiral (maybe circular) noise pattern around whatever I'm working with.

I have uploaded an example here:
http://www.astrobin.com/58101/

Here is the original stacked image:
http://www.astrobin.com/58100/

Admittedly, this is probably a difficult object: Hickson 93 with a Celestron 9.25, about 2 hours of exposure at ISO 400 from my backyard in Dallas. My suspicion is that I mostly just need more integration time, but the fact that this artifact keeps occurring makes me think I am doing something wrong.

I also admit that it's kinda cool in a hippy, acid-flashback kinda way, but that's not what I'm going for.

Any suggestions?


Thanks.

Hi,

Looks like they're possibly remnants from Wipe. Increasing the precision parameter could possibly help, but what you need most are flat frames - the vignetting and gradients in the data are quite severe!

I actually had Flats, but I made them before I understood how to properly make them. I retook a bunch of them yesterday and restacked and everything came out much better. It is so much easier to process now, and now spiral silliness.

Thanks.

Great to hear! The better the data, the exponentially easier it becomes to process and the sooner you can establish a workflow that works for almost all images you produce.