StarTools

So I have this colorful shot of Barnard 343. I would like to rein in the more extensive halo effect of the brighter stars. The usual magic and repair options seem inadequate for the job.



See AstroBin for details about the picture.
The interesting diffraction effect is caused by an experimental two vane curved diagonal holder.

I looked at the post about separating stars and field stuff by using heal and masks There is a mention of a option of excluding a color while creating a mask, but I don't see it. If I do use color to select a mask it seems too exclusive. Hmmmm.. Any thoughts?

I think I've got it with a coarse mask around blue stars and Filter module in 'Fringe Killer' mode. Note that you must pick samples several times to begin to note the effect. Regards

Thanks for tip. I'm finding more options in the mask creation process that are helpful. I have relegated the experimental diagonal holder to the junk box and put in a 4 vane spider instead. Traditional it is and of course gives a symmetrical star pattern to work with.