StarTools

Hello, I just purchased a CCD Imager, it is an Orion Starshoot G3 color imager....here is my question, the owners manual states that the imager shoots in Black and White under the RAW setting, then I have to convert to color each sub or the final picture...I spoke with a person who has this imager and he stated that it is easier to convert each sub if you have several of them....OK the question, will star tools convert this to color? and if I convert in another program, will this change the way I need to process in Star Tools being that the image was "Tinkered" with in another program?......Thanks Glenn

Hi Glenn,

You can create color composites from individually color-filtered data using the LRGB module - just load the red, green and blue data into the proper channels. Note that your data needs to be pre-aligned by your stacker so that all pixels/stars/etc. match up across the different channels.

Otherwise, color conversion from RAW that has a bayer (hatch) pattern is the job of a stacker (such as DSS).

If you make sure nothing is color balanced or stretched by any other programs, you should be fine importing the resulting stack into StarTools.

I use the Orion Starshoot G3 mono camera - same sensor, just with no color filter in front! It does very well with drizzle stacking (try x3 drizzle in DeepSkyStacker). I've found this works really well, provided you taken enough subs (my rule of thumb is >16, ideally more). Just make sure you debayer before you do the final drizzle. You can see some of my drizzled G3 shots on Astrobin - note the resolution increase! http://www.astrobin.com/users/Amaranthus/