StarTools

This is what some StarTools users have to say about the software. If you would like to contribute a testimonial, please do post it here and it will be merged into the post below. Thank you!

"I am impressed with the ease of working with the package compared to MaxIm DL Pro 5, PI and PSCS2/3/4 with which I am very familiar."
- J. Giles, Australia

"This ingenious sofware in my opinion out performs all previous packages I have used in the past."
- P. Scully, South Africa

"Having acquired StarTools I'm now starting to feel confident with what I can do in this hobby. And that's a bloody good thing!!"
- M. Vecchi, Australia

"Such a wonderful piece of software."
- G. Stevens,Australia

"I tried your 'Startools' today and was blown away with its blinding speed and unique functionality."
- R. Higby, Australia

"It seemed easy to navigate and concise, but still crammed with advanced functions. Even without reading the documentation in any detail I managed to produce something half decent from a single sub!"
- T. Murray, United Kingdom

My two favorite pieces of software in this hobby are StarTools and BackyardEOS, and a large part of the reason is that you and Guylain (BackyardEOS) seem not only willing, but genuinely enthusiastic about making the hobby a bit easier, and a bit more fun, for the 'average guy'."
- G. Boulton, United States

"I never could understand how to use programs like Photoshop for astrophotography. Your software makes intuitive sense to me. It is easy and automatic enough to get good results almost immediately, but powerful enough to tweak even more from my data once some time is spent playing with it. Your support is excellent, with prompt replies to questions. I thoroughly recommend your software to anyone, but especially to those starting out in astrophotography as it allows great results from the start."
- P. Brand, Australia

I'm sending the following e-mail to a web site that lists Mac astronomy software (http://www.primordial-light.com/macastronomer.html):

"Dear David,

"I just ran across your Macintosh Computers in Amateur Astronomy page. Thanks for putting this excellent site together.

"I've fallen in love with astrophotography over the last few years and am a Mac user. I've gone the route of running Windows emulators to access the vast amount of Windows astronomy software, but find that Mac-native stuff tends to be more stable and a lot less of a headache to use. I'm on a very limited budget so everything I have tends to take that into account. I control my DSI cameras with Nebulosity and guide with PHD; as you note, both excellent pieces of software. Since your site invites suggestions, I'm offering the following:

"Until recently, I did most of my post-processing with Photoshop CS6 (definitely not cheap, but cheap for me since my university has a site license). A couple of months ago, I heard about StarTools (http://startools.org/drupal/) as a post-processing package and decided to give it a try. I have been very impressed. Like PixInsight, it is an astrophotography-specific package. Its noise handling is exceptional, and its learning curve is not particularly steep; I found that after about a week with it I was producing better results than I've been able to get with Photoshop after a couple of years of skill development (though I still do some final touch-up in Photoshop with the also excellent Astronomy Tools plug-in package, and I'm also still learning how to better use StarTools). Almost every image I've reprocessed using StarTools has improved. The author of StarTools, Ivo Jager, is actively developing and improving the program and is very responsive to feedback. The Mac version is currently 32-bit, but I have not found that to be limiting, at least for the things I do. And finally, StarTools is quite inexpensive: it delivers a great deal of bang for the buck!

"Thanks again,
David"
What I do for fun:
astrobin.com/users/dvdearden

dvdearden wrote:I'm sending the following e-mail to a web site that lists Mac astronomy software...

Wow David - thanks for such a ringing endorsement! I'll leave your post here in its entirety.

Ivo,
Just wanted to drop you a note thanking you for making such a great piece of software. I never could understand how to use programs like Photoshop for astrophotography. Your software makes intuitive sense to me. It is easy and automatic enough to get good results almost immediately, but powerful enough to tweak even more from my data once some time is spent playing with it. Your support is excellent, with prompt replies to questions. I thoroughly recommend your software to anyone, but especially to those starting out in astrophotography as it allows great results from the start.
Paul Brand

asterix2020 wrote:Ivo,
Just wanted to drop you a note thanking you for making such a great piece of software. I never could understand how to use programs like Photoshop for astrophotography. Your software makes intuitive sense to me. It is easy and automatic enough to get good results almost immediately, but powerful enough to tweak even more from my data once some time is spent playing with it. Your support is excellent, with prompt replies to questions. I thoroughly recommend your software to anyone, but especially to those starting out in astrophotography as it allows great results from the start.
Paul Brand

Thanks so much Paul!

Here is my experience with star tools in the first couple of weeks of use.Initially I struggled a bit but once I review the demo Ivo did on the astroimaging channel on you tube it started to make a lot of sense to me and what I have found is that I can produce equal if not better results with a much shorter time that I could in PS. I would definitely recommend viewing the demo for any newbies to startools as it would speed up your learning curve by a huge factor

waynef wrote:Here is my experience with star tools in the first couple of weeks of use.Initially I struggled a bit but once I review the demo Ivo did on the astroimaging channel on you tube it started to make a lot of sense to me and what I have found is that I can produce equal if not better results with a much shorter time that I could in PS. I would definitely recommend viewing the demo for any newbies to startools as it would speed up your learning curve by a huge factor

Much, much appreciated Wayne!

Ivo,

I posted a topic here last week (http://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=709) with my results using this program for the first time.

This is my second processing attempt. I just wanted to say I am absolutely blown away by the ease-of-use of this software. It's intuitive and straight forward to use, and produces absolutely stunning images with just a bit of practice. The community forum isn't bad either

Thanks for developing such an awesome piece of software. If stuck using non-dedicated astro imaging software (PS), I really don't think I'd be making it far in this hobby.

Clear skies!

northern_plights wrote:Ivo,

I posted a topic here last week (http://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=709) with my results using this program for the first time.

This is my second processing attempt. I just wanted to say I am absolutely blown away by the ease-of-use of this software. It's intuitive and straight forward to use, and produces absolutely stunning images with just a bit of practice. The community forum isn't bad either

Thanks for developing such an awesome piece of software. If stuck using non-dedicated astro imaging software (PS), I really don't think I'd be making it far in this hobby.

Clear skies!

Thanks so much for that ringing endorsement! Makes my day/week reading that! I'm still amazed with what you managed at first acquiantance with totally new software.

No more jumping through hoops. No nonsense, affordable astro software that just works.
I made a blog post with the quote and a bit of publicity:
http://linuxcostablanca.blogspot.com.es ... tools.html
Cheers and clear skies.