StarTools

I'm just starting to use Startools and am impressed with the results. However, much of what I'm doing could be better and I have no idea how to make it so. There are Tutorials out there but of limited value. The "live" tutorial quits in the idle of the program. To be crude--what the Hell is "airy radias " or "linear brightness mask" or "fractal flux" or "regularization" , and on and on. Each new selection has a default and choices so esoteric that no one understands them. The Flow of work is unknown and, although it may not matter, it matters to us new Amateurs. Even the definitions of the choices are missing or hard to find---- "ATR" for instance. Or "life" .
I would gladly pay someone $100 to print up a good description and workflow or even just a complete video covering everything, assuming the viewer is not a computer geek or has a degree in jargon.
Is this program designed to keep the "riffraff " out or is it as fantastic as it seems for all of us

Ridgesoar wrote:I'm just starting to use Startools and am impressed with the results. However, much of what I'm doing could be better and I have no idea how to make it so. There are Tutorials out there but of limited value. The "live" tutorial quits in the idle of the program. To be crude--what the Hell is "airy radias " or "linear brightness mask" or "fractal flux" or "regularization" , and on and on. Each new selection has a default and choices so esoteric that no one understands them. The Flow of work is unknown and, although it may not matter, it matters to us new Amateurs. Even the definitions of the choices are missing or hard to find---- "ATR" for instance. Or "life" .
I would gladly pay someone $100 to print up a good description and workflow or even just a complete video covering everything, assuming the viewer is not a computer geek or has a degree in jargon.
Is this program designed to keep the "riffraff " out or is it as fantastic as it seems for all of us

Hi,

Thank you for the feedback!
Image processing and optics - especially in astrophotography - are very complex subjects. Unlike other software, StarTools does not force you to know every little bit there is to know about this subject to be able to use it, but getting familiar with the jargon used in the many algorithms and tools at your disposal (such as "Airy disks" and "regularization") will help in the long term (Google and Wikipedia are your friend!). Have you tried clicking the "?" button next to each parameter? It will give you a short description of what each parameter does.

A simple recommended work flow can be found here, however when you get more comfortable with the tools, you may like to deviate from it.

You can go down the rabbit hole as deep (or shallow) as you like - however, when you learn of a new technique or tool, chances are that StarTools has an implementation of it.

Much like car manufacturers don't teach the basics on how to operate cars in general, or the rules of the road, StarTools tutorials' too have to limit themselves to just those features and idiosyncrasies that make StarTools unique amongst its peers - most of which allow you to perform similar tasks in some way shape or form (just, perhaps not as well or as efficient).

I hope this helps, or at least offers an explanation on why things are the way they are.

Wishing you happy holidays and all the best for 2016,