Converting Ha Mono to ‘RGB’

[Matt S]

Ivo

Thanks so much for taking the time to draft both of your posts. Of course StarTools can do Solar! Why did I ever doubt it..?!

I was actually watching your ‘live’ demo on the Astro Imaging Channel last night: any plans to do something similar for v1.8? I can’t explain how helpful that video (and those from other users) has been over the last couple of years and I’m sure other StarTools users would value another guest appearance..?!

You may not recall, but a couple of years ago you helped me source a laptop that could run StarTools on, but to a tight budget. Now that I’m running v1.8, I’m considering upping the RAM from 16 to 32Gb. Regrettably, I can’t stretch to a replacement machine. In your opinion, should I expect to see much improvement in performance with the extra RAM?

Thanks again and clear skies.

Matt S

[admin]

Ivo

Thanks so much for taking the time to draft both of your posts. Of course StarTools can do Solar! Why did I ever doubt it..?!

I was actually watching your ‘live’ demo on the Astro Imaging Channel last night: any plans to do something similar for v1.8? I can’t explain how helpful that video (and those from other users) has been over the last couple of years and I’m sure other StarTools users would value another guest appearance..?!

That's probably not a bad idea. It's been a loooong time since that video on AIC!

You may not recall, but a couple of years ago you helped me source a laptop that could run StarTools on, but to a tight budget. Now that I’m running v1.8, I’m considering upping the RAM from 16 to 32Gb. Regrettably, I can’t stretch to a replacement machine. In your opinion, should I expect to see much improvement in performance with the extra RAM?

Much depends on the resolution you're processing at. If you don't see too many pauses due to memory-to-disk swapping activity (with the exception StarTools' Tracking routines in between module), then you probably don't stand too much to gain.
What sort of datasets are you processing, and what sort of machine did you end up going with?

[Mike in Rancho]

There is a false color palette, specifically for solar imaging.

Well that is just plain cool!

And after everyone was trying to figure out complicated tricks to do the same thing.

How did I forget this matrix back when I was testing out all the matrix combos?

Anyway, I have no sun images, but I did load up a mono M51 and threw the solar matrix at it, just to play with things. Green is potentially quite strong, and did not seem amenable to yellow capping. So one has to be careful with that it seems. But, the right tweaks to saturation and the bias sliders still generated some awfully neat yellowy coloring and red fringing.

[Matt S]

Hi Ivo

Well, I like many others will look forward to seeing you appear on Netflix soon! Seriously, an updated video would be super as much has changed between 1.5 and 1.8.

To answer your question regarding my laptop, my budget restricted me to an HP Pavillion 15-cw1598sa, AMD Ryzen 7 3700U, with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx (2.30 GHz), with 16 GB RAM, 64bit running Win10.

I’m using a 9.25” Celestron SCT, reduced to F6.3 (for DSOs), with an ASI294MC Pro OSC camera (for DSOs). Resolution is often around 4000 pixels, which I BIN (50-75%) and often CROP.

All the above works, but it’s not fast, hence my intention to double the onboard RAM. Another machine, or external GPU, are beyond my reach.

I appreciate that you can’t make promises, and this is my decision alone, but given the above do you believe there is much point to increase the RAM? I haven’t yet decided to do so as it appears that StarTools is configured to exploit GPU capabilities now..?

Any advice welcome.

Please keep up the superb work with developing StarTools!

Clear skies
Matt S