First Image Using StarTools - Ha of North American Nebula

[whixson]

Just got my license and applies ST to a one-exposure 15 minute image of the NA nebula just as an experiment. Taken with a Televue NP127 and an SBIG-STT8300 through an Ha filter, through the glow of Seattle. Used Autodev, didn't use Wipe as it didn't seem to help. Contrast, Life (over the whole image), and Noise Reduction. I I know I could use a lot more data, but would be interested in comments, suggestions etc

NA-FirstIterationWithStartools.jpg (234.6 KiB) Viewed 6105 times

[admin]

Hi and welcome to the forums!
That's quite nice for a single 15-minute exposure and I'm looking forward to the finished product. What did the rest of your workflow look like? What settings did you use for noise reduction?

Satellite trails typically disappear with multiple exposures, but in cases where they persist, you can use the Heal module to remove them. Here's how;
Launch the Heal module and edit your mask. Click 'clear' to clear the mask and select the 'Line Toggle' brush.
Click & drag from one end of the image to the other, starting where the line intersects the left of the image and ending where the line intersects the bottom of the image. Now click 'Grow' a couple of times until the trail is well covered with 'green' mask pixels. 'Keep' the result and upon your return to the Heal module, the trail will be healed out;

NA-FirstIterationWithStartools_Healed.jpg (279.12 KiB) Viewed 6101 times

[whixson]

Thanks Ivo, great tip. This image was mainly for practice with the software, I am heading out to the Oregon Star Party next week for a week under really dark skies (if the weather cooperates) and wanted to have some proficiency with ST and my new camera. With regards to workflow and settings, I did a lot of iterations and didn't make notes so I can't tell you for sure. I do know that I got a lot better result in the end than I was able to get with Photoshop curves. I do see a lot of posts here with detailed workflow and settings, I was wondering if ST keeps a log? That would be so cool!

Thanks again

Wayne Hixson
Seattle, WA

[whixson]

Forgot to mention I did Bin the image @ 50% as there was a lot of noise in the original that I wasn't able to deal with effectively

[admin]

I do see a lot of posts here with detailed workflow and settings, I was wondering if ST keeps a log? That would be so cool!

It does! There is a file called StarTools.log in the folder where the executable is located. It contains all the parameters you used for each module.

Hope you'll have clear skies at the star party!