How to Process Astrophotography Images: Perfect stars using Starnet++

[@suryam.m2809]

This tutorial had me go back and re-edit all my previous pics , great job with the video

[@sandipbr]

One of the best tutorial ever... Thanks for this amazing lesson.

[@chuckschreiner5431]

I have been trying to learn a whole host of photoshop processes - this video covered them all and so so so clearly! Great job, and many thanks.

[@Patrick-S]

Thank you for this amazing video! All of your tutorials are very helpful and made my images look a lot better after re-editing them.

[@AVAstronomy]

Happy to help!

[@enriqueboeneker]

As always, my friend, great video! And the target! Wow! I could not resist to give it a shot, so I processed it too! I’ll show you the outcome very soon.

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you my friend! Yes, I would love to see what you can get out of this in pixinsight if thats' what you used. I'm hoping to get Pixinsight sometime early 2021

[@astrokev99]

Using Starnet is very helpful, as your tutorial says. A question though - after adding the stars back in, why did you flatten the image and then further tweak the nebula using masks to select just the neb? This defeats the benefit of using Starnet. My personal view and process - keep the stars and nebula on separate layers and don't flatten. It's then easy to adjust the neb without risk of affecting the stars. It also allows you to minimise stars, and adjust star colour etc without having to mess around with selections. Very simple and neat and gives much more control. Hope this helps.

[@AVAstronomy]

Excellent tip! Thank you!

[@astrokev99]

@@AVAstronomy no worries Aaron. Really enjoy your videos. You have a great presentation style 👍

[@milesvanyperen3539]

Thanks Aaron, that was really helpful... can't wait to apply that to my own images. Made me aware of tools I've never used in Photoshop.

[@iainsutherland6823]

Excellent and easy to follow instructions. Many thanks

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome! Glad you found it helpful.

[@billblanshan3021]

Thanks for doing this video, keep up the good work! One thing I will say though, OPT sucks and will never deal with them again. They lie about equipment they say is in stock, take your money, then tell you it's on back order for 2 months. Also, I recently bought a Raptor61 and auto focuser, they shipped the focuser USPS, it got lost and now OPT won't return my calls or emails on tracking it down or getting me another one, so I'm down $500. I found the best sales and customer service from an astro equipment supplier is Agena Astro. They have always treated me good. If you want to support a good company, support them, not a sorry ass company like OPT. Sorry for the rant buddy but man I have gotten screwed so many times by that company and it kills me to see guys like Trevor promote them knowing everyone who watches his channel will probably buy from OPT and they too will get screwed.

[@AVAstronomy]

Hi Bill, sorry to hear about your experience with OPT. I have made many purchases from them and have never had an issue. I admit they have a lot of gear on back order right now but so does astronomics, Woodland Hills telescope, and high point scientific. That sucks about your buying experience though. I’m sorry to hear about that.

[@billblanshan3021]

@@AVAstronomy Yeah, a lot of companies have stuff on backorder, the issue I had was them lying about it just to take an order, then support after the fact just sucked for me on many occasions. I'm still down a focuser from them and they don't seem to care. I managed to get another one, just cost me another $500. Anyhow, glad to hear you got better treatment, I just wanted to share my experience so others won't get burnt

[@SteveKennedy2902]

@@billblanshan3021 Had the same issue with a reducer I ordered fro OPT - they said it was in stock when it wasn't. I complained and was told they have an issue with their inventory management software. I will give them the benefit of the doubt due to the pandemic. We are all struggling at this point. I know it is very frustrating. I hope your issue gets resolved.

[@garymasson9262]

Thank you so much for making this video. It was terrific and will now form part of my workflow. Great job 👍

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome Gary!

[@jr10]

I am a beginner, and this is one of the best tutorials I have come across so far. I just wish that the link you put down below for the Arcsin work. It seems that the link is no longer valid. Thanks again for a great video.

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you! glad you find my videos helpful. If you google " ARCSIN stretches cloudy nights" it will pull it up

[@Butzemann123]

this video was incredible helpful. Thank you!

[@AVAstronomy]

So glad it helped you out! Clear skies and God bless!

[@ShapeofLight_PiotrStefaniak]

Really worth watching, thanks!

[@AVAstronomy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@stuartmc8779]

Man great tutorial thanks.

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome! Clear skies!

[@arjundhannyify]

Amazing lesson! Could you make similar processing tutorial for wide angle milky way post processing... also how does arcsign work for milkyway ?

[@AVAstronomy]

Glad you found it helpful! I have a tutorial that does cover processing Milky Way images.

[@budgetastrophotography1506]

good stuff, cover more on the 8" RC telescope, spacers needed for Zwo camera, how to focus etc. Ga and Al needs more clear skies...

[@AVAstronomy]

Good ideas thank you! I'll add it to my list of video ideas for sure and YES GA and AL definitely need more clear skies, lol!

[@astronomynotebook]

Thank you so much...just a great tutorial!

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you!

[@avt_astro206]

Nice tutorial 👍🔭

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you 👍

[@michaelasbury5473]

Thank you for posting this video. Do you have any experience with doing this same process using Pixinsight by any chance? I haven’t found any Pixinsight videos that go into this much detail about star removal and adding them back in, etc.

[@AVAstronomy]

Hi Michael, I have not used Pixinsight yet but its on my list for 2021

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

How do you do this in such a way that, you seperate the stars with starnett (I actually paid for starxterminator as it is better), but when you recombine them, ensure that I can put the galaxy / nebula back in with the stars without using the starless background? What I mean is, sometimes the starless background has some clutter or blotchyness. I have just been using screen blending mode to put the galaxy / nebula back in without doing the subtraction part you do and it seems to work fine?

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

Do you still use starnett++ as much? I am here after watching your latest video of orion? I only tend to use it for really faint targets as careful processing avoids too much star bloat and this step add's alot of time.

[@AVAstronomy]

I don’t use it as much anymore. Imaging in narrowband with a monochrome camera makes a huge difference. No issue with star bloat at all. Now, with my color camera the star bloat can still be an issue sometimes

[@travlon5101]

Thanks so much for this and all your other tutorials. I follow them step by step and am getting some good results. What I seem to be lacking the most is determining how much time to expose each "light frame". Some say to use the historgram to a bit to the right, but with such dark images, all I get is the peak smacked to the left. If I do longer exposures (2 minutes or more), I get a lot of light pollution, not real data (I think). I take about 50 exposures and stack them. Should I take more? I live under 7 bortle skies and use filters to cut pollution. I now use a one shot color camera (ZWO) Can you help with my exposure question? Thanks in advance.

[@AVAstronomy]

You're welcome and glad you find them helpful. There's several things to consider when trying to figure out proper exposure time. Focal ratio, light pollution, GAIN or ISO setting, light pollution filters used and last but certainly not least is the brightness of the target being imaged. I have a video on exposure time estimations based on F ratio and ISO settings. It's really intended for DSLR's and in my borlte 5 skies but it may still be useful for you. I agree with you on the histogram thing. That worked well when I imaged with DSLR's but when I moved to OSC my frames were always dark even after a 10 minute sub frame, lol. Use autostretch in APT (if you use APT) to get an idea of the data you are capturing but even then it's not always a clear indicator. For instance, my latest image that I posted in this video had FIT files that showed NO nebulosity at all in them. Granted this was a very faint target. You'll get a better handle on this the more you image but in general brighter targets like Pleiades and Orion Nebula won't require near as much time as some of the dimmer objects out there. Hard to say where to start but if you tell me your focal ratio, object being imaged, and filters used I may be able to give you ball park starting point.

[@travlon5101]

@@AVAstronomy I mostly use the Orion 8" astrograph reflector, f 3.9. I've tried the optilong L Pro; L enhance; L Xtreme and Ha, of course each one needing different exposure times. 2 objects I've tried are the bubble nebula and M1. Can't stretch it enough to get good results. (yes I use APT and stretch it there just to see if I'm getting the nebulosity) I have good success on Orion nebula and Heart, and the Sadr region, but not fainter objects. I've done the Pleiades, but can't get much of the blue nebulosity like you and Trevor Jones have gotten. He said his image was 90, 2 minute subs. I've tried that setting and came close, but I only took 60 subs. Would the extra 30 subs have gotten more? That's where I'm confused, how do we know when enough is enough? Do you have any further advice, and can you give me the link to the video of yours "exposure time estimations"? ... Thanks

[@edwinsanchez1167]

Hi Aaron, great tutorial as always👍 you know I was thinking perhaps you can do a tutorial, can’t find any, where you continue where you left off the previous night. I struggle doing that and I just give up as I don’t get how to do it in APT. I always try to finish up same night or star over when its clear again. Clear skies!🤝 @eyethesky

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you Edwin. I was just thinking the same thing. That would make for a great video and I think many people run into the same issue as us with that. I'll definitely put something together on this.

[@feetheweasel]

Right at the 13min mark, after doing the 2pixel blur, when I come back to do the mask stretch...I can no longer see the stretch happening on the main screen. I can see brightening happening in the mask icon...but it's so small I can't really see what's happening. When I click on the layer to stretch that image and just like the mask, the main preview window is unaffected, but I can see brightening happening in the layer icon. Got so frustrated, I just closed photoshop, and said f-it. Literally did step by step. Wasn't using his photo but my own photo of the Veil.

[@fedupfactionproductions]

Thx 🤗

[@AVAstronomy]

You're welcome!

[@dankahraman354]

Aaron are you loading your integrated image into PS and then performing the various stretches on the stars?

[@AVAstronomy]

Yessir. I register and stack in DSS and then photoshop for processing. I do use APP sometimes but I find the stretches are good for the target but tend to bloat the stars a bit more than I like.

[@dankahraman354]

@@AVAstronomy when you have time look into Star Tools and I will learn PS and DSS techniques from you in the meantime..

[@AVAstronomy]

@@dankahraman354 👍🎄

[@Astrx-09]

Cant find any website to download starnet++ tried searching on source forge but didint find it any links or ideas where i can find it?

[@thegalaxyhunter7969]

Hi, is it better to demosaic, then calibrate or calibrate, then demosaic or doesn't it matter? Thanks

[@AVAstronomy]

When you say calibration are you referring to the light pollution removal step I use?

[@thegalaxyhunter7969]

@@AVAstronomy Hi, sorry, I was referring to flats/bias/darks. Currently, I calibrate then demosaic, but I'm wondering if color would improve by demosaicing all calibration frames first before calibrating (demosaic'd) lights. Enjoy your channel. Thanks

[@AVAstronomy]

@@thegalaxyhunter7969 I don't think it would help to do that but you could certainly experiment and try. I always just let DSS do the work of demosaicing, registering, and stacking my images.

[@thegalaxyhunter7969]

@@AVAstronomy I read the ImagesPlus documentation today and it says the program calibrates first, then applies demosaic. Not sure that it matters. Anyway, thanks for getting back. Enjoy your channel.

[@thegalaxyhunter7969]

@@AVAstronomy I read the ImagesPlus documentation today and it says the program calibrates first, then applies demosaic. Not sure that it matters. Anyway, thanks for getting back. Enjoy your channel.

[@samarthvedi4195]

Hey man, this is extremely helpful but the link for the arcsin stretch plugin is not working. Is there anywhere else I can get the plugin from? Thanks Edit: I found it here: www.cloudynights.com/topic/595610-photoshop-color-preserving-arcsinh-stretch/

[@AVAstronomy]

www.cloudynights.com/topic/595610-photoshop-color-preserving-arcsinh-stretch/

[@Codebyakshay]

na bruh sorry i just checked your video on phone its good bruh super clean i think my pc is bruken lol

[@IZinZsky]

this link ARCSIN STRETCH PLUG-IN DOWNLOAD - www.cloudynights.com/topic/59 ... is not available, where can we find it?

[@AVAstronomy]

google " arcsin stretch cloudy nights" it will come up

[@SteveKennedy2902]

Hey there, I loaded Sharkmelly's arcsin curves into a folder as he instructed on his post in CloudyNights, but Photoshop but they are not appearing in the Presets for curves. Any advice?

[@SteveKennedy2902]

Ok I found the correct file to insert the presets - there are several curves file folders in Adobe named "Curves" and I had initially selected the wrong one. In addition to learning photography, telescopes, and Photoshop for this hobby, I am now becoming proficient with computer science ... who would have known? :)

[@Codebyakshay]

love it bro but bruh when you record your editing video and upload it i thing youtube downgrade it i cant see shit properly but i got the logic how you process thanks

[@diggerlenox]

Arcsin link doesn't work?

[@AVAstronomy]

new link should be in the the description

[@chrisoriordan6975]

)