My Astrophotography Secret Weapon (and it’s FREE)

Full tutorial video showing off my secret weapon in deep sky astrophotography processing. Head to squarespace.com/nebulaphotos for a 14 day free trial and to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code NEBULAPHOTOS
== Resources ==
Starnet downloads: starnetastro.com/download
My Siril video that goes into more depth on Starnet implementation in Siril: • The Best Free Astro So...
Video on speeding up Starnet with GPU acceleration: • STEP BY STEP! SPEED UP...
== Contents ==
0:00 A guessing game
1:23 How it works
4:33 Big Picture Photoshop Demo
17:36 Squarespace (Sponsor)
18:55 Classic CLI on MacOS
27:43 Experimental M1 CLI on MacOS
33:34 Siril
34:56 PixInsight (MacOS)
41:57 GUI (Windows)
44:38 PixInsight (Windows)
46:07 CLI (Windows)
47:55 Patreon (Credits)
== Patreon ==
I'm on patreon! Join me and over 800 in the Nebula Photos Community: / nebulaphotos - starts at just $1/month.

[@neilmehta187]

No one person has done more to make astrophotography beginner friendly that you have. Thank you for a wonderful tutorial!

[@rammialqannas1628]

I couldn’t agree more. This man has taught me so much!

[@kayagorzan]

I might have a new hobby if I watch just a couple more videos

[@nadirteymurov1]

You're absolutely right ! Having the ability to separate the stars and object as early as you can and process them separately with all the masks and tools needed makes the HUGE difference.

[@AstroDanno]

Great video, Nico! Star removal has really upped my image quality over the last year or so. I’m so thankful for these super smart people who created all of these great star removal software tools to help us improve our images!

[@KyleClements]

Thank you for this video. It answers a previous question I had asked in your comments in far more detail than I ever could have imagined.

[@timmyfingaz100]

Wow, just got into starnet so this video is great timing. Going to try your processing method :) Thanks Nico!!

[@makeamovie94]

Once again you brought my processing to the next level. You are the best! Thank you so much, greetings from Switzerland.

[@lupulul]

Thank you for keeping the videos coming!

[@Aerostar509]

Being a PI user 99% of the time and having STF at my disposal it was helpful to see your levels adjustment of the linear data to start to see what you are working on. Thanks for the videos, Tim

[@keyswitches9269]

lots of content pumping out! keep up the great work❤️

[@Mike-lh4wn]

I'd be happy with the first image. But yeah, that's nice and clean. 😀

[@bradperry4902]

Thank you for this incredibly clear and detailed installation walkthrough. By some miracle, I did have Starnet++ running once upon a time on my previous Mac, but after getting an M1 last year, I went looking for the program again and couldn't even find the installer, so I assumed the project had been abandoned. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it again!

[@ferdigrafie]

Great Video and explanation! This method is such incredible powerful. I like to mention something about the color noise. The reason that it can be so easily fixed with the lightroom slider is that you actually dont need a high resolution data to color an image. You could also take your starless image, feather it with gaussion blur for like radius of 3-5 pixels and use the layer with the blend mode color. I got used to take high resolution mosaics with only the h-alpha filter and lots of integration time and use an field-of-view matching wide angle lens to get the color data in just a single frame (and only like 20 minutes each filter in RGB). Then i use the h-alpha for luminance and RGB for color. It also works for the stars, u can colorize the only-stars narrowband data with the low resolution only-stars RGB data.

[@robertferreira3286]

I just downloaded Siril beta to try out the awesome new tools from your last video. I’ll be using Siril more now than I have been, especially the curves. I am a star and galaxy imager so this will be helpful.

[@stolguy]

Cool Nico, thank you. Have you tried bringing in the starless image and changing the blend mode to difference? You end up with a completely clean star layer without the nebula and then you can flatten that so one ends up with the starless layer AND a clean star layer. I don’t know which is better and must try your method. Looks so good. Thanks again, you are top tier!

[@celestromel]

Brilliant! Thanks heaps. This will now be my standard.

[@jakubsmaga6843]

Sir, thank You so much, this is exactly what I needed for my Rho Ophiuchi picture. Learning a lot from You!

[@ronaldholden7551]

Thanks so much for this tutorial. I'm not very computer literate. Without people like you I would be lost. Your instructions on how to install Starnet for Windows 10 were invaluable. It still took about 40 minutes because what I saw on my computer was somewhat different. But I finally got it. Thanks again.

[@Fossbear]

I really enjoy your videos. Even though i just started small with an 6" terribily wobbeling netownian teleskope, i managed to geh some - for me- nice pictures of jupiter/venus/moon so far. And your picture processing videos helped me already a lot. Still have to figure out a lot and defenitely invest some money into a nice HEQ5 GT or EQ6 GT

[@stefanoVillaMilano]

Phenomenal, as always...

[@mrkutube]

Excellant technique to learn from this video. As I don't have subscription for Photoshop I need to copy this method to exercise in Pixinsight (which I am still learning). Thanks Nico, you are a great source of inspiration in ameteur astrophotography.

[@leezheng8161]

Awesome vid! Thank you for sharing!

[@stephengrundy6248]

Thanks Nico. I've been trying to find a method to reduce the star field using deconvolution. Separating the stars makes alot of sense though so will certainly give it a try.

[@robvandenwijngaart988]

Thanks for explaining Nico.

[@cwitt8280]

Nico this is a very welcome tutorial.

[@LuisVillalobos84]

Eres tan amable y enseñas tan bien. Muchísimas gracias amigo por tantas enseñanzas

[@danielmunozluna4666]

Thank you very much Nico.

[@samwarfelphotos]

Just sorta stumbled onto the effectiveness of not stretching the stars as much as the background and it makes such a huge difference! Love the video to see how it’s done properly though!

[@Neanderthal75]

I do the same. I also stretch it with Asin-h-stretch, because I want the colors to show first. Also if you use pixinsight (or photoshop), clip the darks for the star only image and pull down on the brightness using curves (curvetransformation in PI)..

[@WhatsUpBob]

Huge help! Thanks!!

[@DamianVines]

Great stuff as usual! I saw your presentation at AIC 2022 :) I was sitting at the next table when you were interviewing Adam Block :) Cheers man!

[@NebulaPhotos]

Thanks Damian. Hope I did okay! I was a bit nervous as that was my first presentation at an astrophotography-specific conference. Are you going to NEAIC in April?

[@AstroQuest1]

Great video Nico. You are right most people moved on from PS including me sort of. I do initial stuff in PI (stacking, Background extraction, BTX, EZ Soft stretch) and then go right back to PS. I find PS just a lot more versatile and easier to use than PPI. I sometimes go back into PI and then back again to PS which is crazy but whatever. I did not know about blending the layers the way you did. Extra thanks for info! Cheers Kurt

[@dougross51]

HEY THERE NEBULA PHOTOS, JUST PEAKING IN!

[@PantherBlitz]

Seeing Nico's floating head in the beginning of the video reminds me of the Brady Bunch opening credits.

[@bradashbrook3943]

Excellent, thank you very much!

[@castronomy]

Looking good

[@rashie]

👍👍-Thanks Nico!

[@poruatokin]

Excellent video, thanks Nico. I already use Starnet GUI + Photoshop in Windows but still learned some good tips here. No. 1 tip was, STICK WITH WINDOWS!!! I've never owned anything made by Apple in my entire life and this video is just another reminder why I plan to keep it that way. Around 40% was dedicated to just getting a simple program up and running on MacOS..... And people still wonder why Windows users laugh at Apple aficionados. Do yourself a favor people, dump those apples.

[@dadwhitsett]

Excellent.

[@AKohler_Photo]

Thanks a lot! I‘m using Siril and starnet now for 6 month and absolutely love it. And your video provided some very nice tips I will try to implement in my workflow! May I ask you about the specs of your Mac? Which M1 (how many cores) and how much Ram you have? I want to buy a new Mac and I am very unsure what setup I need for Astrophotography (Better chip vs. more RAM). My intel is way too slow nowadays…

[@grahamprescott9426]

I do this very differently.... but have taken note on your mini stretching!! So I basically full stretch and run starnet. I then load starless and starts into GIMP and "subtract" the two layers. This leaves me stars only on a black background. I save this file and then start a new project. I add starless and stars only in as two layers then set the mode to "addition" now I have both layers. And I can "destretch" the stars to taste whilst working on the starless version.

[@thomasmanson1119]

It’s stacking!

[@mateuszglen3764]

Hello, my name is Mateusz, I am from Poland. Please turn on the Polish language regarding text options. on your YT channel Older videos had this option, but new videos don't have this option. Regards, you are doing a great job.

[@fazergazer]

Frequency based filtering yes indeed! Using neural nets!!

[@stevenchurch8901]

Awesome

[@lucashsu]

Great Tutorial and I was able to install Starnett on MAC and worked great....Would you consider getting a tutorial to install Sirilic on MAC? Other KZbinr instruction not exactly easy to follow

[@MathaGoram]

Hate to request redundant operations with FOSS but could we get the same demo using GIMP (as an alternate to Photoshop) sometime in the near future. Love the CLI demo because that helps us with Linux too! Thanks. 🤟

[@astrobath]

Interesting video, quite interesting, will test this on my astrophotos, but I do not like any neuro-networks processing.

[@tompage8674]

I like your floating head in the middle.

[@ponnex]

I'm starting my journey into astrophotography, still on the part of buying the right camera and necessary tools. For the meantime I want to start doing post processing to be able to get a good grasp of what a good data or images to start with some kind of reference I should aim when I'm already there in the photography part. Is there an open source of images I can get to start doing post processing?

[@Brik2246]

yay

[@rverm1000]

i like the left picture

[@NatarajanGanesan]

I love SIRIL but it is insistent on all calibration frames to get started. DSS allows me that flexibility to work with what I have. I have to check this latest add on.

[@CaptaiCaveman]

light imaging intensifier or moving away from street lighting or equatorial mount?

[@timplunkett2651]

Great video, How do you feel about using starnet++ in your workflow for editing the Milky Way ?

[@NebulaPhotos]

I've used it in milky way editing, and it can work, esp. if you are stacking and compositing back in the foreground. You can see me working a milky way shot with this technique here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHXToGONqdGXfrc

[@timplunkett2651]

@@NebulaPhotos thank you for the reply

[@AndreH3d]

That’s pretty much what I do!

[@X_Excelsior]

Is there a way to only get a star layer without any nebula in Starnet2?

[@trixmot]

Does Photoshop Elements have the same features for what you are doing as Photoshop?

[@IAMDRREMULAKK]

Isn't there a gui version of this for Macs? I've been using a windows version of this program for a few months now, that you don't need a command line window for.

[@JulesStoop]

Regarding Terminal on macOS: Did you know you can press the up and down cursor keys on your keyboard to recall previously typed commands? In other words: if you have to type a command again like around 30:46 , just press the up-arrow to recall the previous command and press enter to execute.

[@NebulaPhotos]

Yes, thank you, I'm aware. I didn't want to throw too much info about using the terminal into this as I found my tutorials can sometimes get a bit 'lost in the weeds' if I try to introduced too many keyboard tricks where the viewer can't actually see what I'm doing and has to rely on what I'm saying. Cheers!

[@mkc9525]

Have you integrated siril and starnet on an M1 or M2 Mac? I am trying to install it on my new M2 Mac Mini. There is an experimental version of starnet for Apple Silicon, but following the instructions fails when the command line installer tries to install files in usr/local/bin and usr/local/lib which are within the read only system volume.

[@NebulaPhotos]

Yes, The M1/M2 installation is shown starting at 27:44. The installer fails because you have to create that directory (not mentioned in the instructions). I show how in the video.

[@charlesowillford2474]

Please describe what the initial image metrics? Stacked? Calibrated, etc. TY

[@NebulaPhotos]

Redcat 51 telescope with Canon Ra camera, 10 x 3 min. subs stacked (30 min. total), full calibration (bias, darks, flats), Bortle 4, no moon

[@charlesowillford2474]

@@NebulaPhotos Thanks. No MOON and no light pollution filters either? No background extraction either?

[@NebulaPhotos]

@@charlesowillford2474 Correct - no moon, no filter. I don't use light pollution filters or any filters for reflection nebulae like this. I can't remember if I already ran background extraction on the file since it was old data. I shot the target over the ocean so I don't think there were any artifical gradients, but I might have done background extraction out of habit. It definitely looked color calibrated already so I either ran background extraction, photometric color calibration or both on the linear file before saving it and storing it away.

[@charlesowillford2474]

@@NebulaPhotos thanks again. I'm the guy that talked about KISS principles in your new Siril video yesterday. So, now that starnet++ is in Siril; I need to figure my KISS work flow? And, that's why the questions? And, I had never seen Smart Filters before today in your previous videos? I'm sure I missed the one you mentioned doing on removing starts? I can see why you like it; it's very neat. I'm 80, next month and this keeps me YOUNG!

[@palmereldrich]

Ok this post is a couple minutes in and what is seen upon critical view without enhancement of imagescale a more aesthic image left the dark is dark and the structure outline SEEMS better at 1X until you zoom in and to the right of the centred star alot more interfilimentary robustness is visible with the right. It still is notright it might just be the lack of stars though. I'd like to have seen a third compa photo. Maybe thats coming. Thats it. Lets see where it goes. You have my attention.❤

[@gary122]

Without watching, my guess is starnet command line processing? But prob something much different

[@samwarfelphotos]

Does it matter if you place the starless layer over the stars and set it to screen, or if you put the stars layer over the starless, and set it to screen?

[@NebulaPhotos]

Nope, doesn't matter!

[@Raj12969]

Im still learning, i usually use the dust and scratches method. Would i still do that or just the starnet??

[@NebulaPhotos]

Use Starnet, it does the same thing, but works better with fewer artifacts to clean up.

[@Raj12969]

@@NebulaPhotos thanks

[@artiraina5857]

Hey Nico, how are you doing bro..? I had a question that ,if i had to choose between a 24 inch dobsonian telescope on equatorial platform or a C14 on eq mount which one do you think is a better choice for astrophotography ? 🙃 And yes a lots of love from the indian audience🇮🇳🇺🇸😍❤️❤️

[@NebulaPhotos]

The C14 on eq mount would likely be better for most kinds of astrophotography applications. What kinds of skies do you have and what type of astrophotography do you plan to do? Those sound like planetary setups which I'm not as personally familiar with. For deep sky, neither of those sound like a good choice, but it depends on your goals.

[@artiraina5857]

I have a bortle 6 sky and i like deep space astrophotography..

[@NebulaPhotos]

@@artiraina5857 Cool, Unless your goal is very tiny objects like planetary nebulae or obscure galaxies, there is no need for those big telescopes because almost all of the amazing nebulae you see photos of are much bigger than the full moon in the sky, just dim. For example, the nebula I show in this video was taken with Redcat 51, one of the smallest telescopes on the market that is basically a telephoto lens. You would be better off saving money on the telescope and investing in a much smaller refractor (80 or 100mm aperture), a good mount (sky-watcher eq6r or ioptron cem70) a good cooled camera (ZWO ASI2600MC or MM), filters (dual narrowband if color camera or full LRGBHaOIIISII if mono), and software

[@artiraina5857]

Well actually you are right my friend.. That really helped me a lot.. I should spend money on the camera and filters not on a big scope.. Thats a better option Thanks for your help Nico... Have clear skies🙂

[@ci3828]

Nico, hello and thanks for the video. I'm just starting out and please ask for your help. I would like to use Starnet2 independently with my Macmini M1, is this possible? I tried following the instructions on the official website, but nothing. When I launch the command the work doesn't start! I'm completely new to Mac terminal commands. I changed the login shell from /bin/bash to /bin/zsh, is this correct? Can you recommend a tutorial for 4 year old children on how to install Starnet2 correctly independently? in your tutorial I see that you have a lib folder that I don't have! Thanks in advance. Chris

[@NebulaPhotos]

Hi Chris, No need to change from bash to zsh. The instructions for installing Starnet on your M1 Mac start at 27:43 in this video. If you follow the instructions in the video it will install correctly. You can email me if you can’t figure out why it’s not working: nicocarver at gmail dot com

[@ci3828]

Thank you very much, everything is ok now! Wrong download link🤭

[@callumvernon7053]

Hi Nico. I'm having trouble on M1... It keeps coming up with the command line error "invalid image type" on my .tiffs. Have tried both 16bit and 32bit with the same results! Any ideas?!

[@NebulaPhotos]

If using photoshop/gimp: Apply sRGB profile and flatten the image (one layer) before saving as tiff.

[@stevenrobinsonpictures]

Bit crazy how in Pixinsight you have to know the formula to simply do a screen blend (or any blend). It's like they are trying to make it difficult and unintuitive (and let's be fair for most PS isn't the most intuitive program either). I appreciate it is complex powerful software but, why not just put a button for that and save the time with it? At least have it as an optional feature. For a paid program I would expect that.

[@BigBadLoneWolf]

1 of the reasons I have not bought Pixinsight, is its complexity. I use siril, gimp and affinity depending on which will give a better image

[@v0ldy54]

I found putting the starless background on top blended with "screen" a bit weird. Why not putting the background on the bottom layer then add the stars on top with the "Linear Dodge" method? I've seen that using SN++ the image you get by doing that using the starless and extracted stars layer should be the same you started with, while using "screen" on the stars the image changes compred to the original (assuming you haven't touched anything after dividing stars and background).

[@NebulaPhotos]

I’ve tried that method many times and always found I get less color noise, no ring artifacts, and cleaner transition between layers the way I do it. Yes, the image gets brighter, but resetting the black point only takes a few clicks. But it probably depends on a number of factors including data quality, I just prefer how screen looks.

[@v0ldy54]

​@@NebulaPhotos I think the issue is that with the layer order you're using you would be adding the starless nebulosity on top of the already existing nebulosity using "Linear Dodge". I'm talking about adding a layer containing only the stars to a base starless layer, then one can balance the intensity of the stars and background using curves+clipping mask in Photoshop.

[@NebulaPhotos]

@@v0ldy54 I understand, but I don't personally use the 'stars only' linear dodge method because my data is rarely good enough to hide the artifacts with that method. I find it is not as robust to stretching and will quickly start showing dark rings around bright stars or just look generally unnatural to my eye, but it really is just a preference thing.

[@Ashinperth]

When I run it, i get a black image or it has a visible error type line down on one side? I've stretched the image too? What am I doing wrong.

[@NebulaPhotos]

The image must be: stretched (not a linear image straight out of stacking), 16-bit and a single layer TIFF with no transparency. If you can’t figure out the issue, email me: nicocarver at gmail

[@Ashinperth]

@@NebulaPhotos Fixed. For some reason, it was saving as a zipped TIFF?

[@jorymil]

Ugh! Mac requires a signature on executables by default? If you're downloading it, you generally check the signatures ahead of time. I'm a professional Linux engineer, and just listening here, I can tell what's going on: the number of times I type ./ per week is quite high.

[@AstroGeorgeGr]

i can`t make starnetv2 run on my pc no matter what i do, just an error pop-up....is there a compatibility issue..? i`m using windows 11/64bit. Great video as always!

[@NebulaPhotos]

What does the error pop up say? I was using Windows 11 in this video, so it’s not that.

[@AstroGeorgeGr]

@@NebulaPhotos Thank you for the responce,just found out that my CPU is a dinosaur,need a new1. it doesn`t work with cpu`s older than 2011.

[@palmereldrich]

Got no time right now Nico. Watch later closely.❤

[@pigman2467]

may i ask what bortle do you live in?

[@NebulaPhotos]

I recently moved from Bortle 8 to Bortle 3, but before I moved I would usually drive to dark sites to do astrophotography. This image was taken from Bortle 4, but in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean (no light pollution).

[@pigman2467]

@@NebulaPhotos wow I would like to be able to take images with bottle 4 the only problem is that I live in the middle of a city. Any way thank you 🙏

[@DLMVegas]

Your video shows the reason I use windows. Apple has become paranoid in their software making the users pay the price of being able to do what they want on Apple's overpriced products. I quit taking updates on my iphone as well.

[@heathsmetalwerx]

U said 2 you don't use star removal than your secret weapon is starnet that's a star removal tool? Did I get that right lol?! Love your videos but that stumped me

[@NebulaPhotos]

No? My clues were: 1. it’s not more data, 2. it’s not star reduction (star reduction is different than star removal) 3. I’ve shown it before on the channel

[@woody5109]

Great stuff however, photoshop is wildly expensive and some of us have to chose between spending on the gear or the software. I still running free software….gimp 😕

[@NebulaPhotos]

It works the same in gimp :)

[@user-sn9zd1qs7c]

Hi Nico, great video! After watching this i felt like I could add something to the topic. On my Linux machine I modified the StarNet++ install to use my GPU, which gives a really big speedup. I just recorded a small demo/howto for you guys. Maybe some of you Linux users out there will benefit. I hope its ok to post this here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3vQqph_ndiBl9E

[@mihailssisovs6983]

Unpopular opinion: First version is more realistic

[@StevenAakre]

I greatly prefer the first version. I do minimal processing on my astrophotos.

[@jomon723]

Na...Na...Na

[@EleanorPeterson]

Excellent results! However... (and I'll be mocked for saying this), I find all of the 'deep' computer stuff - typing Command Line and Terminal instructions and juggling files and directories and installing tools and identifying paths and whatnot - completely incomprehensible. My little girlie brain can't cope. It's as bad as using Ubuntu or Linux or Mint or Cinnamon Tutu Squergle-Poopertron-7b (or whatever it's called this week). Please don't tell me that it's obvious or intuitive or easy or that it makes any kind of sense and that even your five-year-old child understands it. I don't care. I've been trying to find a simple, user-friendly version of Linux for my old Windows XP machine for over fifteen years without success. None of it makes sense to me. So go ahead and laugh, all you techno-dudes and astro-peeps; I don't speak Nerd-lish or Geekinese! 😁

[@harrison00xXx]

But do us a big favor - stop the Squarespace sponsorship, the more i hear Squarespace (or NordVPN etc), the more i feel to unsubscribe and even dislike videos

[@NebulaPhotos]

I will when I can, but at this point to do this full-time (I started with full-time in January) it is necessary to use sponsors to keep myself afloat. If I get enough patrons to replace that income source, I will cut the sponsors. My goal is for that to happen by the end of the year.

[@harrison00xXx]

@@NebulaPhotos Awesome to hear. I mean i get your point, especially considering that expensive astro gear (my budget was exhausted with an old 2nd hand 750mm F5 newton on Skywatcher EQ3-2 GoTo), but i wish people would just be less greedy regarding money since its the reason the world is that fked up.

[@poruatokin]

Hmmm, ....If only there was a feature in the KZbin player that allowed you to skip the play head along to the next chapter mark. Would be great wouldn't it?

[@harrison00xXx]

@@poruatokin doesnt exist when using Vinegar to clean up the youtube website as well adblock

[@earthling-fh2mg]

Can you please do something about your mic placement? Every video I watch of you has each and every breath AND swallow you make ring in my ears. Sorry but it is VERY off putting.

[@dex9525]

Amazing videos... And great things to learn from those.. Hi Bogdan, Can you help me in selecting a type out of the below mentioned. Requirements - planatery imaging and deep sky viewing and casual photography. "Crisp and sharp planatery & deep sky viewing ability" - GSO RC 6" 1370mm RC F/9 - GSO 8" M-CRF F=1848mm F/12 GSO 8" Classical cassegrain telescope F 2436, F/12 - BRESSER MESSIER MC-152 F: 1900mm; F/D: F12,5