Star tools?

[David Myers]

Hi I am new to astrophotography. I am using a Orion color planetary imager IV. And a Meade LS 8 SCT. I am limited to lunar an britght planets. I use ReageStaks and Photoshop. I was wondering if anyone has used StarTools for lunar and planetary post prossesing and how well it works.Dave.

[irwjager]

Hi David,

First up, I'm the author of StarTools, so don't believe anything I'm about to say. :P

Seriously though, if you're into planetary imaging and already have PhotoShop you're well on your way in the software department. Paul Haese (http://paulhaese.net/Aboutme.html), one of my favorite planetary imagers here on IIS, uses PS for his work with great effect. One thing you'll probably want to invest in is a deconvolution plug-in (for example AstraImage (http://www.phasespace.com.au/)) and perhaps something like GradientXterminator (http://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/). Registax will already give you a basic wavelet sharpener, which a lot of people seem to like.

While I realize you already have PS, don't discount the GIMP (free) for planetary processing if you're just starting out. While it only processes in 8-bit, there are some very good free plug-ins available (including wavelet sharpeners and decon). At the very least they're a great way of familiarizing yourself with the workings of the various techniques that are at your disposal as an imager.

So now to answer your question. Yes I use StarTools for all my planetary post-processing (it's only natural I 'eat my own dog food' :P ) and deem it very, very capable.

Things you'll appreciate about ST will be the price (AstraImage + GradXT alone will set you back $100, while ST does the same better & faster for $60) and little things like near-instant wavelet sharpening (instead of RegiStax' rather slow implementation).

Depending on your gear and equipment, there are some other neat little tricks you'll appreciate such as the real-time luminance mixer and the Lens module (long story short they're invaluable if you don't have any UV/IR filter or your barlow is achromatic).

Lastly ST was created for astro imaging, so getting optimal results is *very* quick compared to a generic package like PS. Here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=708216#post708272) is an example of the fruits of a quick 2 minute ST session, fixing up a (compressed) image of Saturn that was taken during very bad seeing conditions.

There's a free demo on the ST site, so it may be worth giving that a try. By all means try ST with the images of other plug-ins' examples, tutorials or demo images. It's what I do during development to ensure ST produces equal or better results than what's out there.

Finally, let me know if you have any questions/problems and/or feature requests. :thumbsup:

Cheers,