M8 taken over 3 moonless nights a month ago from my lightpolluted backyard close to CBD. These are my first "serious" images since I motorised my EQ5, added guiding and IR modded 1200D.
12x180s + 24x180s + 34x180s (total 3.5h) with IR modded 1200D, ISO1600 on ED80 with Hotech SCA flattener. With darks, flats, bias. Stacked with DSS but I tricked DSS not to use bias for darks/lights.
Processing... I am trying to move on from the simple curves/levels in PS so I downloaded the trial of StarTools and used
this video as a guide. The trial of StarTools does not allow saving of files so what you are seeing is the screenshot. This is my 6th attempt of processing M8 with StarTools (the first 5 attempts were disasters). Therefore, I am only 16.77% convinced to buy StarTools (so far)
But I have to admit that I am still not sure what I am doing.
Any hints about processing (good or bad)?
Thank you
Luka
edit: I added the core with the Hourglass Nebula 100% zoom, screenshot from StarTools again. I am starting to like StarTools more and more.
edit 2: I added two more images. Lagoon with more background stars and another more-punchy core.
Which ones do you like more?