M31 PixInsight V StarTools

[Zuts]

M31

I can't seem to get the colour right with StarTools so I am trying PixInsight.

First Image is stacked and processed PixInsight, Second image stacked in DSS and processed in StarTools.

Original Data

50 by 120 sec, darks + flats + bias
TV85 + ASI 1600 Pro MC, Guiding with ASI 120 MM Mini
0.8 Flattener/reducer/UV-IR filter

Barely above the horizon

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Hi,


Either colour rendering is somewhat curious coming from an OSC...


What you typically would want to see in a spiral galaxy like this, is;

• A yellowish core (star population skewed towards older stars due to gas depeletion)
• A bluer outer rim (star population skewed towards young blue stars due to gas abundance)
• Red/brown dust lanes
• Pink/purple HII areas dotted around.
• A foreground star field that shows all star temperatures equally (red>orange>yellow>white>blue).

If you'd like to share the DSS or PI dataset I'd be happy to have a look as to what might be going on if it helps. The detail in the PI image is far superior to the DSS/ST image, which similarly concerns me somewhat...

[Zuts]

Hi Ivo,

I definately was not criticising the package, I do like the StarTools and think it is a great package and would recomend it, it's just that for myself with some images I just can't seem to get the colour correct, especially with some of the duo-band images. Though I was very happy with my M45 StarTools processing. I would be happy to send you the DSS stack, and would really appreciate some followup tips on duo-band, in StarTools 1.7 which I just downloaded.

Cheers
Paul

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Happy to help where I can Paul (whether ST or PI).

[Robert_T]

I'd be proud of either shot Paul! I am having my own struggles with processing Dual Band OSC filter images so very interested in how this plays out. At the moment I haven't made the leap to a more dedicated astro software just using DSS and PS; but the time is near ;-)