StarTools

Captured M8 Lagoon Nebula for the second time this year but this time under Bortle 8 light polluted City suburban skies and a 70% waxing Moon

6” f6 GSO Newt
Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount
ZWOASI2600MC cooled to -10C , Gain 100 LRN
Optolong L Extreme filter
TS GPU Coma Corrector

125 x 3 minute dithered guided subs
40 x Flats
60 x Bias

EQMOD, Stellarium and APT
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.7 Compose OSC Bi colour

Processed a couple of renditions in colour module with SHO matrix

Comments welcome
Thanks

Very beautifull!

Thank you for your comment

Excellent as always. You certainly do a very good M8 and M20 Martin!

M8 is a great subject for the HDR module, particularly the revamped module in 1.8. Worth a try to see if it's to taste?

Ivo,
Thanks very much
I will upgrade to 1.8 soon
The HDR module in 1.7 is excellent, particularly Reveal All at default 1.2 or up to 1.4
I was using Optimise but this tends to bloat your Stars too much ( with or without a Star mask )
I’m an advocate for Startools but don’t get too many takers on our Astro forum. Most folk opt for PI and Photoshop etc… they agree ST is powerful but prefer to flick all the switches and levers in the traditional manner. I prefer auto complex mathematics to arrive at the same conclusion and result rather than have to flick all the switches and levers and “hope you arrive there”

Thanks again
Clear Skies
Martin ( Startrek)

Glorious! Stunning image. #3 has a radiance that's hard to beat

Rowland,
Thanks for your nice comments

Martin

Hi Martin,

what a great image! I really don’t know, which version looks best …

IMHO it’s mainly a matter of taste to prefer traditional switches and levers or not. And to be honest, there are some sliders in ST that are pretty hard to understand even having read the documentation and one needs a lot of practice using them with success as well.

Startrek wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:03 am I’m an advocate for Startools but don’t get too many takers on our Astro forum. Most folk opt for PI and Photoshop etc… they agree ST is powerful but prefer to flick all the switches and levers in the traditional manner.

But: For me, the most outstanding feature of ST is the signal evolution tracking. This is an awesome and ground-breaking idea Ivo invented. It’s absolutely amazing to see, how ST “knows” where the noise developed while processing and stretching the image and how to defeat it. And this is true for colour precessing as well.

Maybe you could to point these benefits of ST in your Astro forum? I’m sure that everyone, who really takes some time to try it will be convinced that these features of ST are outstanding ...

Best regards, Dietmar.

Thanks Dietmar,
Folk tend to stick with what they know rather than learn new software
I have posted on our forum a YouTube clip from the UK ( March 2021 ) where Ivo was invited to give a talk about ST with reference to PI.
It was an excellent talk / interview and very informative
Whilst quite a few folk on our forum agreed ST was very intuitive and unique, they said that you lose some hands on control of your processing and prefer to understand the nuts and bolts of how you arrive at a certain point. I didn’t agree with that as you have full control with ST
Anyway I tried my best

Cheers
Martin