![]() Switching to “advanced” gives you control over the flares, halos and prettymuch everything you could want to adjust in the image. The look and feel of the plug in is similar to AstroFlat Pro, in that everything is controlled by sliders but there’s much more content. The software even lets you pick the angle that the spikes sit at and I’ve tilted them just 7 degrees off as I feel it gives the image a more natural feel. Not only has StarSpikes Pro made the bright and colourful stars really pop out of the image, but it’s controlled the halos around the stars and made them a feature rather than a problem. Now here is the same picture after it’s had the StarSpikes Pro treatment: That’s probably down to my ability (or lack thereof) with image processing, but it’s not something I suffered with when using a Newt. ![]() It’s pretty enough, but the larger stars have halos that don’t quite look right and they’re more like smudges than something to highlight in the image. Here is my combined 2016-2018 image of the Rosette Nebula: STAR SPIKES PRO IS AS SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE AS ASTROFLAT PRO!!!!!!!! I’ve suggested to members that they download the trial version and give it a go and already had feedback from several people to say that they went on and bought the full licence. It’s such a good piece of software that I’ve personally recommended it to several astronomy clubs. ![]() I’ve previously spoken about how easy AstroFlat Pro is to use and please feel free to read the article on this blog. It did, however, show me that a software solution would probably be the way to go. I find the “reduce stars” option particularly useful when you’re trying to highlight a very dim DSO in a wide starfield.Īstronomy Tools includes several levels of “Star Spikes” and they work just fine, but they aren’t perfect. It’s a brilliant bit of kit that automates some of the long-winded astro processing tasks and means that you can simply apply techniques to images without having to learn the ins and outs of Photoshop completely. I bought the Astronomy Tools from ProDigital Software many years ago. Lots of people have had varied success with using wire or string to create a false “Spider” but you have to make sure you get the strings as tight as possible and perpendicular or the result looks quite daft! Astronomy Tools? Essentially, it’s a bit of interference with your image but it looks nice! Refractor telescopes don’t give you spikes, unless you build your own set of crossbars to pop in the way of your camera. String!ĭiffraction spikes are caused by the “Spider” (the crossbars that hold the secondary mirror im place) on Newtonian telescopes. It’s one of those things that you either love or hate and I think they add something to astrophotography. I promissed the guys at ProDigital Software that I’d give their StarSpikes Pro plug in a try and as I’ve recently switched to using a very nice William Optics ED80 telescope for my imaging I miss the diffraction spikes I was getting with my Newtonian scope. It’s not clickbait and it’s earning me nothing it’s just helpful! Refractors & The Lack Of Spikes I’ve put in hyperlinks and as usual, these will open in a new window/tab to the location the link is talking about.
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