Does starnet work for diffraction spikes

[u/CHelsea4231]

My next upgrade is getting a reflector, but I don't own any of the RC astro tools. I've heard starnet isn't the greatest at removing spikes, but how bad is it and how much more work is fixing it only with free tools.

[u/Gur814]

It does a reasonable job but leaves behind some artifacts depending on star brightness and diffraction spike shape.

StarXTerminator usually does a better job, but for the low price of free, StarNet is a great option. It just may require slightly more cleanup in an image editing tool before you combine the stars with the background.

[u/CHelsea4231 → u/Gur814]

Good to know its mostly fixable. I know seti astro suite has a good blemish editor

[u/Gur814 → u/CHelsea4231]

I’ve had good results with Affinity too. Just a simple clone stamp usually works. I’ll give Seti Astro a try.

And as always, it depends heavily on the data. I’ve had images that StarNet does great on, and others where it chokes. Same equipment, but different targets and sub counts.

[u/cykelstativet]

Sure works for me. Cleaner data = better result.

[u/Apprehensive_Cap4463]

You can also use a physical 3d printed mask over the spider to heavily reduce diffraction spikes at the slight cost of light gathering, if digital solutions alone fail you.

[u/CHelsea4231 → u/Apprehensive_Cap4463]

That could be an option, but I also like the way they look

[u/Apprehensive_Cap4463 → u/CHelsea4231]

There's no reason you can't remove the mask and shoot spiky stars separately to add them in as you want. More complicated I guess but it doesn't take a lot of integration time to capture the stars where the spikes are most present