{"id":2129,"date":"2020-11-18T23:22:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T04:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2020-11-18T23:22:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T04:22:49","slug":"leveling-up-my-post-processing-with-starnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/leveling-up-my-post-processing-with-starnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Leveling up my post-processing with StarNet++"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/finally-caught-m31-and-m33-together-plus-cassiopeia-with-m103\/\" target=\"_blank\">other night I posted<\/a> an image of Cassiopeia that I banged out very quickly in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/sequatorglobal\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequator<\/a> and The GIMP. Over the last few nights, I have re-run those images through <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.astropixelprocessor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Astro Pixel Processor<\/a> as a way of getting better acquainted with that tool and its huge amount of features. Once I had my final image, it occurred to me that I was losing the focus of the shot, Cassiopeia, in all of the minor stars that are revealed through astrophotography and stacking. The removal of these unwanted stars is called &#8220;star reduction&#8221; or &#8220;star minimization&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Star reduction is typically done in Photoshop or The GIMP, but there is a newish tool on the scene, <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/nekitmm\/starnet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">StarNet++<\/a>, to assist with this very process. I have messed with it a bit in the past, but I had much better results this time. There is still a good deal of work to be done in Photoshop\/GIMP afterwards, but it is much less involved thanks to StarNet++. Anyway, you can judge for yourself. The image with the white text is what I posted the other night, and the green text is with this new process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\" data-attachment-id=\"2116\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/finally-caught-m31-and-m33-together-plus-cassiopeia-with-m103\/cass-seq-scaled-annotated\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?fit=2048%2C1229&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1229\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?fit=640%2C384&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?resize=640%2C384&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2116\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/finally-caught-m31-and-m33-together-plus-cassiopeia-with-m103\/cass-seq-scaled-annotated\/\" class=\"wp-image-2116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?resize=1024%2C615&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?resize=768%2C461&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?resize=1536%2C922&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-Seq-scaled-annotated.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"409\" data-attachment-id=\"2130\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/leveling-up-my-post-processing-with-starnet\/cass-app-starnet-scaled-annotated\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?fit=2048%2C1308&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1308\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?fit=640%2C409&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?resize=640%2C409&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2130\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/?attachment_id=2130\" class=\"wp-image-2130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?resize=1024%2C654&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?resize=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?resize=768%2C491&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?resize=1536%2C981&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Cass-APP-StarNet-scaled-annotated.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other night I posted an image of Cassiopeia that I banged out very quickly in Sequator and The GIMP. Over the last few nights, I have re-run those images through Astro Pixel Processor as a way of getting better &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/leveling-up-my-post-processing-with-starnet\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[376,13],"tags":[536,557,539,382,511,555,556,554],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-photography","tag-50mm","tag-app","tag-astro-pixel-processor","tag-astrophotography","tag-cassiopeia","tag-leveling-up","tag-post-processing","tag-starnet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NxlE-yl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2070,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/andromeda-at-50mm\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":0},"title":"Andromeda at 50mm","author":"matthannan","date":"11 October 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is from a session that I did back on Sept 25, using the 50mm f\/1.8 prime lens. Been banging my head against it in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril, and Sequator for the stacking and pre-processing, and then finishing up with The GIMP for post-processing. I just was not happy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Andromeda-50-DSS.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2114,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/finally-caught-m31-and-m33-together-plus-cassiopeia-with-m103\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":1},"title":"Finally caught M31 and M33 together. Plus Cassiopeia with M103","author":"matthannan","date":"15 November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally got a good shot of M31 and M33! So happy. 50mm, f\/2.8, ISO 640, 361 exposures at 5 seconds each (just over 30 minutes) I have a much larger version, should you be interested. In that one, you can see that I was starting to capture the arms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Mirach-RGB-session_1-mod-lpc-cbg-cbg-St-ro.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Mirach-RGB-session_1-mod-lpc-cbg-cbg-St-ro.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Mirach-RGB-session_1-mod-lpc-cbg-cbg-St-ro.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Mirach-RGB-session_1-mod-lpc-cbg-cbg-St-ro.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1998,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/jupiter-and-his-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":2},"title":"Jupiter and his Court","author":"matthannan","date":"12 August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I was kind of interested in why Jupiter was showing up as a dash in the photos from a couple of nights ago. Last night I brought out my 55-200mm telephoto lens. Focusing was a snap. And it proved its worth when pointed at the King of the Planets.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jupiter_and_Moons-200-800.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2098,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/m31-and-m33-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":3},"title":"M31 and M33 again","author":"matthannan","date":"8 November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Revisited the sky last night after a period of inactivity due to rain, snow, clouds, and\/or cold. It was nice to be outside again. Tried to get M31 and M33 in the same shot. M31 & M33, Take 1 Because I was unable to see my two main targets, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/2for50-Seq-cleaned-scaled-1.png?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/perseus-at-50mm\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":4},"title":"Perseus at 50mm","author":"matthannan","date":"27 November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"After a Thanksgiving Day of clouds yesterday, I happened to glance at my Clear Skies app and saw that the skies would clear at 8:00PM, so I jumped into my new Carhartt insulated overalls and headed out. It was warm enough that I didn't need the overalls, but they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Perseus-scaled-1.png?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1981,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/shooting-the-milky-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":5},"title":"Shooting the Milky Way","author":"matthannan","date":"10 August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I hadn't tried to shoot the Milky Way yet, so after Calin went to bed last night, I snuck down to the park to avail of some reasonably dark (no street lights right in my southern view) and open skies. I was down there about an hour and a half,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Milky-35-1600-Mid_Jup_Sequator_stack.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2131,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions\/2131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}