Do We Have To Use Starnet For better Astrophoto?

Hello and welcome. I'd like to ask everyone who's using Siril software to make their astrophotography better.
Do we have to use the Starnet++ plugin to make our astrophotography better, like removing stars and just leaving the main subject? Íve has been trying to experience this plugin in Siril. But when I try to follow a tutorial, it says that Starnet is not compatible with Windows 10 or try to reinstall it. But whenever I try to change it or reinstall it, it still says that it is not compatible and cannot execute the source code or what. So my question is it okay to not use Starnet for better image making, or do we have to use it?

No, you have to use StarNet, it's the law!
Ok, besides that, you really need to give us more informations on what you're trying to do. What you're doing and what did you download?

OK and the Siril documentation for Starnet++ is here:
https://siril.org/tutorials/integrated-starnet/

Michael Nemetz:
No, you have to use StarNet, it's the law!
Ok, besides that, you really need to give us more informations on what you're trying to do. What you're doing and what did you download?

OK and the Siril documentation for Starnet++ is here:
https://siril.org/tutorials/integrated-starnet/

Well just wanna know if its necessary to use it if im want to have a clear deep sky images.
for example i have like 4 or 5 deep space images i made. And downloaded the latest version of the starnet for Windows 10.
But i getting a error message when im try to pull the rgb fit file to the exe file. And dont know that whats wrong with it.

Well, keep in mind that removing the stars and processing stars and nebulosity separately is a relatively new way of working. For many years before star removal software there was a lot of messing around in PhotoShop and other programs to selectively reduce the impact of stars on our images. That's because astrophotos of faint objects really have two very different objects to deal with. The faint parts have very little signal so you really have to dig down deep into the left side of the histogram and stretch the data a lot to get a good result. The stars in the image are a totally different thing. There's plenty of signal, in fact, if the exposure is more then a min. or so, a fair number of them will be clipped to pure white. If you stretch the faint object and the stars together, the faint stuff looks great but the stars are way over exposed and bloated That's why something like starnet is so useful. You can balance things out to a much more natural looking result. You don't have to do it but you really should.

Speaking for myself... "No" you don't have to use the StarNet++ routine, BUT.. and there it is... I find that being able to remove the start field and work on the main object helps me.... and during star reconstitution I can stretch the Star mask to bring out the amount of stars that I think make my image look the best...

I'v found that as I stack more light frames in my image, the amount of stars, in the star field increases and I find that the stars become over powering to the over all image.. Somewhere on the site I asked for a [RCC] Request for constructive critique on the Wizard nebula, I did very little image processing on that image, including no StarNet++ removal/integration here is the link to that image: https://www.astrobin.com/r7eehy/

Here is the same image, but this time I processed the image using a Youtube tutorial from the Deep Space Astro channel, in my opinion it's a big difference.. You'll need to take what I say with a "Large" grain of salt.. because I'm still really new at this and trying to develop my image processing techniques...

Yes. Look on you tube for a video of how to integrate sn++ into siril on windows.

Szijártó Áron:
Hello and welcome. I'd like to ask everyone who's using Siril software to make their astrophotography better.
Do we have to use the Starnet++ plugin to make our astrophotography better, like removing stars and just leaving the main subject? Íve has been trying to experience this plugin in Siril. But when I try to follow a tutorial, it says that Starnet is not compatible with Windows 10 or try to reinstall it. But whenever I try to change it or reinstall it, it still says that it is not compatible and cannot execute the source code or what. So my question is it okay to not use Starnet for better image making, or do we have to use it?

What version of Win10 are your running ?

Szijártó Áron:
Michael Nemetz:
No, you have to use StarNet, it's the law!
Ok, besides that, you really need to give us more informations on what you're trying to do. What you're doing and what did you download?

OK and the Siril documentation for Starnet++ is here:
https://siril.org/tutorials/integrated-starnet/

Well just wanna know if its necessary to use it if im want to have a clear deep sky images.
for example i have like 4 or 5 deep space images i made. And downloaded the latest version of the starnet for Windows 10.
But i getting a error message when im try to pull the rgb fit file to the exe file. And dont know that whats wrong with it.

It depends on your picture, you won't need it, especially for a globular cluster or something similar. But it will make things easier when working on e.g. nebulas and makes it able to pull more detail while not overprocessing the stars. Also you're able to ad RGB stars to your narrowband photos.

I never used it like you do, by dragging it on the exe file. I don't know if this really works. There are a couple of files you can download, the full install, the update and the GUI version, also depends what version you downloaded.

Maybe this will help you, I doubt Windows is your problem:
https://astrobackyard.com/starnet-astrophotography/

Szijártó Áron:
Hello and welcome. I'd like to ask everyone who's using Siril software to make their astrophotography better.
Do we have to use the Starnet++ plugin to make our astrophotography better, like removing stars and just leaving the main subject? Íve has been trying to experience this plugin in Siril. But when I try to follow a tutorial, it says that Starnet is not compatible with Windows 10 or try to reinstall it. But whenever I try to change it or reinstall it, it still says that it is not compatible and cannot execute the source code or what. So my question is it okay to not use Starnet for better image making, or do we have to use it?

One example by myself, this is taken with two different dual narrowband filters and broadband UV/IRcut builtin for the stars, you can see the colours of the stars have been preserved:
https://www.astrobin.com/00z5hq/

Well, keep in mind that removing the stars and processing stars and nebulosity separately is a relatively new way of working. For many years before star removal software there was a lot of messing around in PhotoShop and other programs to selectively reduce the impact of stars on our images. That's because astrophotos of faint objects really have two very different objects to deal with. The faint parts have very little signal so you really have to dig down deep into the left side of the histogram and stretch the data a lot to get a good result. The stars in the image are a totally different thing. There's plenty of signal, in fact, if the exposure is more then a min. or so, a fair number of them will be clipped to pure white. If you stretch the faint object and the stars together, the faint stuff looks great but the stars are way over exposed and bloated That's why something like starnet is so useful. You can balance things out to a much more natural looking result. You don't have to do it but you really should.

I second this comment. Sorry, I didn't find just "liking the comment" useful enough.

Although I don't use Siril (I am a Pixinsight user) and mostly prefer Star Exterminator, the short answer is "these days - almost all of the time" for star removal during processing.

I have been imaging since film and for most of that time processing was done with stars in place. It was less than ideal. So yes, you can do that but for any image that contains anything but stars only (which is most images), the best result will be obtained by processing stars and non-stars separately.

Michael Nemetz:
Szijártó Áron:
Hello and welcome. I'd like to ask everyone who's using Siril software to make their astrophotography better.
Do we have to use the Starnet++ plugin to make our astrophotography better, like removing stars and just leaving the main subject? Íve has been trying to experience this plugin in Siril. But when I try to follow a tutorial, it says that Starnet is not compatible with Windows 10 or try to reinstall it. But whenever I try to change it or reinstall it, it still says that it is not compatible and cannot execute the source code or what. So my question is it okay to not use Starnet for better image making, or do we have to use it?

One example by myself, this is taken with two different dual narrowband filters and broadband UV/IRcut builtin for the stars, you can see the colours of the stars have been preserved:
https://www.astrobin.com/00z5hq/

this is really nice looking, but I suspect could look fantastic with more background less stars

TiffsAndAstro:
this is really nice looking, but I suspect could look fantastic with more background less stars

Thanks, it's also the "taste of the day" or "what I saw in it". There are so many possibilities how to present your photo and currently I am at the stage of showing all the stars because I really liked to see all the different colours and distribution of stars I achieved in my broadband photos. I guess some other photos will show different things in the future as I progress. On the other hand, what I experienced, objects that are taken a lot like this or the Wizard, etc, people got bored of it already.

Michael Nemetz:
No, you have to use StarNet, it's the law!
Ok, besides that, you really need to give us more informations on what you're trying to do. What you're doing and what did you download?

OK and the Siril documentation for Starnet++ is here:
https://siril.org/tutorials/integrated-starnet/

Well just wanna know if its necessary to use it if im want to have a clear deep sky images.
for example i have like 4 or 5 deep space images i made. And downloaded the latest version of the starnet for Windows 10.
But i getting a error message when im try to pull the rgb fit file to the exe file. And dont know that whats wrong with it.

It depends on your picture, you won't need it, especially for a globular cluster or something similar. But it will make things easier when working on e.g. nebulas and makes it able to pull more detail while not overprocessing the stars. Also you're able to ad RGB stars to your narrowband photos.

I never used it like you do, by dragging it on the exe file. I don't know if this really works. There are a couple of files you can download, the full install, the update and the GUI version, also depends what version you downloaded.

Maybe this will help you, I doubt Windows is your problem:
https://astrobackyard.com/starnet-astrophotography/

Well I have the plugin StarnetV2CLI Windows version the latest version and the 2.1.1 0126 TF ×64 install.
Does it matter what version i downloaded?
If so then that might be the case right?

Szijártó Áron:
Well I have the plugin StarnetV2CLI Windows version the latest version and the 2.1.1 0126 TF ×64 install.
Does it matter what version i downloaded?
If so then that might be the case right?

The CLI one is the Command line Interface version, the TF is the full install version for Pixinsight. You need the CLI version and check this video how to install the plugin and use it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex40C2xWhV8

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