Bright stars present a number of problems to both point source and extended source extraction.
This method sides on the conservative side, in the sense that for galaxy extraction we want to avoid ALL light associated with bright stars. Similarly, for the diffraction spikes the coadds were carefully examined and the spike length measured for each bright star. Again, we want the spike light to fade well into the background noise. Finally, the horizontal stripes were carefully examined. For fainter stars, only the stripe centered on the star remains, and for the faintest stars this stripe dissappears altogether.