Thought twice of presenting any planetary, being from a color asi cam, and lacking processing skills,,, .
Other images here have such fine details and very smooth finishes
I guess the advantages of using a mono camera to the most part ?
This Image from the 24th April, midnight'ish, using my 12" Meade, F/10 which is producing faster frame rates, and also better detail than with using barlow's, so it seems ?
Any advice or thoughts welcomed.
Specs are something like these :
Capture: 52Fps, 1.5minutes, Gain=167, Exp=19ms, Gamma=9
AutoStakkert 2, Regi6 & PS3
seeing on the 24th was highly variable bob. Also, a tip for you crank that gain, and watch the fps flow .
not sure what camera you have. with the QHY5L-II i was using <15ms exposure with gain to suit for ~50 FPS (limit for my computer with USB2.0). also, don't image longer than 30 seconds with your 12" (others may have other advice).
Don't be discouraged Bob, can't see much wrong with that other than what looks like iffy seeing
Kind words thnx Dunk, Rgrds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kkara4
seeing on the 24th was highly variable bob. Also, a tip for you crank that gain, and watch the fps flow .
not sure what camera you have. with the QHY5L-II i was using <15ms exposure with gain to suit for ~50 FPS (limit for my computer with USB2.0). also, don't image longer than 30 seconds with your 12" (others may have other advice).
Appreciated Kishan, (y)
I Usually do between 120 & upto 200fps, tho I try different capers from time to time. Will have to try both on the same night same conditions and compare with a finer Tooth-Comb' !
HavagoodN
That's not bad - better than my first several (ahem, ok, many) attempts.
But, hey, if we're all throwing in our 2c worth ...
I have a 174MM, so optimal settings will vary with that and with the optical train and conditions, but I'd use a much shorter exposure (5-10ms), higher gain (just watch for saturation in the live image) and leave the gamma alone until post-processing. I'd also keep each video to 60secs, and definitely try and keep fps up, >120 if possible, though about 47fps is the best I get with USB2. (I'm adding USB3 to every box I have as we speak.)
The 178MC has tiny pixels (2.4um) so using the 5x rule of thumb, your ideal f no. is f/12. Native f/10 is pretty close, so good choice there. If conditions are exceptional, you could try a 2x barlow (or maybe a 1.5x if you can find one) but probably with longer exposure, which will drop the achievable frame rate. You could aways experiment ...
That's not bad - better than my first several (ahem, ok, many) attempts.
But, hey, if we're all throwing in our 2c worth ...
I have a 174MM, so optimal settings will vary with that and with the optical train and conditions, but I'd use a much shorter exposure (5-10ms), higher gain (just watch for saturation in the live image) and leave the gamma alone until post-processing. I'd also keep each video to 60secs, and definitely try and keep fps up, >120 if possible, though about 47fps is the best I get with USB2. (I'm adding USB3 to every box I have as we speak.)
The 178MC has tiny pixels (2.4um) so using the 5x rule of thumb, your ideal f no. is f/12. Native f/10 is pretty close, so good choice there. If conditions are exceptional, you could try a 2x barlow (or maybe a 1.5x if you can find one) but probably with longer exposure, which will drop the achievable frame rate. You could aways experiment ...
Appreaciate your time & input DarkArts
Very relative in all ways, and so much to consider in all aspect of planetary imaging, for example, Gain, being similar to dslr ISO, increase ISO = more noise, , so, does Gain = more noise; but does extra frames rates from high Gain help reduce the noise, but not decrease details ??
This is very much the main aspect I'm working on figuring out with this Camera/scope combination
Which is not easy when Seeing varies, for instance, using the hypothetical best settings and the seeing does not play ball, but capturing some moments of better seeing while experimenting with a lesser optimal camera settings could & probably does produce a better result ?
One thing I will start practicing from 'your input' in Keeping the Vid capture down to a minute 'there abouts' as rotation would be interfering to a very questionable extent
not bad for your first attempts at this often frustrating art. I'll give you the benefit of my 13 years of imaging the planets and help you get there faster.
First up, forget asking about settings. Each system will have independent settings for imaging.
Next , you need to set your gain and exposure so that your histogram is around 75%. Ideally set your exposure to as short as possible and push up the gain to around the 80-90% mark.
Turn off gamma.
On Jupiter use runs of between 40-90 seconds per channel on monochrome and around 60 seconds for one shot colour. These durations are ideally used for use with a GEM. For Alt Az mounts use shorter durations to avoid field rotation.
Thanx Leon & glad you think so ;-)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Hi Bob,
not bad for your first attempts at this often frustrating art. I'll give you the benefit of my 13 years of imaging the planets and help you get there faster.
First up, forget asking about settings. Each system will have independent settings for imaging.
Next , you need to set your gain and exposure so that your histogram is around 75%. Ideally set your exposure to as short as possible and push up the gain to around the 80-90% mark.
Turn off gamma.
On Jupiter use runs of between 40-90 seconds per channel on monochrome and around 60 seconds for one shot colour. These durations are ideally used for use with a GEM. For Alt Az mounts use shorter durations to avoid field rotation.
Hope that helps.
Hey Paul, Appreciate your chiming in here.
Ive seen your Planetary work over the yrs & with your experience & your kindly explained information I can now be confident in that High Gain will not to be of any concern Re; Detrimental to losing/impeding on details !
Hit the nail on the head to what I was working on figuring out
Yeah I certainly wouldn't be shy about dialling up the gain, the 178 sensor is pretty low on the noise front. Try capturing in RAW8 mode as that'll potentially double the frame rate you can capture at. A 12" SCT at f/10 will be pretty bright, so push the frame rate as much as you can and dial in just enough gain to keep the histogram in the sweet spot.
Cheers Glen
I thought my processing was letting me down, but now its 'also' the capturing, ,
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andyc
Fine image - I guess it may not be long before you're up there with the likes of Dunk on here
Thanx Andy
Some of us only wish mate
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis
Yeah I certainly wouldn't be shy about dialling up the gain, the 178 sensor is pretty low on the noise front. Try capturing in RAW8 mode as that'll potentially double the frame rate you can capture at. A 12" SCT at f/10 will be pretty bright, so push the frame rate as much as you can and dial in just enough gain to keep the histogram in the sweet spot.
Thanx Dunk,
It certainly seems that way, I have captured under 10ms with over 100fps looking back at vids from month ago, infact I knew these fast frame rates seemed to be the go, but the vid data only showing 30% Gain, with a similar 30% histo
I will definitely crank up the Gain in future, & like yourself & Paul H mentioned, look for a 70+% Histo,
BTW: Just reading through 'cloudynights forum' concerning frame rates & bit depth, 10, 12, 14 etc, some interesting findings there ?
All the best !
Bob, the "seeing" is everything...well, and good collimation, focus and capture technique but all the others don't count for anything if the seeing isn't up to it. Capturing good data will give you something to practice with for a long time to come - I'll go back and play with older data if I feel I've improved my processing, as the good nights are few and far between. On a _really_ good night (do we get those?!), with a very stable atmosphere, longer exposures would be fine, but I'm not finding those rushing to come along
There's no silver bullet to finding the sweet spot with your setup, it's just experimentation, but hopefully you've got some new settings to try and see what you think...and that's the important thing...be happy, keep plugging away until you've nailed your capture technique and wait for a good night...you'll be rewarded when one chooses to come along
Yeah the bit depth is a bit of a rabbit hole, but essentially when you stack a large number of frames you claw back the numerical precision you lose by capturing in 8-bit (which we do for speed).
Agreed with Dunk - seeing is such a big deal. Keep experimenting, and I guess that the same settings don't always apply every night. I just had a night of 9/9 seeing, but transparency was poor - I upped the exposure by 50% and still got the best results I've had. The result was presumably mostly seeing!
Hi Bob,
I have a very similar setup and I agree about what you said about using the barlow (first comments). Now I take video with and without the x2.5 powermate. Sometimes the seeing isn't good enough for the higher magnification!
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