Saving Jupiter

[LostInSp_ce]

Hi all, I thought that I'd share with some of the other newbies out there about how much data can be recovered from poor captures. Sometimes we look at something and think that it's too far gone but with a little bit of tinkering we might be able to salvage it. I've been very time poor at the moment so I haven't had any opportunities to image. However last night I just needed to get the kit out and do something.

So I intentionally set out to do some captures in poor conditions to see just what could be extracted from them later. It was a very cloudy night with enough light pollution from the CDB and the neighbours. Captures had to be taken through the thinnest parts of cloud hence why the luminance has an hour difference. Equipment used was a 12 inch Dob (no GoTo or tracking) with a 2X Barlow. ZWO's ASI120MM-S camera with entry level LRGB filters (no filter wheel). I had to remove the camera each time when swapping filters.

Considering the above limitations I think that the result is surprising. It's interesting to see what can be extracted with a little bit of patience and some tinkering.

Below are the stacked frames along with the final image.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Wow! I've been dreaming of getting some mono video from my guide cam to do planetary imaging in my non tracking/goto Dob but figured I'd get nowhere but maybe there is a way... inspiring!!! What filters did you use and what did you use to capture and stack it all?

On a side note I got that same feeling last night of just needing to get outside and do something, although suffering a bit today

[LostInSp_ce]

Thanks Ben, I encourage getting the Dob out with the guide camera and having a go. Imaging in mono is fun, quicker and I think helps to develop good habits (as you're not distracted by colour) with things such as contrast, noise control and sharpening which are all important for enhancing the finer details within an image.

The filters are just some cheapies I got off ebay a while ago just to play with until I invest in better ones. I'm holding off until I get the new camera. I want to make sure that everything plays nice with each other.

FireCapture was used for capturing, AutoStakkert for stacking and RegiStax for wavelets. After that it was WinJUPOS for derotation and then both Photoshop and RegiStax for alignment and then back again to Photoshop to clean up any little bits like the hot pixel in the green channel and the colouring of the GRS because I was only able to capture it in luminance. Unfortunately by the time the clouds thinned enough for me to continue with the colour filters it had already rotated out of view.

I know that the processing may sound like a lot of bouncing around but it's actually a quick process once you're familiar with it, 30 mins and you're done.

I hope this helps.

[Nebulous (Chris)]

Great job! Processing is a whole area of photography that sometimes requires a good chunk of study to master, but the results can be well worth the effort.

I've not got any further than some basic skills in Photoshop Elements, but one day I might summon up the necessary concentration to have a go at the star stuff, so thanks for listing the tools you used. Impressive stuff.

[LostInSp_ce]

Thanks Chris. This isn't my usual set up for planetary imaging but was used just as an exercise to demonstrate what may be possible to recover if you have to shoot through clouds, live in a red zone, don't own a tracking mount or your colour channels are out of alignment.

[leon]

Wow, under the circumstances you have done extremely well, nice job

Leon

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Originally Posted by LostInSp_ce

... I'm holding off until I get the new camera...

That's a great image! I want to do some planetary imaging but I need a good camera. Which camera were you going to get? For me, I want one shot colour. At least for planets. Was thinking of one of the ZWO cams, possibly the ASI290MC ? What do you think?

[LostInSp_ce]

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Which camera were you going to get? For me, I want one shot colour. At least for planets. Was thinking of one of the ZWO cams, possibly the ASI290MC ? What do you think?

Thanks Leon and Kevin. To be honest Kevin I don't know much about AP cameras or cameras in general but I was looking at getting ZWO's ASI1600MM-C. It's more of a DSO camera than a planetary one and I won't be getting it until after winter. The weather's most likely to be terrible for the next four months so I probably wouldn't get much use out of it. I figured that this period of time would be better spent on playing around with software. Also there's a good chance that by the time I go to buy the ASI1600 that a new model is released because that camera is already a year old.

I'm sorry that I can't help out much with cameras but I can say that from what I've read the ASI290 seems very popular for planetary work and the results people are getting look amazing. If you have a look in these forums there are some awesome images by people who use it. I guess like most things it comes down to budget, amount of time you have and how serious you want to get.

I noticed in your signature that you have a 1100D have you tried imaging with that using live view? You could probably get some great results with the SW120 or even 10" Newts you have provided that you can get the DSLR to focus in them. I'd try this first unless your heart is already set on a planetary cam. In regards to OSC I think it's more than enough for planetary work and most of the time I can't even tell the difference between a OSC and mono + filtered planet image.

Sorry I couldn't be of any more help.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

We are eyeing the same camera for deep sky (ASI1600MM-C). But I'll need a guide cam anyway so thought I'd get something that could be used as a guider and for planets.

I had a quick go at imaging planets with the 1100D, didn't work well at all, but I might not be holding my mouth right. I have more success with C-mount video cameras.

Anyway won't be getting anything for a while. The 1600MM-C will take at least until x-mas to save for, if not longer.

[LostInSp_ce]

Yeah the ASI1600 looks like a great camera. For guiding I prefer to use a QHY5L II because of it's smaller size but the QHY and ASI120 use the same sony sensor making them almost identical. I had a feeling that you had already been down the path of experimenting with the DSLR for planetary but thought that I'd mention it just in case.

I forgot to mention that I saw your C/2015 ER61 and Carina pics from the other forum awesome stuff. Comets look like tricky objects to capture. I'm hoping to try Carina as my first target when I get the 1600, but for now there's still lots to learn and deal with so it's just about getting on the band wagon and enjoying the ride.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Comets are easy, at least for OSC. Much more tricky for mono RGB. I just take 30 sec subs for as long as I can get away with before motion becomes apparent. That's how the 30 sec subs started, then I applied it to everything lol.

I'm enjoying astrophotography much more now that I have an observatory too.

[LostInSp_ce]

Thanks for the tips Kevin, I'll have to try and capture one one day. Having an observatory with dark skies is the ultimate. I think if I had an observatory it would eventually become a coffin and I'd probably transform into vampire. I don't think I'd ever see the light of day again.