Saturn in Sydney suburb - 13 Aug

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

I took my first shots of planetary image with ZWO ASI224MC with TV Powermate 4x and TSA-120. I took 2 minutes AVI with RAW8. Didn't know need to de-Bayered.. all came out with B&W after RegiStax
Realised after few readings to de-Bayer. I used FireCapture's deBayer.exe with HQ Linear mode before RegiStax. Then BW turned out in colur

Surrounded by neighbours' air-conditioner units, light polutions and back-burning haze in my backyard in Hornsby Heights (Sydney suburb) may be not too bad considering first planetary shots ever, may be?

I may get 2x Barlow to cope with poor conditions. Also finding the object with 4x Powermate was so tricky.

Cheers,
Hisanori

[ZWO ASI224MC]
Debayer Preview=On
Pan=408
Tilt=244
Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)
Binning=1
Capture Area=488x488
Colour Space=RAW8
Temperature=18.7
Hardware Binning=On
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=100
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=300(Auto)
Exposure=0.055347
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=95
White Bal (R)=52
Brightness=0
Gamma=55
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp=30
Auto Exp Max Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TimeStamp=2017-08-13T10:49:32.2188665Z

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Nice shooting over the Galston Gorge there !!

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Thanks a lot Chris. I need a back-burning filter!!

[Nino (John Peacock)]

Nice photos Hisanori,

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Thanks John, I would love to see a dark sky in Lamb Island!!!

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hard work under those conditions, well done !

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Brent,

Thanks for your kind word!

Cheers,

Hisanori

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

I played around images using RegiStax Wavelet. Surprised what you could get.

[DavidS (David)]

Well done - Nice !!

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Thanks David, I'm still learning RegiStax.
Not sure should be set Alignpoints by myself (then where?) or click Set Alignpoints.
Not sure should I move a scale bar to minimise a length of candy sticks on AlignData prior to click Limit. Not sure setting ROI should help for planet images particularly when the object is drifting. And cropping doesn't work for me, don't now why
This is the best I could get so far.

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Using AutoStakkert to stack up 65% of 2 min video, then Wavelet with RegiStax produced better results. Also few moon pics from another night using Celestron 2x Barlow and Powermate 4x.

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Hello,

In 2 weeks ago, I took out my LX200R (10 inch) to my backyard, left there 6 hours before observe planets. Since a seeing was so good, decided to take videos! Came out not bad (in my standard) despite I was lazy and did only 2 stars' alignment on NEQ6 could capture only 600 - 800 frames within the camera frame. Used Celestron 2x Barlow Ultima SV Series (made in Japan), Astro-Physics 2" MaxBright Diagonal, and ZWO ASI224MC camera. Processed using AutoStakkert and Registax wavelet.

Thank you for watching!

Hisanori

[xelasnave]

Very nice images.
Hornsby Heights is probably one of the better places in Sydney for imaging.
Alex

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Thank you Alex, yes Northern aspect is ok having a city direction on South. But only planets and the moon. No deep skies.

[xelasnave]

What is the longest exposure you can take with your camera?

I am closer to the city and I have been surprised ..I did not think you could get Deep Sky but there is more than I thought.But the big surprise for me is what thirty seconds at what I consider a high iso...not great by some but I just didnot think I could do anything in the city.

Alex

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Hi Alex,
Those are stacked images from videos taken by CMOS camera. For planets I usually take a minimum 2000 frames. To obtain 2000 frames I need take a video about 70 seconds because my camera takes 30 frames per second. When tracking is good I take videos sometime 2 minutes or longer (but not too longer for Jupiter since its rotation starts to spoil your images). I can do this in Hornsby (25 km away from the CBD) as long as my mount tracks well!

Those images 2 weeks ago, when I started I was not preparing for imaging and aligned my NEQ6 very roughly with 2 stars. I was lazy and could not bother to realign the mount when I changed my mind to take videos. Hence the most of videos taken were only 600 - 800 frames. It was surprise for me came out so good. Probably 1) assimilating SCT to the atmosphere (3 hours or longer), 2) collimation of SCT, and 3) seeing, are very important. On 5 May, jet streams were drifted away from Sydney. Crispy clear sky even a 77% moon didn't spoil planets much.