2008 to 2013 Saturn Comparison

[bloodhound31]

Interesting...

In 2008, I was using a much more powerful 11 inch reflector telescope, a low grade capture device - ToUcam and an image aligning and stacking program called Registax.

I really had no clue what I was doing, but was pretty excited to even get the rings of Saturn. Registax was a confusing muddle of wavelets, gamma and other things I find hard to understand.

Today, I have a less powerful, but good quality refractor telescope, a much better capture device (DBK618) and still no idea how to use Registax. :shrug: :lol:

I had a go a few nights ago and tried processing in Registax and here's the interesting part.....even with no idea, I just played with sliders and stuff until I got something worth looking at, which I must say was as suprising as it was shocking to me that it turned out as well as it did. I'm not sure how much better it would be if I knew what I was doing, but I'm sure there would be some improvement at least.

So, without further ado, I present to you my dismal 2008 attempt, and today's proper first-light processed image through the new rig.

[Quark]

Certainly an improvement, quite a nice result really.

Looks like the new rig is a winner.

Regards
Trevor

[bloodhound31]

I'm pretty stoked with it. I have many folks here on IIS to thank for their advice when I was choosing equipment not long ago.

Baz.

[asimov]

A definite improvement, Bazza :D

[bloodhound31]

Thanks John. Now to find more in-depth instructions....

[asimov]

I was & still am a bit confused as to the actual camera you have, Baz. It is without question the DBK618? If so, I can help you out with settings etc.

[bloodhound31]

Yes mate. DBK 21AU618.AS Here it is (http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/CCD-cameras/The-Imaging-Source-DBK-21AU618-AS/913/productview.aspx) on Bintel where I bought it.

[asimov]

Ok, no worries. 2 articles that might help.
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/dbk618
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/latest-dbk-tutorial

[bloodhound31]

Thanks John! :thumbsup:

Baz.

[asimov]

The most important thing that has happened lately Bazz for the DBK is it pays not to use Registax for aligning & stacking and PARTICULARLY the debayering of the AVI.. Autostakkert is way better because it doesn't use a crappy algorithm called 'nearest neighbour' - In laymans terms; a better result will be had from using Autostakkert! lol.

[bloodhound31]

So don't use Registax at all? I've never seen autostakkert.


Baz.

[Screwdriverone]

Nice one Baz.

If the camera is a DBK, which is colour, may I ask why the result is in B&W?

Did you use the wrong codec?

As John says, you get better results out of using the Y800 codec, but you have to debayer, although to date I have simply used the RGB32 codec in colour, coz I am laaaaaaazy.....;)

Certainly an improvement though.....keep going! :)

Cheers

Chris

[bloodhound31]

I have no idea Chris. Just fumbling around in the dark here. I'll get there mate.

Baz.

[asimov]

Hi Bazz. The only time you'd bother using Registax is to add some wavelett sharpening to the final image after Autostakkert has done the stacking.

As I say, you CAN use Registax for everything if you want, but a slight loss in quality will be the result. Once you know what you're doing, you'll end up not wanting a drop in quality naturally!;)