Jupiter 2 days before Opposition

[MGTechDVP]

Hello all,

My Skyris 618C arrived so I though I'd give it a go, the first night I was testing it on was a major dissapointment, and I was thinking that I should have stayed with the mono DMK618 and LRGB fitlers instead of spending the money. The image I did using the mono ccd through filters looked sharper, granted it was overall poor seeing that night, but the mono still came out sharper.

BUT as it turned out a few nights later it was only poor seeing and I think I happened to have imaged with the mono at a slightly better seeing time because on 4th February the Skyris color recorded video gave me the following result. One, if not the, best of my Jupiter images yet... WOO HOO!!:stargaze:

During the night I also set a timelapse for about 3 hours to capture 90seconds of 30fps video every 4th minute and made a time-lapse video.

Video Link: http://www.mgtechdvp.com.au/AstroVids/Jupiter_4Feb2014_V2_4x3_15fps.mp4


Thanks for looking.

Mariusz

[John K]

For a colour camera image, and average seeing conditions, don't be too disappointed with that.

One thing you can try is to split into mono RGB files and process seperately and recombine.

Clear skies,

John K.

[MGTechDVP]

Thanks John, separating the RGB channels didn't make much difference. I did realign the RGB channels since I found that the red and blue channels were quite a few pixels off and the realigning did improve the image considerably.

I attempted using WinJupos to de-rotate but the result was actually softer then when I just done a stock standard stack.

All I can do is try and try again... Unless you want to give up your secret in the images you capture in the way of describing your work flow... :-)

[John K]

Hi Mariusz - no secrets - everything I have learned has been through the sharing on IIS.

1. Cool your scope optics to ambient - any way you can - peltiers, fans or even a domestic a/c!! You need a thermometer on your scope that shows inside/outside temp

2. Collimate and focus

3. Mono cameras giver better results but colour can be good as well when the seeing is great.

4. Wait for good weather and good seeing - even the best scope and imaging set up wont work if the seeing is poor

5. Capture up to 2-3 minutes - either per channel or in your case per AVI. A bit of debate about this but I live in Melbourne where the seeing is always variable so I need as many frames as I can get.

5b - then use Autostakkert2 with multi point alignment which inherently will derotate your image - some fuzziness on the edges but I perosnally don't mind - others might be more fussy - you have colour AVI's so you could even derotate the whole AVI in WinJupos first if you like with a longer say 5 minute capture or put together 3 AVIS's x 2 mins - same with mono.

6. Registax 6 - debate on sliders - maybe try last 3 sliders to full with de-noising which is my approach.

7. Astra image deconvolution - ME Gauggian 7 iterations @ 1.5 twice works for me plus a bit of sharpening if seeing was good.

8. Into Winjupos for combining and de rotation of RGB.

9. Into photoshop for any contrast, curves, exposure and noise reduction.

All this takes about 15 minutes per avi at most. I can tell quickly after Autostakkert2 and Registax 6 if it should go further with processing based on the seeing.

Have fun and clear skies.

John K.

[MGTechDVP]

Thanks heaps John, I'll give this a try on the last videos captured. It's been consistently cloudy here since the last outing so I'm limited to processing, or re-processing, data I already have.

[astronobob]

Nice going Mariusz :thumbsup: Id be happy to have captured some of them small white storms as you have here :thumbsup:
May I ask what scope you used for this - your tag says an 8" is that correct, thanx ?

By the way, - I open your Vidio Link and window said (cant open as the file is Corrupt?) any one else notice this :question:

[MGTechDVP]

Thanks Bob,

I found that the video didn't play in Chrome, but was OK in Internet Explorer.

alternatively try downloading the mp4 file (right click "Save Link as") from

http://www.mgtechdvp.com.au/AstroVids/

File: Jupiter_4Feb2014_V2_4x3_15fps.mp4

And these were taken with a Nexstar 8SE on a CGEM mount.


Mariusz

[astronobob]

Thanx Mariusz, looks grouse, impressive amount of frames too, quality stuff :thumbsup:
That Juup image Final is awesome for a C8 too, heck yeah, how long was the Vid for this and frame rate - i dont think ive seen a C8 produce them cool littller white storms, I consider that rather impressive indeed - Seeing would no-doubt had a part in this .
Dam nice Show and Capture :thumbsup:

[MGTechDVP]

Thanks Bob,

The seeing was quite good, that was obvious on the laptop screen where the disc was not only stable but the bands were very distinct.

The capture was made through a Celestron 2X barlow and I had the filter wheel between the barlow and the Skyris CCD. I captured 90 seconds of video at 30 fps.

to get the best image it is a luck of draw and I set a timer to capture 90 seconds of video every 150 seconds, then picked the clearest images to process.

To make the video I processed all frames, so you can see how the seeing fluctuates through the 3 hours.

Mariusz