Jupiter: Io & Shadow Transit 15/04/05

[xrekcor]

9 x .300 sec exposures
Soft Edge Filter
Darn didn't write this one down either lol

Saxon 8" f/6 Newt on a EQ5
Meade LPI

[ving]

lovely detail there. :)

[xrekcor]

Ving,

Thank you :)

[[1ponders]]

That's great detail you've got there Rob. Especially for only 9 images. Good stuff.

[beren]

Ditto , sharp and clean ....just when i think the LPI is limited someone has it smoking :}

[xrekcor]

Paul,



Thanks man,

I tried running the same settings four or five times, this was the last sequence and best result. Each set would stop capturing between 5-8 frames even if I left it running. So when this one hit frame 9 and looking not too bad, I decided to kill it before the filter kicked in on frame 10. I didn't have "Save All Images" selected and was just running the combine feature. All I did processing wise was run a very mild unsharp mask across it in Photoshop. Apart from that it's the same as the original.

Kindest Regards

[seeker372011]

That is a super picture. IMHO probably one the best I have seen on the net with an LPI .

[xrekcor]

Beren,



My thoughts... which kinda answers the above replies & comments.

The key to detail is, focus and evaluation.

I spend allot of time on it before I start capturing an image. It is not uncommon for me to spend and hour on focusing before I'm happy, in some cases even longer. It's a long and tedious task that will have you pulling your hair out but it is well worth it, and I cant say enough about it. Also you need to walk away from the monitor your focusing the image on to rest your eyes. You might find what looked good then looks crappy when you get back to it.

You need to try an find focus when the moments of good seeing hits the sweet spot. This is what takes time and timing. But can save you a whole heap in post processing, trying to fix it.

Then when you start capturing whack the evaluation level up to 80-85% or even 90%. Your machine might chug along for some time before it captures something and then you might only get one or two frames, then chug...chug...chug...again before it collects more. But what you do get is good data from the moments of good seeing. Which is better than going through every image and tossing the nasties before stacking...

Bad frames don’t contribute to an image they degrade it and that’s anything less than 100%. Even then when the software does the actual evaluation process prior to capturing it only selects from the best capture to base it's evaluation on. So watching the monitor closely for moments of good seeing to start capturing, I feel can help up the anti in the evaluation process.

If you can, avoid using the filters in Autostar they're a bit hit and miss.

The other Jupiter I posted all I did processing wise was run the levels tools across it as I felt the original looked a tad over exposed.

Kindest Regards, Clear Skies

[iceman]

Really nice shot Rob, and it's obvious you spent a lot of time of focus.
How do you achieve best focus? Do you use a hartman mask? Do you focus on a star, or on the planet itself?
Do you just go backwards and forwards through the focal plane until it shows the crispest detail during good seeing?
What type of focuser do you have?

[xrekcor]

Yes, I use a hartmann mask to get me close, personally I find the parafocal ring useless. Then from there it's primarily my eye. The trick I find is that near focus has a bit of travel, along which you will find a sweet spot where the detail just pops out that much better. To find that sweet spot at the moment of good seeing can be tricky, and thats what takes time.

I have the standard focuser nothing special and certainly not the best. Although one of these days I would love to invest in an electronic micro-focuser.

regards

[dhumpie]

Hey Rob,

That is a brilliant shot of Jupiter. Heaps of details there in the belt! Congrats.

Darren

[xrekcor]

Darren,

Well it was you who inspired me to get it out again... if you hadn't of mentioned it recently these shots would not of resulted

So... Thank You!

I'm glad you enjoyed them

regards

[5ash]

WOW, just when i thought the lpi was a distant cousin to the toUcam with no hope of achieving such great results.Amazing photo! Thanks for encouraging me i'll try harder using the info youv'e provided. By the way what format are you capturing your images?
philip

[xrekcor]

Philip,

Thanks man! nice to know that it has given you some encouragement, a more pleasing result than I got from the image.

I used .tif for planetary and lunar imaging. The .fts format is more work for similar results. But at the end of the day it really depends on what your happy to work with. Avoid .jpg due to it form of compression it tends to mess up the data.

Regards