Jupiter

[jayconnor]

Ok so i got a new Camera the other day and since then i haven't really had the chance to use it at all. Due to clouds.

Im using a newt 8" f/4 focal length 800mm i also have a f/5 10" 1000mm focal length which i will use instead tonight.

televue powermate 2.5X

Heq5 pro

Im having trouble just getting that last bit of detail. It just seems smooth.
I used fire-capture and filmed to .avi and used AutoStakkert and Regstax for editing. Just cant seem to get it going. I will keep going to get the shot i want but if anyone has any words of advice that would be good.

[Tulloch]

Did you do this capture this morning? I did also, and seeing was pretty awful. I'm going through my videos now and I'm not really coming up with anything worth showing.

Can you give a bit more detail about your capture? How many frames, how long did you shoot for, what percentage did you stack, what was your gain/exposure time in FC?

Andrew

[Startrek]

Jay
Factors that affect planetary imaging -

1/ Pixel resolution or sampling of your camera
2/ Focal ratio of your image train
3/ Atmospheric conditions
4/ Correct stacking procedures ( Autostakkert)
5/ Correct post processing ( Registax 6 )
6/ Focus
7/ Luck

1/ Pixel resolution of your camera should be as close to 1:1 as possible to allow correct sampling of your data
2/ General rule of thumb of focal ratio of your image train for planetary imaging is 5 x pixel size of your camera for average night of seeing and 7 x pixel size of your camera for a good night of seeing
3/ Atmospheric conditions
the play a huge part in the quality of your final image
Commonly referred to as “Lucky Imaging” as your trying to capture the planet when the atmosphere is stable for that split second over the duration of your video
4/ I can send you my procedure for Autostakkert 3 that I’ve used successfully for 3 years
5/ I can send you my procedure for Registax 6 that I’ve used successfully for 3 years
6/ Good focus is very important and takes skill and time to achieve especially when conditions are average to poor
7/ A bit of luck goes a long way for planetary imaging

Cheers
Martin

PS Good first effort !!
Looks like conditions were poor that night and check your focus ?

[jayconnor]

Hey Andrew, I captured these at about 10:30pm last night. Now i know that's maybe an issue also because its not the optimal time to be attempting the best captures but i had work today haha

Duration=29.962s
Frames captured=1575
File type=AVI
FPS (avg.)=52
Shutter=2.700ms
Gain=245 (40%)
Gamma=50

[jayconnor]

Martin i would love your procesdures for Autostakkert 3 & Registax 6.
I was fiddling with focus for most of the night to be honest.

[Startrek]

Jay
Autostakkert 3 procedures

Autostakkert 3 Basic User Guide

Image stacking prerequisite - use between 1000 and 2000 frames of AVI video file or jpeg frames to stack. Number of frames and length of video depends on quality of seeing conditions
Open Autostakkert 3 on your laptop or PC
“Expand” or “Limit Frames” options are not normally used or required

Press (1) Open button to select and load your image files
A single frame image of your selected file should appear in the right hand side window
Image Stabilisation - set to “Surface” for close up lunar or planetary surface images or set to “Planet” for whole lunar or planetary images with black space surrounding the planet or moon
When “Surface” is selected a box pops up called “Improved Tracking” just tick it. Also 2 other options appear “Expand” or “Cropped” . Try either option to check quality of your results
When “Planet” is selected a box pops up called “Dynamic Background” just tick it
Next is “Quality Estimator” tick “Laplace” only for poor quality video and increase “Noise Robust” to 6,7 or 8. For average quality video set “Noise Robust” to 3, 4 or 5. For good quality video set “Noise Robust” to 1 or 2.
Set Quality Estimator to default or Local (AP)

Press (2) Analyse button - set reference frame to “Auto size”
Analyse will provide a Quality Graph showing best to worse frames from left to right and a green quality line which provides an average of the best to worse frames
Stack Options - click on TIF file
Use the “Frame percentage to stack” boxes to choose the number of frames to stack. Using some default values like 25% in 1st box, 50% in 2nd box and 75% in 3rd box (leave 4th box empty as I found 3 different stacked results enough to compare )will give a good balance of stacking across your whole video and allow to compare results. Your output stack files will show folders P25, P50 and P75 so you can choose the best one out of the them.Alternatively you can hover your mouse over the Quality Graph and select an area on the graph just where the green quality line just passes the 50% horizontal line. Press CTRL on keyboard and right click mouse at the same time and the selected frame percentage will appear in the first left hand side box which usually ends up being between 20% and 40%. I usually leave box 2,3 and 4 empty.( this is a short cut way to select the best percentage frames but only gives you one selected percentage option)I usually get good results anyway using this method )Try both methods and compare your stacking results.
Go to “Frame View” window and set your align points automatically or manually on bottom left hand side buttons. Set between 100 to 500 align points depending on Surface or Planet. Surface option will require more align points to produce more detail. More align points will take the computer longer to process
In “Stack Options” do not select “Sharpened” or “RGB Align” as this can be done later in Registax 6
Tick “Save in Folders” so that your new stacked folders will be placed in the same folder as your original video files
Do not use “Advanced”settings like “Drizzle” or “Resample” as these reduce image quality

Press (3) Stack button / the status box will show the stacking progress with green ticks top to bottom until complete
Stacked image file will be saved as a P number in the same folder as original video file ready for further processing in Registax 6

Cheers
Martin

[Startrek]

Jay
Registax 6 Procedures

Registax 6 - Wavelet Sharpening and Processing

1/ Open Registax 6 on Laptop or PC
2/ Press “Select” and load your 16bit stacked image from Autostakkert 3
3/ Click on “Wavelet” tab and image will load into Registax 6 window view

LEFT SIDE CONTROL PANEL
4/ Select “Linear” and make sure “Step Increment” is set to 0.Leave “ Initial Layer” to 1 or 2
5/ “Automatic” check box is used if you want to see your changes instantly rather than use “Do All” tab and wait.”Automatic” is best left unchecked and use “Do All” tab.
6/ Leave “Hold Wavelet Setting” unchecked
7/ Leave “Used Link Wavelets” unchecked as this is not required
8/ Denoise and Sharpen feature has 6 sliders numbered Layer 1 to Layer 6. Layer 1 is for the small features in the image and Layer 2 upwards are for the larger features in the image. An image with poor detail or poor resolution due to seeing conditions etc... or high SNR will require say Layer 2 or 3 and upwards to achieve any result. An image with good detail will only require say Layer 1,2 and 3 to achieve a result. In any case adjust sliders to produce the desired result
9/ “Available Schemes” leave this section blank as it controls the sliders behave

RIGHT SIDE CONTROL PANEL
1/ “Histogram” button usually left as default
2/ “RGB Balance” button click “Auto Balance” tab
3/ “RGB Align” button is used to align the colour across the whole object. Once opened press the “Show Area” button and drag the green box around the object then press the “Estimate” tab. The RGB align is then processed automatically
4/ “Gamma” button is used to brighten or darken various parts of the object depending on the way or direction you bend the curve on the graph
5/ “De noise and De ringing” button is used to reduce shadows or fuzz in parts of the image
6/ All remaining buttons perform various colour control and sharpening to the image , so try them.
7/ Brightness and Contrast sliders control the amount of brightness, contrast across the object
8/ Remember to press “Do All” after each adjustment or function
9/ When final image has been processed to desired taste press “Save Image” tab and save image as a tiff or jpeg file to a folder in your nominated location on Laptop or PC.

Cheers
Martin

[Tulloch]

Thanks Jay, at 10:30 last night Jupiter was sitting at about 38 degrees elevation, so that's not optimal to start with. Jupiter reached 73 degrees at about 2:30am this morning which is a far better angle (but a far worse time). As the months progress, Jupiter will get to a better position in the sky at better times of night.

Best capture time for Jupiter is 3 minute videos, for Saturn and Mars it's about 5 minutes (due to rotation speed of the planets). With my C9.25" SCT and 2.5x PM and ASI224MC, for Jupiter I set my shutter speed to about 6.66ms (so capture at 150fps) and adjust the gain to get the maximum histogram to be about 50% of full scale (around 300 normally). For Saturn I image at 100 fps and adjust the gain for 50% again. For Mars I image at 200 fps.

Have a look at this CN posting, it explains FireCapture and the settings you need very well. Looking at your parameters it appears you may not be using hi-speed mode, a reduced ROI or crop video mode. (Apologies if you are, it's difficult to tell). Posting the Firecapture log text file would help more.
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/667978-the-imaging-source-cameras-and-misc-questions-help-appreciated/?p=9491910

These videos might help if you also if haven't already seen them. They cover equipment, Firecapture, Autostakkert and Registax amongst others.
http://planetaryimagingtutorials.com/

Andrew

[Startrek]

Jay
I missed one important factor

8/ Location of planet in the night sky
Higher in Altitude the better to reduce the amount of atmosphere your optics has to punch through ( minimise chromatic aberration and distortion )

Cheers
Martin

[Mickoid]

Jay, I was out around 11.30pm last night testing the 5X Powemate. The seeing was that bad that I struggled with getting focus. It settled down for a while around 12.30am but the video grabs I made then don't look that wonderful so I'm not expecting too much from the processing. There's only so much you can get out of poor data. I used a 8inch f5 Newt with my ZWO mono guide camera attached, tonight I may have a go just using the DSLR if conditions are favourable. Keep the planetary imaging up Jay, when you strike a night of good seeing, you forget about the bad ones! ;)

[jayconnor]

how did the 5X go mate?

[jayconnor]

Awesome thanks so much everyone for the advice. Just waiting for that one clear night over a night where i don't have work the following day.

[LostInSp_ce]

Hi Jay, one of the most important things with planetary imaging is air quality and that night wasn't the best for it because the humidity reached a rare 100%. With conditions like it's always going to be difficult to capture those finer details. However, in saying this it can still be a good idea to head out and try new things. Something that might be of interest to you is a great little app developed by First Light Optics called 'Clear Outside'. They also have a website 'https://clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52'. It's a very useful weather forecaster and in the 3 years that I've used it has only been wrong twice, so I'll give it a 99% accuracy rating. You've received a lot of great info and feedback and I have no doubt the next time you're out you'll be able to capture those details. Another thing I forgot to mention is to know your seeing score as this makes it easier to determine what percentage of frames to stack.

[turbo_pascale]

I'd also advocate for using CloudFreeNight as a higher precision Australian option (https://www.cloudfreenight.com/meteogram.html).

Using the ACCESS-C data from BOM, this is more accurate than the data from the GFS model (which is probably what most are using), and you may be able to find a town on the list that is closer to you. The accuracy of the ACCESS-C model is down to a 1.5km area, so can be quite good.

I have found it to be extremely accurate in it's predictions.