First light with the ASI290MM

[Stefan Buda]

This is a red light image only as my tracking got interrupted halfway through the RGB set. I have a full set from later on, but the seeing deteriorated gradually and by the time I finished with Jupiter and Saturn and moved on to the Moon it was not worth persisting.
Scope was the old 405 D-K. I think this camera definitely has an edge over the ASI120MM that I've been using for a few years.

[xa-coupe]

Nice, it'll be quite interesting to see what you get with a full set.

[Saturnine]

The image certainly shows that with the right conditions and that scope and camera combination that the results should be very interesting with the other channels added. At what focal length was the telescope operating at for that image.

[Stefan Buda]

At prime focus of 6500 (f/16). With the smaller pixels of the ASI290 I should be close to achieving full resolution without a focal extender.

[multiweb]

That looks great Stefan. Incredible details. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Tulloch]

Excellent image there, I've never seen Io as clear as that! Pity about the weather, that would have made an excellent colour image.

The 290 should be much better than the old 120 - lower noise, faster transfer speeds, and the fact you can capture at native f/16 is a bonus.

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks for the comments.

I processed the RGB set and unfortunately WinJupos can't derotate Io relative to the planet, so on a long RGB set such as this, the moon gets a bit smeared out. This was about a 10minute set.

[Peter Ward]

I've tinkered with planetary imaging on and off for many years but simply don't have the patience to wait for seeing to deliver even reasonable results...let alone what you have captured.

That's really impressive Stefan...certainly on par with the best examples elsewhere on the web.

Most excellent :thumbsup:

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks Peter,
Yes, you need a lot of patience with planetary imaging. Sometimes you are on the brink of giving up and then suddenly the magic happens.The planets suddenly look sharp at 400x. That is when you plug in the camera and capture the good moments.

I think the ASI290 will be most useful for Saturn imaging where its extra sensitivity helps with the low surface brightness. This 8 minute RGB capture is also from the 28th.

[Atmos]

Exceptional results Stefan. I have been considering getting a small colour planetary camera. From what I've read the ASI290 although being an older sensor is still arguably the best for non-IR planetary imaging. A definite improvement over the ASI120MM!

[multiweb]

Incredibly sharp and detailed. So did you run 3min RGB channels then derotate in WinJUPOS?

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks Colin, just remember that you will need a Risley prism for atmospheric dispersion compensation if you go for the colour cam.



Thanks Marc, I used my Jupiter setting of 45 sec recording and increased the exposure from 3ms to about 7ms, if I remember correctly. So I used 3 AVIs for each colour channel and derotated with WinJupos.

[Saturnine]

The RGB combinations for Jupiter and Saturn are simply excellent sharp detailed images. Certainly on a par with the best amateur images out there.
Look forward to seeing more of your efforts, could we have some Mars please as well.

[Tulloch]

Excellent Saturn, super crisp

[John K]

Nice going Stefan!

Can't wait to see your results on Mars.

John K.

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks guys, but as far as Mars goes, I don't get the seeing that allows good imaging at 40 degrees altitude, or maybe do but only two or three times a year. Besides I'm not as keen as I was 15 or 20 years ago when there were not too many planetary imagers. These days if I miss a martian storm, there will be plenty of other to catch it.

[multiweb]

Cool. How many frames did you collect roughly for the time period in each channel? Also do you heep your histogram around 40/50% or more like 80/90%?

[Stefan Buda]

On Saturn I was running at about 120fps and that added up to over 5000 frames per AVI, but I only used 1200 from each.
I usually set the Log histogram cutoff at about 80% with the red filter and don't change it for the other filters.

[multiweb]

Good stuff. Thanks for the tips Stefan. :thumbsup: I'll give it a go with tonight's run.