My very first image

[mswhin63]

Hi all,

Feel a bit nervous, took an AVI from my 12" collapsable DOB using a webcam, so I know it is not perfect.

Actually the viewing condition last night were not as good as the night before so the image was not as good as it can get.

I would love to show the AVI but all 5 AVI's are at least 2GB in size from only 1 minute of footage each. ecen the last AVI 800 x 600 res was 4G only because I forgot to switch off the capture. :P

I used Advance Video Editor to take away a frame while playing the AVI. Neat program :thumbsup: although installs a bit weird. :shrug:

Before the verdict, a few things I am waiting on;
IR Filter
Focal reducer

IR Filter mainly for Jupiter as I got some footage of that as well but is completely blown out

The webcam manual control are a bit poor as I tried to manually adjust the exposure down but was not good enough, but the auto exposure it quite poor which is the main reason for not showing moon edge which has the best definition. I have some edge of moon images I am going to fiddle with as well.

First image is the original the second image has been touch up wth GIMP2 all done in a couple of minutes.

http://www.waelect.com.au/images/moon_2%20Frame598.bmp

http://www.waelect.com.au/images/moon_2%20Frame598_1.bmp

:thanx:

[picklesrules]

nice

[leon]

Malcolm, for a very first attempt you have done pretty well, and with time and experience I'm sure it can only get better from here on in, well done.

Leon

[mswhin63]

Just another image major cut down to fit in with attachement size. Find that moon image best view not when the moon if full will wait now for the next Lunatiks night.

Great experiment though, al the image ar converted to greyscale as I am not experienced enough with colour.

The AVI though were in colour found the auto white balance was changing the colour too much, The webcam is an experiement not modified as yet if it can.

[Lumen Miner]

Nice shots!!
Did you sharpen the images at all?
I just ran a shot of yours, through gimp and there is more detail to pull out on those...

Keep them coming, they are great!!

[spearo]

well done
welcome to the world of imaging!
frank:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

Thanks for the comments. The webcam is a beauty really totally unmodified and managed to picked a few low mag star as well. Only got minimal specs on the camera was plannig about a year ago to start selling to our deaf client for sign language comms. The camera is still in its case and was easy to place a mogg adaptor to.

The images on this site are only altered exposure level.

I did get a very slight sharpening but not much headroom.

My filters and focal reducer arrived this morning so the scope is outside getting cooled down now ready for another go. Beautiful sky but as I have found out looks can be deceiving. :question:

[DavidU]

Mal, get out there and post some more images ! Good on ya:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

Seeing condition were terrible, clear but high wind possibly causing really bad wobble.

Also still having problems with exposure level even with 3 filters on the camera.

[Robbie]

Nice shots welcome to the "Imaging is a damn sight harder than it looks!!!" club

[mswhin63]

Yeah, also I think I didn't configure my focal reducer properly and had to collapse my DOB nearly 6" to get something.

Also need a bigger table too. Things strarted to fall on the ground. Maybe another DOH moment! :P

[Robbie]

OH AND DONT FORGET !!! a switch to turn off the wind, another to turn off the moon, a left handed screwdriver, a can of striped paint and some ordinary household bleach.

[Inmykombi]

Some nice clear details there Malcolm.

Keep going with this as you have done very well for your first attempt.

[mswhin63]

Just for the hell of it I started to experiment on a Mosaic suggest by Roger. As the camera was auto adjusting the contrast, brightness and white-balance it made it surprisingly difficult to put the image together.

Now that I have managed to learn more on the camera set-up I hope to have another go later.

The original image is 36M so it has been reduced significantly. After doing 4 resonable images when the fifth one was done had significant difficultly matching. This could be because the top pass was a different AVI. I expect the auto setting changed significantly as well.

I realise the image is way high in contrast hope to fix that on the next run.

http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/3907819/sn/1557478341/name/moon_1_mosaic_reduced.jpg

[spearo]

the mosaic looks very cool
like the stuff NASA used to produce
cool
frank

[stephenb]

Hi Malcolm, nothing wrong with those as a first attempt. Very nice indeed. I would be pleased with them if they were mine :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Have you tried Registax (http://www.astronomie.be/registax/) to process your avi file?

[mswhin63]

Thanks for the input, I have registax but have not figured out how to use registax on this type if AVI only Jupiter as I use other programs to modify Jupiter to get my results. The scope does not track so the moon drifts along the view, I then move the scope to cover the next area.

I use Advanced Video Editing to take snapshots of the particular area. Registax stacks multiple images to create less noise problems but I can't get multiple images of the same area.

I don't know if Registax clean up a single BMP but may give it a go. I also downloaded a program called CADET, free program for deconvolution.

Anyway as it is my very first attempt I will concentrate a lot on taking more comprehensive AVI's on the next moon run (Lunatiks) in Perth towards the end of this month, less light pollution than my home.

I also need to be careful as I don't have a load of money. If I catch the Astrophotography bug I won't have enough money to satisfy the feeling.

[p3nn]

Hi Malcom

Registax can be set to track the object assuming it's within all the frames you wish to stack. In my Jupiter avi Jupiter started in the middle but drifted to one side. I used the align box just big enough to surround Jupiter in a frame I thought was a better one and registax followed it right to the edge. You don't need to include the moon in the allign box as it's just a frame of reference to my understanding used to align portions of the image to stack

[mswhin63]

Thanks for the tip, I was able to use Registax easily for Jupiter, I was glad to find a single image automatically went the wavelet stage. Did some playing around managed to get a sharper image quite nice but the image was majorly blown out from previous attempts. It also shown up the imperfection on the mosaic too. I will either attempt to spend some time on the same images again or wait till Lunatick to take another AVI of the moon and start over again.

I am amazed how much memory on the hard drive that was used, I started to hit the red-line. Managed to zip some files to save space.

May look at storing image and stuff on USB Stick.

[p3nn]

Hi Malcom

I had probs getting more than 1 frame to stack when I first tried registax as well. I think that was cuz I chose a poor reference frame to align on, i.e. just used the first frame. At the bottom before you set the align point you can move thru the frames to chose what you think is the best, then set the align point on that frame. It will be the 100% as compared with other frames. Also if too few frames are making it into the stack, try relaxing the min tolerance a little and a few more may make it in. I've reduced to 70% for some short vids which gave me better results. Something else to consider when shooting untracked vids is to maybe up the fps a lil. More frames to stack may help reduce the noise in the final pic. Can't hurt to try and see what it does for your pics

[mswhin63]

I found following the resources link ppmcentre (http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ppmcentre/) software, brilliant and very intellgent to centre the planet on a 400 x 400 canvas.

It make alignment a lot better, also easy to sort the images, deleting poor one and keeping the better one for Registax.

As for the moon, it is too difficult for me to use alignment as the video is in constant motion across the canvas but found registax to sharpen the image using wavelets.

I really like Advanced Video Editing for taking snapshot of the AVI into bitmaps because I can watch the video and click a single button to save a frame that I need to create the mosaic. I use VirtuaDlub to append planetary AVI's giving me many more frames.

One thing I am getting nerous mostly is to clean the primary mirror, I rather not touch optics especially the mirror but i know that if i want to get super clear images I am going to have to do it sometime.

[p3nn]

You'd be surprised how much you can get away with on the mirror b4 you'd notice it. I think the biggest issue is collimation. The better collimated the sharper your images. Even a simple star test will show if the collimation is out. Just watch were the shadow of the secondary mirror is when you go out of focus if at lower magnifications