Jupiter - First Go with Stacking

[midnight]

Greetings once again!

I have taken quite few single pics of Jupiter but it is very clear that they are quite frankly nothing in comparison to many of very nice stacks from CCDs you see in the solar system posting area. Hence my venture into planetary stacking :prey:

So these two are my first attempts to have a go at stacking Jupiter. The first is 610 frames from my 40D with the normal liveview and the 2nd is 820 frames in the 5x liveview. Both recorded around 12-15fps to an AVI and stacked in Registax.

I am still a little baffled with Registax in all those options like creating a reference frame etc and setting the limits on quality. Anyway, still have some more learning to do so if you have any tips for me in stacking an AVI in registax I would be most appreciated :).

My apologies for the size. This is all I could get out of the camera.

Thanks for looking,

Darrin...

[mswhin63]

Nice colour in those shots, I use AVIStack for stacking, the new version is really good. I also use a 3 x Barlow to increase the size even further.

I hope to get a 4 x Powermate in the near future.

Would be interesting what you might get on 10 x liveview as well.

Registax use Centre of Gravity for aligning as well but i have never been able to get the best stacking with registax compared to AVIStack.

[Screwdriverone]

Jeez Darrin,

That first shot has nailed it for details, VERY good focus and astounding to see how much you have captured at that scale, well done!

Take a look at Mike Salway's tutorial on planetary processing here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-306-0-0-1-0.html) which is great to cut your teeth on. I did.

Keep up the efforts, as Malcolm mentioned a quality barlow (might be a bit hard with the 40D, you'll probably need a 2" version.) really brings up the scale of the planet onto the chip.

Having said that, upon closer look of the second one, it aint half bad either! A top effort for a DSLR, normally this space is reserved for webcams and the PGR-fleas and planetary cams alike.

Keep at it. You are getting great results so far. We are certainly spoiled when it comes to the masters like Bird, Quark, Iceman, Paul Haese and John (Asimov) etc posting such astounding pictures ALL the time, so its encouraging to see an 8" scope doing so well.

You have inspired me to grab some data this long weekend on my new 8" with the Toucam and the 5x powermate.

Thanks!

Cheers

Chris

[midnight]

Malcolm, I'll try AVI stack as I am using Eosavi which is on sourceforge which is capturing the stream from liveview. At the moment, it doesn;t have 10x zoom only 5x.

Also, centre of gravity was useless as the satellites of Jupiter just visible interfere with the c.o.g so all I did was do a single alignment using 256 from memory and just clicked in the middle of Jupiter. I'll try AVIstack too. There's only so much my 8" SN can get. Thanks for your comments :)

Chris, thanks too for your comments and tips. The LXD55 is a basic scope but I have found it good for visual. At 812mm, it's not going to deliver what I was hoping for but I am trying to fine tune my skills before upgrading - I think there is so much to gain in using the gear the right way before blowing large sums of money and getting into trouble with the missus:D. You mention possibly getting a 2" barlow. I have a 2x barlow 1.25" Baader which is good but is there any difference between say a 5x 2" barlow and 5x 1.25" barlow for the 40D?

How can I get more "resolution"? Ie, am I approaching the limit of my 8" SN with barlow and then t ring into my 40D? Or should I concentrate on more frames and post processing? I took this around 8:30pm so Jupiter was quite low and the outside temperature was unseasonably high for Collie ~20 deg at the time so maybe this doesn't help. I really notice the planet jumping around due to turbulence. I just don't really know if I can get any more magnification out of my gear (just a brain moment - could a 1.4x tele extender work with the barlow???)

Anyway, thanks for your help and yes, we are really blessed with the fine pics coming out of those members Chris and it's great to see what can be achieved. I love dropping into that forum and deep space too. Just too many things to bite my teeth into if only I had the patience and a means to kill the street light out the front :evil:

Cheers,
Darrin...

[asimov]

Yep! Good detail there. Now for some image scale:D

Hah! Crack me up Chris! Astounding Pics ALL THE TIME!:lol: Bird, Quark, Iceman, Haesey might be in that category, but I ain't!:P

A few years back, I started a thread called "my worst images ever!" Or words to that effect! Check 'em out man:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

Darrin, Barlow or Powermate is the way to go for more magnifacation. Just careful in the choice. I bought a 3 x 7 element barlow under the impression its design reduced chromatic aberation. Unfortunately I do believe this is not the case. A lot of my images require realignment of the colour to get the detail I need.

I am a little concern about spending money on an upgrade so i will continue with my 3 x experiment ways to improve image quality.

I know it is not the camera as I am experiencing the same for my HD webcam as well.

Added: Possibly a longer focal length scope as well.

[asimov]

Are you using an IR/UV cut Malcolm?

[mswhin63]

No filtering at all, my DSLR images are at it infancy, I do use a IR filter on my webcam. It is my next purchace but need to consider whether to take the next step of replacing the camera filter.

[midnight]

Righto, so if the camera is capable, is it worth attempting separate RGB images? I have a RGB filter (1.25") set and I saw a excellant tutorial by Paul Haese some time ago and this seemed to extract more information. Fairly advanced for me at this stage but I'm willing to give it go.

My barlow is a 1.25" and I have a IR/UV filter (1.25" type) screwed into the barlow and then my T ringy thingy piece then goes into the Canon.

John, when you talk about "image scale", does this mean the more magnification I am searching for? I don't know how far I can get with my 8" SN. It has a FL of 812mm (F4) fairly typical Meade run of the mill scope. I have a series 5000 refractor but its only 80mm and 480mm FL.

As for "worst images ever", with the quality of the posts over in the solar and deep space section, crikey, you blokes must have come a long way:lol: - gotta check them out!!

Cheers & thanks,
Darrin...

[asimov]

Well, I've only pulled the trigger twice on RGB imaging so far, so it'd be silly to advise you in this area. I will say this though. My DBK one shot will still be employed the majority of the time:D

Yes mate, I was talking magnification, although we don't talk mag in this game as such. It's focal length or focal ratio. I knew what ya meant though! I'm no pedant:lol: Yeah, I'm not sure how far you could go with your setup. A cheap(er) way is an extension tube though, to find out;)

All the best:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

I would first look at getting further into what you already have. Seeing you are using DSLR here then you would need 2" filters and possibly a filter wheel. Jupiter revolves quickly so by the time you got to your last colour it would have shifted on axis and wont be able to line up properly.

I will do RGB in the future but I was to improve the quality with the gear I already have, perfect that then move on mods to get a little better.

[midnight]

Thanks John and Malcolm. I have been experimenting (ie reading the manual :doh:) with Registax so here is another go.

This time I read up more about creating good reference frames and so this time I tried stacking and I found that after stacking, I could pull a lot more detail out.

Anyway, then had another hack with photoshop after applying a multiplying layer and 20% opacity.

So here is a repost with the same data taken the other night with my 40D.

Cheers,
darrin...

[asimov]

Nice work there Darrin! Registax - A very secretive proggy. It's taken me 6 years to 'tease' some of it's secrets out. You have to talk to it nicely, but firmly;)

[midnight]

So I suppose the size 14, steel capped army boot approach is out of the question:D

[asimov]

No, that'll work to an extent - My idea of 'firmly' as well :thumbsup::lol: