Afocal Jupiter with lots of Processing

[paulF]

Hey all,
another afocal Jupiter but this time with a 3x GSO Barlow and a 10mm Nagler on my 10inch Dob. My Camera, Kodak Z 812 IS, has a HD video mode so decided to give it a crack at 30fps. Quiet disappointing unfortunately as i can't control ISO levels or focus manually when in video mod. So noise was extremely high even after i used a yellow filter since the avi's where over exposed!Anyhow, here's the result and it is worth mentioning that seeing wasn't really good.
used PPMcenter (renamed to Ninox now) to center the planet and crop the images.Around 100 Images where stacked with Registax 5 and lot of Photoshop processing for the end result :)
First 2 images are frames from the shot AVI and the third image is the end result.

Mainly, this was done to upskill my processing skills as they seem to make a huge difference in showing details!!

PS: Tried to follow Mike's Tutorial as much as possible and which is an excellent tutorial by the way (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-306-0-0-1-0.html)

Regards,
Paul Fleifleh

[mswhin63]

The noise is an unfortunate result of CMOS censor. CCD is the best way for planetary. You seem to have detail although not enough frames. You will need about 2-4000 frames for processing to get rid of the noise.

You have got good detail though but ass far as the exposure that is a camera issue. try and find the setting that control the exposure. On my DSLR Canon it is the shutter control. ISO can help with exposure but not sure if your video mode disables all these settings. If so it may be difficult to stop the over exposure as the camera is looking at the whole picture and more than likely see's mostly black space and adjust the exposure level to compensate.

If you point the camera toward the moon and you see the exposure change then the above section is correct.

[paulF]

Thanks for the info Malclom, much appreciated :)
the Camera uses a CCD sensor but as you mentioned, under Video mode , i have no control over ISO or exposure unfortunately.
As for more frames, i know that the features on Jupiter rotate every 90 seconds. So my question is do we have to capture as much frames as possible during the 90s seconds or is there another way of doing things to get more frames ?

Regards,
Paul Fleifleh

[jjjnettie]

There's some great detail in the images Paul. Nice work.
I'm not familiar with your camera, when I was doing my afocal planetary work with my Panasonic video camera, I had full manual control.
I always focused using the scope too, it's easier than fiddling with camera controls.
Any particular reason you're using a yellow filter?
You've inspired me to give it another go using my little canon powershot.

[firstlight]

Rotation period of Jupiter is 10 hours?

Great capture with minimal equipment.

[paulF]

Thanks Tony and jjjnettie :)
I am using a yellow filter because the image is always overesposed and need to lower the exposure but since i can't control exposure times in video mode on my camera, i thought i can use a filter to get less light in :)

@Tony, does it mean that if i take 10x20second avi movies during a period of an hour for example, i can still stack all of them ?

Pretty sure i read somewhere that you can't take an AVI of Jupiter longer than 90 seconds somewhere :question:

Regards,
Paul Fleifleh

[firstlight]

I am no expert by any means, but the cool images that Quark, Bird, Iceman and others produce are captured in RGB, 3 separate captures for each channel. I can't remember the details of their captures but I'll make a few assumptions, hopefully on the conservative side.

Probably capture at 30 fps for at least a minute for each channel. Between each capture they have to stop capture, change filter, resume capture. Each of their composite shots may have taken 5 minutes? In that time Jupiter will have moved and as a result the trailing and leading edges display the colour variation from features appearing/disappearing between channels.

Capturing over an hour is a big ask, as Jupiter will have rotated substantially in that time. You should be able to take a number of sequences... would you pause the capture, or are you able to join the captures? You should be able to do a few sequences, process them and stack the resulting images... just don't take them too far apart is my guess.

[mswhin63]

Most probably better trying to get your hand on a double polarizing filter.

[paulF]

Thanks so much for the detailed info Tony :)
Malcolm, i googled what a "double polarizing filter" or what Polarizing filters do in general as i had no clue what they do and it seems like it's exactly what my camera needs !
Thanks for the suggestion! Will try and get one ASAP :)

Regards,
Paul Fleifleh

[mswhin63]

For the camera you are using it is definately the way to go but consider the option of getting a camera that will have the features without using a DP filter.

So far SPC900 is the most popular and is quite cheap ATM and has all the controls need to start. I use a Agent v5 webcam although I have turning out good images it is a pig to modify, after modifacation will cost a lot more than the SPC900 but has a much higher resolution. I will be supplying these once I figure out the neatest way to modify them. Detroyed 2 now and on my 3rd one :). I will also be designing a Peltier cooler for it as well.

Also getting the best capture software is a must, I have used a lot of them but the best although not entirely is SharpCap (https://sites.google.com/site/rwgastro/sharpcap). This display a very user freindly exposure control on the right side but careful consideration is needed as the drivers are the one to determin whether they are available on the right side. Not all cameras work.