My Best Saturn So Far

[matt]

OK. Finally got some semi-decent seeing last night.

This was captured last night around 1.30am with the C9.25, NexImage webcam with IR/UV filter and 2.5x Powermate.

Settings:
Gamma 40-50%, brightness around 60%

10fps, 1/10sec, 100% saturation

Minimal wavelets, mainly in 5 and 6.

No other processing. That's still to come:)

I think it shows a fair bit of progress from just a few weeks ago?

We did have some probs with onion rings on other avi's but that was due to experimenting at 15fps rather than 10fps.

I've included our effort from a few weeks ago as a comparison. It's the one on the right.

Feedback most welcome

[davidpretorius]

you have got to be happy with that. let me guess.... a litttle extra spring to the step.... a sideways glance to see if anyone is watching....nope, i'm all alone..........you beeauty you shout as you leap into the air and punch the sky...!!!

well done, now it is just getting ready for great seeing nights, making sure the collimation is spot on etc etc

[asimov]

That's very nice Matt!! A dramatic improvement. Good to see you experimenting with different frame rates etc, It's the only sure fire way to learn!

Well done & congratulations!

[matt]

Thanks DP and Asi.

Yeah, very happy. Glad there's some improvement.

Dave, it's uncanny you quoted me exactly when I saw the first images on the screen!:lol:

I'm having a bit of a problem today with Registax. Our problem is: We saved a previous selection of frames as a project file so we could return later to cull the frames further to 50 or 60 of the very best frames for a stacking.

Once we choose the reference frame and set quality filter parameters and click align the process keeps stopping around the 89% complete point without any error message. It just stops?

It appears to have "ranked" our loaded selection of best frames in the frame list. But when we cull the list further it freezes again after clicking on "Limit".

Anyone had the same problems? Any help would be great.

[davidpretorius]

hmmm, i do not trust registax to stop mid stream etc. you can output the fslected images into an avi movie at stack time, but generally i always start again. i have played with the projects, but it does seem to do what I expect it to do???

[asimov]

The 3 times I've played with registax project files I've had problems twice. I don't bother now. Never had your particular problen though Matt..

BTW I'm talking V2 not 3 here.

[Rodstar]

Well done, Matt! How did she look through me old chum, the 13 Nag?

[matt]

Rod

Very nice, mate.

I was actually very pleasantly surprised because I'd read plenty about the 13mm Nag not really being a planetary EP.

The view was very crisp and the extra FOV allowed for plenty of room to take in plenty of moons.

The dark background was also very nice:)

[matt]

Can't wait for the 10mm Pentax to arrive though

[atalas]

Great improvement Matt , well done .

[davidpretorius]

i am also keen to see what you think of the pentax, it is something i am keen to look thru one day!

[Striker]

Well done Matt.....Just imagine what you could do in 3 months time.

[matt]

Davo

I'll definitely offer comment on the XW.

What with Saturn being a target and Jupiter looming large, the Pentax will be getting plenty of work.

You never know your luck mate. I might pop it in the mail for you in a few months to have a look, if you haven't already bought yourself one by then?

I suspect I won't have to bother:lol:

[matt]

Tony

I know what you mean. The moment I packed the gear up last night and looked over to the NE... there the big fella was!

I gazed for quite some time in that direction and muttered skywards:"Don't worry mate, we'll meet soon enough".:lol:

I was tempted to get the scope back out but it was just a bit low and a bit close to the moon.

That and I was already happy with the night's efforts.

[Robert_T]

great Stuff Matt, very nice and improving all the time, good to see you getting clear skies - so come on where's my mars shot as well ;) .

how many frames are stacked here, I think you'll find that only 50-60 will be a little grainy no matter how good, but try and see.

Not sure what tod do with Registax - I find it very buggy at the best of times and it's always freezing up if I try and stop any process or step back?


Let me know if you want someone else to have a play with your image.

cheers mate

[matt]

Rob

Ended up being 139 frames out of 1100.

We had the lowest quality setting in quality estimate set at 85%. So, we obviously dumped a lot of frames.

Where would you have put the % at? Depends on the frames, I know, but it looked like there were plenty more we could have used for stacking.

Still learning this Registax business.

No mars for you, mate. Don't have a 4 or 5x Powermate and it was hard enough getting saturn on the CCD chip at 2.5x:P

Would be happy for you to have a crack at the image. Would you like the Avi..? Or would you prefer a TIFF of the stacked 139 frames ready for wavelets?

Thanks mate

[Robert_T]

Hey Matt, you can really go to town with Saturn in terms of frames you collect and stack. Because it's so far away you can run long avi sequences without rotational smearing - I typically do at least 200 sec and get 2000 frames, but occasionally will join two together. I try and get 1000 frames for actual stacking and feel you need around 600 to really overcome grain issues. It's all a bit suck and see with each avi though so why don't you just set the quality for your to end up with around 600 frames and just see what happens - you might be pleasantly surprised... or it might be worse.:P

I'm in the dialup doldrums ao can't take your avi, but if you e-mail over a TIFF or BMP I'll see if I can tweak any extra out of it.

Cheers matee,

[matt]

OK

Well. Have quickly adjusted quality %.

This time we had 1100 frames for stacking.

Worked a few wavelets. Do you think it's improved. I think there's more detail in the polar hood?

You judge.:)

[Robert_T]

I think so, if it's the one on the left, grain seems better and banding clearer. There seems a bit more red on the edge which suggests you need to align the colour channels - have you done this in wavelets; if you haven't just select the tab on the right edge that says RGB align and press "estimate" and it should do the trick.

[matt]

yes it's the one on the left.

will do the colour align

thanks mate

am sending you the tiff

this rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!:lol:

[bird]

Well done Matt - nice image!

Bird

[matt]

Thanks Bird.

Still coming to grips with capturing and processing but I think it shows real promise for the 9.25.

Haven't seen much of your great stuff lately. What's doing?

[rumples riot]

Matt, nice images, wish I could get out there myself at the moment. Keep em coming.

[matt]

Thanks RR

Wouldn't mind asking you and Bird how you think that red fringing managed to work its way into my images along the forward edge of the rings and to the rear where the rings approach the planet's globe?

Is it a problem during capture or do you think I'm introducing it during processing, at wavelets in RegiStax?

Could it be a result of the UV/IR filter used on the webcam?

Cheers:)

[matt]

Think I've fixed the red fringing issue or certainly improved it....

Any suggestions for next imaging session most welcome.

:)

[Robert_T]

excellent Matt, a gem in the making! :)

did the RGB align help with the red fringing?

[matt]

Yeah, I think it did Rob.

I also think some minor adjustments with the histogram RGB had some positive impact and I also made some adjustments in wavelets.

How'd you go with that TIFF I sent you?

Any suggestions for next imaging session? Does collimation look OK to you? Will it just be a case of better seeing and scope temp?

I'd really like to get the CD all the way round.

[rumples riot]

Collimation looks pretty good, but you know how it is with an SCT. It can always be better.

The red and blue fringing is caused by atmospheric dispersion. As the light travels through the atmosphere the droplets of moisture cause a prism effect. Like that of a rainbow or through a prism. It is most evident while a planet is below 30 degrees from the horizon. As Robert has pointed out it can be removed mostly with RGB shift in Registax. An IR/UV filter will also help to minimise it a little. Try to image above that height if you can.

Suggestions; get your scope nice to ambient as soon as possible. Not too hard with the heat travelling across the continent at the moment. But either use an SCT cooler or allow plenty of time. Then check collimation.

Keep em coming.

[Robert_T]

Hi Matt, I sent you an e-mail to your other e-mail address on the TIFF - for some reason the attachment got stripped out on the way over as "unsafe"? You could try again from your home PC?

This is looking very promising but I would like to see what some decovolution processing in Astra Image could do. Hard to tell from an image if seeing or collimation is a limiting factor. It's looks reasonable for ordinary seeing conditions - what would you have rated the conditions out of 10?

The only two things I'd suggest at this stage, is run longer avi - say 200 sec to get 2000 frames to play with aiming to stack about half of em. The second is to up your exposure a little. If you're already at 1/10th sec 10fps then this will have to be via more gain and or Gamma or Brightness. On the brightness/light meter, histogram thingy (tech term) in K3CCD tools somewhere between 180 and 200 for Saturn seems good.

hope that helps,

cheers,

[Robert_T]

Hi Matt, I processed the TIFF you sent in Astra Image 2. Your original at left and the reprocessed at right below. The original has some faint halo - not sure what's caused that.

Processing details were as follows:

Converted and cropped to BMP and brought into Astra Image 2.

Split colour frames and ran LR deconvolution on each - 4 iterations at 1.8 curve

Recombined in Astra Image and saved as BMP file.

Played with colour and luminance in Made Safe Photo Paint using curves and brightness/constrast.

Saved as jpeg.

What do you reckon?:confuse3:

[matt]

That's cool Rob:)

Although the rings appear to have suffered even more of that reddish tinge?

Sorry about the tiff. I think the halo was the result of adjustment to the RGB histogram, or possibly too much wavelets?

Anyway, thanks for your efforts.

[bird]

Work has kept me pretty busy for the last few weeks, plus some unsettled weather round these parts has knocked out those evenings when I felt like having a go.

Tonight was the first light for my new 13.1" scope, I've spent the last 2 days working on it to get it done. No images tonight, just checking basic stuff - e.g. does it come to focus :-) etc. I was glad to see that my mount can carry it, it's a fair bit larger than the old scope, the tube is 1.8m long :-)

If the weather cooperates tomorrow night then I might have a go at saturn and see. I've got to pull it apart tomorrow and finish a few bits and pieces.

regards, Bird

[davidpretorius]

congrats bird,

this is very exciting, i know how you feel!!!

i really hope the weather is nice to you and that you can have a lovely time playinig with it!!


yay yay yay