Saturn - 7th Feb 2005

[iceman]

Hey guys.

Got some imaging in last night, the seeing wasn't too bad. It was a little windy but it didn't seem to affect things too much. Through a barlowed 15mm Saturn looked very nice, the CD was quite steady and 4 moons jumped right out.

Spent some of this morning processing the lot, and attached is the result.

Particulars:
- 10" dob (no tracking)
- ToUcam Pro II
- 10fps
- 1/25s shutter
- Experimented with higher gamma
- Used VD to save bmp's and ppmcentre to centre them.
- Used "create reference frame" in registax before optimising.
- Stacked between 80 and 300 frames out of 1000.

From left to right, top to bottom:

* The first 3 (top row) are taken at prime focus (1250mm FL)
* The next 2 (top row) are at 2500mm FL (2x barlow) with higher gain and gamma
* The middle row, are taken using 0 gain and around 35% gamma. The brighter one (3rd one along) was reprocessed in AstraImage to see if it turned out any better.
* The bottom row are the same as the middle row, but 1.2x enlarged using Mitchell method in Registax.

These are probably my best Saturn's to-date. The Cassini Division is visible most of the way around and is not wobbly, the banding is evident and focus looks good.

I should be getting a proper IR filter this week, that might make things a bit better too.

Anyway, here they are.

Appreciate comments, suggestions, and which one you like the look of best.

[Striker]

Nice work Mike.......cant wait till I have a go at this.....

[bird]

Good results for a non-tracking mount... I'd be curious about how good you can do without tracking. Even at 1/25 second there will still be some blurring in each frame as Saturn drifts along...

Bird

[ving]

well done ice. they really are you best to date :)

[[1ponders]]

Definately your best to date Mike. Man what perserverance.

[gbeal]

I agree, what self abuse. Get the tracking platform sorted Mike.
If anything, and this is really only a guess, but I wonder if you are getting a bit of movement blur from the image moving within the FOV. I guess the only way to find out is to motorize the scope and try again.
Kepp at it ICE, but eventually you will give in, I am sure.
Gary

[[1ponders]]

:lol2:

[rumples riot]

Nice work Mike, best to date, but like like Gary and Anthony I think you need to get a tracking mount. This is good stuff, but I am sure you could do some stuff that is out of sight with a tracking mount.

Still, you are definitely defying the norm.

Paul

[iceman]

Thanks for the feedback and support guys.
But which shot do you think looks the best? (for the images section on my website, of course :))

What if I image at 1/33 or 1/50s shutter? I know i'll have to increase gain to make the image bright enough, but I could live with some grain if it made the picture sharper.

:rofl: haha thanks Gary :)

[iceman]

If anyone would like to try and process the avi, i've uploaded the centered sequence of bmp's (zipped up), that can be drag/dropped into registax.

The zip file is 10meg.

Download it here (http://www.iceinspace.com/images/images/planets/20050207-sat-large.zip).

If you can produce a better result than I can with the frames, that's great, it means i'll improve in the long run.

[Gordon]

Hello Mike

Yes indeed that is an impressive result with a non driven telescope.
Can you please elaborate on your note "- used "create reference frame" in registax before optimising" What does this mean and where does it exist in the software? What is the benefit of this feature?

[iceman]

Hi Gordon.

In registax 3, the "create reference frame" button is in the "optimise" tab. It's used to create a "better" reference frame so that registax can align and choose the best images from your avi.

The sequence I use is as follows:

1. Select alignment frame, click "Align" then when it's finished, click "Limit".
2. In the Optimise tab, click "Create Reference Frame", and it will align and stack a sample of 50 or so images, which you should then do some mild wavelet processing on.
3. What that does then, is use that mild processed version as the reference frame to compare all the other against, so that it will find the frames that look the most like the final result you want.
4. Once you've done your mild wavelet processing, click "Continue" which takes you back to the Optimise tab.
5. Click "Optimise" and let it do it's think.
6. Go to the "Stacking" tab, and use the StackGraph to select the # of frames you want to stack, click "Stack".
7. When that's done, go to Wavelets tab and do the more aggressive processing to make the image look how you want it to.

Hope that helps, let me know if you need any more assistance.