Finally, here it is! Jupiter + animation - 25th Feb 2006

[iceman]

Hi all.

On Saturday morning, I had the best seeing I've ever had! As soon as I looked through the eyepiece and saw the big fat shadow of Europa, jet black and still against the backdrop of a detailed Jupiter, I knew the seeing was well above average.

I couldn't wait to get the ToUcam fired up. I captured 12 avi's leading into day break, and the seeing deteriorated after that. At first, I was meticulous in capturing every 2 minutes so I could create a smooth animation, but I got bored after a while and the last few frames were 20 minutes apart :)

The first image here is almost exactly the same face I captured last week on the 18th (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=7863), and while I thought that was my best image, side by side with this image you can see the extra detail in this latest one thanks to the improved seeing.

As I said in the teaser thread, I had the gain at about 15% because the transparency was so good, but it seems to have contributed to some onion ringing that's evident mainly on the left side. I had to go softer on the processing so as not to exaggerate the effect too much.

Anyway, here's the stuff..
- Captured @ 5fps, 1/25s exposure, 40% gamma, 15% gain
- Usual processing routine, split into R/G/B, 100 frames (out of 450) stacked in registax, LR deconvolution (7/1.2) in AstraImage, and final USM and colour balance/curves in Photoshop.
- I used Jasc Software Animation Shop 3 to create the animation.

Download the animation here:
- Windows AVI (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/downloads/20060225-jupiter-anim.avi) (DivX 6 codec) (132k)
- Animated GIF (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/downloads/20060225-jupiter-anim.gif) (414k)

And below are 3 of the better images.

Comments/feedback welcome.

[acropolite]

Oops! Something went terribly wrong. :face: Animated isn't working Mikee...

[iceman]

Fixed Phil.

[Robert_T]

Excellents shots Mike, must be close to if not your actual best:)

It's a beautiful thing to see Europa sliding over the planet's disk - brings it all to life!

cheers,

[ving]

:jawdrop:

great stuff mike :D

[RB]

Oh my gosh Mike, that's unreal.....
ving took the animotion smilie right out of my mouth.......

:jawdrop:

[Striker]

Great presentation Mike.

Well done.

[DougAdams]

Classy stuff.

[davidpretorius]

i think these are your best, well done mike, the seeing finally came your way!!!

well worth the wait for me without destroying your other thread too much in anticipation!!

[Dennis]

Hey Mike

These Jupiter's most strongly give me the impression that I am in a space station orbiting the planet - they are so rich in colour, texture, and detail.

Great job in capture, processing, and presentation.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

very ordinary Mike, boring old jupiter and some rocky satellite. OK OK its absolutely gobsmakingly brilliant! I am in awe of what you have achieved, full credit to you for your excelent efforts.

[bird]

Great stuff Mike!

Bird

[danielsun]

Awesome shots!!!!!!

[[1ponders]]

:clap::clap::clap:

[venus]

I like the pic Mike, rivals these taken too......
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image13.html

[asimov]

Gee-wilikers! How much did you pay to get your remote toucam into orbit around Jupiter!?

Fantastic stuff!

[seeker372011]

well done Mike, that was well worth getting up at 4 30 am for eh?

[beren]

Extraordinary work well done :) stunning work being turned out

[RAJAH235]

Nice avi Mike.....pics not too bad either.... :P.....very good, well done..:D L.

[Octane]

Mike,

Absolutely splendid.

Well done!

Regards,
Humayun

[iceman]

Many thanks for the positive feedback.. this is definitely my best shot of Jupiter, and i'm still learning which is the good thing.

Capturing (and processing) when the seeing is very good, is actually different than when the seeing is only average. The rule used to be "gain as low as possible", and I had it at 15% in this image because the transparency was good - but in hindsight (after seeing onion rings), I could've gone 1/33s exposure and increased the gain.

When the seeing is good you also have to go much softer on wavelets and LR deconvolution, since the raw frames are already quite sharp.

I don't know when i'll get another morning of seeing like this, but at least I was up for it this time. I wonder how many mornings of 8+/10 seeing we've missed because we decided to sleep in? :)

Thanks again

[Hammerman]

Beautiful avi, Mike! Simply fantastic detail and color!:2thumbs:

[Rodstar]

Stunning work, Mike. The moving image creates a wonderful animation feeling.

I'd be interested to see how you'd go these days doing some imaging with my LX200. Maybe during SPSP14? I will be asleep at 4 in the morning, so you are welcome it my scope at that hour.:P No, seriously, I wonder if using a solid goto mount like the LX200 would result in slightly less "rocking" of the image (I guess I would need to get a wedge and be polar aligned to avoid that problem???) :shrug:

[iceman]

Thanks Rod.

I'd be happy to try the LX200 - the increased image scale would definitely be welcome :)

The "rocking" of the animation is mainly due to my lack of patience in creating the animation - not due to my mount. The animation was made of 12 different images, each taken a few minutes apart. So processing each image identically, in detail and matching colour, is difficult. And due to field rotation, Jupiter had tilted at a different angle in half of the shots from where I had to reset my platform.

So rotating the images and then aligning them within a frame to match up and create a smooth animation, was slow and tedious and I didn't have the patience to make it *exact*. But no doubt I should've ;)

[gaa_ian]

That is Awesome Mike !

[Muddy Diver]

Truly inspirational stuff. Love it.:thumbsup:

[Rodstar]

Mike, you have "plenty patience" to be doing the imaging you are, and are welcome to play with my scope anytime you want! :thumbsup: