Jupiter from 14th/15th April - 1 of 142 AVI's!!

[Dennis]

Hi Jupiter fans

Anyone fed up with the plethora of Jupiter's being posted by IIS members? Well if so, I'm sorry but here is another one, probably the best from the 142 AVI's I captured last night/this morning.

I actually managed to grab the GRS from rise to set, or go to whoa, or ingress to egress, although I was plagued by quite variable seeing and the occasional cloud so it will be hard to get a decent end-to-end sequence.

Cheers

Dennis

[spacezebra]

Great image

Are you able to also post some information about the equipment/software that you used, I have not yet ventured into the realms of planetary photography, however I look forward to reading about different methodology.

Cheers Petra

[Dennis]

Hello, Petra

Have a look here for a list of equipment and software, in Msg #1.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=9101

Let me know if you would like further details.

Cheers

Dennis

[barees63]

Especially nice, great colour and so sharp!

[iceman]

oh my goodness Dennis! That's amazing.. 142 avi's! You are a sucker for punishment!

I hope the rest are as good, cause I really want to see this animation!

[asimov]

I'm at a loss for words Dennis. Thats so clear & crisp! I can't believe it lol.

Now burning all my jupiter photo's! :rofl:

[Dennis]

Early indications are that what I have posted appears to be the best, and the dozen or so captured around that time are similar, with the remainder being so-so.

I was wondering, if we at IIS can get a complete set, from GRS appearance to GRS disappearance, would IIS be the first place that this would have been achieved?

It would be a nice first for IIS and also the astronomy community down under.

Cheers

Dennis

[Robert_T]

Dennis, you must be knackered and will be even moreso soon after all that processing. :D That is however I think the sharpest detail I've ever seen on Jupiter - nothing short of incredible. What's your focussing secret?

cheers mate,

[Dennis]

Hi Robert

I just purchased a JMI SCT motofocus from Striker (thanks Tony!) and last night was the first night I used it. It replaced my refractor JMI that I had modified and the new one is more responsive. All my successes with sharp focus are due to the motorised focuser.

Last night, the Moon was close to Jupiter so I achieved a sharp focus on the Moon and then locked my Hutech SCT focus lock knob and slewed to Jupiter.

Part way through the evening, the image began to look soft so I went back to the Moon but the seeing was quite bad so I returned to Jupiter and picked up one of the Galilean moons and spent about 5 mins tweaking the focus using the JMI.

I also made a small tweak of Bob's knobs to touch up collimation. For a short while, there was a period of very steady seeing, probably lasted for maybe 20 to 30 mins in bursts, before turning mushy again.

The only processing is Wavelets 1=30, 2=20 and the rest remain at 1. I've punched about 30 AVI's through Registax so far, using both the lappy and the desktop. I keep sneaking out and setting them up to run, so I'm also having a social, family Easter!!!

To manage my tiredness, I doze on a camping mat outside by the 'scope, and these little cat naps, perhaps 5 or 10 minutes at a time, really seem to help me cope with the all nighters and the important family commitments the next day.

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

100+ avis, i am still shaking my head.

super effort!

[iceman]

I can't believe you get that result with so little processing. I guess that's the effect of very good seeing, crisp focus and perfect collimation.

I need to judge down my seeing now, cause I need to process mine a lot more and I don't get what you get!

[Dennis]

Hi Mike

To illustrate how good the seeing was at particular points during the best avi capture, here is a single frame copied via Virtual Dub. No processing, just conversion to jpg. Note the 3 white ovals in the belt above the GRS.

Cheers

Dennis

PS - Edited to include a single unprocessed frame as well for comparison (the bad one), when the seeing was poor, resulting in a soft, final image in Registax.

[Robert_T]

Hi dennis, unbelievable dedication, what with catnaps next to the scope and all. :) :thumbsup: What amazes me more about your processing is not that you only used a couple of wavelets but that your used 1 and 2 and pushed them so hard. If I set wavelets 1 to 30 or even 20 the whole image is nothing but grain. Usually the most I can push "1" is around 5-6 and very occasionally to 8 or 9 if I'm stacking a lot of frames. I guess lately I've been stacking less as it helps to avoid onion rings -how many frames are you typically stacking from how many taken?

cheers,

[Dennis]

Hi Robert

I’ll try to explain this (from memory) by listing my processing steps:

Open the avi.
Automatic unchecked, Quality = 90%
Step through the frames slider to select suitable frame for alignment rectangle.
Press Align
Wait for the alignment routine to complete.

Press the Limit button.
Focus passed to Optimise Tab.
Select Create Button in Reference Frame panel (50 frames).
Wait for that process to complete.
Click Ok to “Enhance image and press continue”

Press Align.
Focus passed to Align Tab.
Drag the frame counter slider along the bottom to usually between 600 to 800 from 900 captured, then press Limit.

Focus passed to Optimise Tab.
Select Create Button in Reference Frame panel (50 frames).
Wait for that process to complete.
Click Ok to “Enhance image and press continue”
Press Continue Button

Press Optimise & Stack
Load pre-saved Wavelet scheme. (1=30, 2=20, 3=1, 4=1, 5=1 6=1)

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

I've read a 'how to' by a guy in the States on how he uses registax & he only ever uses wavelett 2....& that's it!! With images to show his results...superb looking results they were too..

[Dennis]

Hi Robert

Here is a pre-wavelet image after the avi has been punched through Registax and attached is also the same image with Wavelets 1=30 and 2=20 applied. No other processing.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

That raw frame is unbelievable.. that must be 10/10 seeing or extremely close to it. I've never had a raw frame that looks so great.

[Dennis]

Hi Dave

With the Tak mount, grabbing so many avi’s isn't too much of an effort when using K3CCDTools which has an interval timer function.

I usually set the count to 10, 20 or 30 depending on the conditions, to avoid capturing well exposed avi’s of..clouds…

The Tak keeps Jupiter centred for 60 mins, so there is nothing for me to do but wait…and wait…and wait, dreading the morning's processing shift.

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

thanks dennis, with the great single frames, have you tried a smaller stack size like 100

[[1ponders]]

[QUOTE=Dennis]Click Ok to “Enhance image and press continue”[QUOTE]

Dennis, do you do any sort of waveletting at this stage to sharpen the image at all?



So you go back to square one but don't re-align?



Again no enhancing?

Very interesting technique Dennis. I sometimes us the "Realign with processed" on the wavelets page but haven't tried you process.

How did you develop this particular technique?

And where do you store all these avies. I'm pushing to store three nights of 40+ avies without deleting and zipping half the stuff on my computers and you do that many in one night plus you have everything else from the past week.

Fantastic work Dennis, you should be rightly proud of the work you've been presenting. This week especially. :clap:

I really hope to get to meet you and Robert at the Qld Astrofest this year.


Oh and DP that K3 Video Timer is the Only Way To Fly. :bowdown:

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

When I tried to invoke the Wavelet function at that stage, I get a Registax error message of "Cannot open avi file" so I just use the 50 stack of frames as is.

I developed the technique through trial and error, basically trying to navigate a processing procedure that avoided Registax error messages, so it may not be the most effective or logical set of process steps?

Please see my response to your post on avi storage.

Yes - it will be great to meet you and others, and I'm really looking forward to some dark skies at the Qld Astrofest as my deep sky imaging has ground to a halt.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hi Dave

Anything less that say, 350 / 400, gives me grain the size of golf balls. It seems as if I am on the limit of my set up and any slight change in the wrong direction tips the balance down hill big time.

Cheers

Dennis