|
Ok Dave lets see.
Everything depends upon your scope, so I will work on the basis that you have something close to my f10. If you have a faster scope then the image will appear brighter with my settings.
So when I capture I try to make the image just above dull, that is how it will look finished. This does take some practice but a sure fire way of know is to process the first AVI in Registax3 and then look at the histogram. All three colours should coincide at the same point and be near the right. This means that you have exposed at the correct exposure. I would think that 1/500 or 1/1000 will be too low an exposure. However, if you have an extremely fast scope f4 or f5 then this might be correct. Personally, I usually expose at 1/33 of a second. I use 10fps on bad nights and 5fps on very good nights. All this depends on gauging the conditions of the night which comes with experience. So aim for a reasonably bright image, but not too bright and not too dull.
Now take your AVI and run it for 2 minutes. BTW setting will change from a powermate 2x to a 5x. The 5x will present a less bright image than a 2x and you will need to raise your exposure to compensate. Try not to have your gain too high. High gain leads to grainy images and the grain monster coming out.
Once you have taken your AVI, load it into Registax3. Now select the smallest alignment box possible that will fit over your entire planet. In this case I use the 256 check box. Now go to quality estimate box and choose the "gradient" method. Then I like to select something around 85%-90% with lowest quality. Now go to align and select automatic just before doing this. Next once the image is processed to the wavelet tab I immediately select RGB shift and let it do the adjustment automatically.
Now for wavelets. Most people process from 1 down to 6. I prefer to go the other way. I start with 6 and go somewhere around 40-75 depending on the image. Next I go to 5 and make an adjustment which is at least 5 below what 6 was. Again this depends what the image looks like, I always go until the image just starts to degrade, then back it off a little way. Experience will tell you when it is right. So then go to 4 and once again adjust but make sure it is less than 5. Proceed to travel all the way up and make sure each is less than the previous one. Look at the image carefully and ensure the adjustments enhance the image not degrade it. Experiment a little and it will come.
Now once this is done you may if the image is dull, go to the histogram and do an image stretch. If you exposed the image correctly to begin with then this will not be necessary.
Once this is completed save the image under the final tab. Things to experiment with are resampling to increase image scale. If you have used the correct powermate then this will be not necessary. However do experiment, this is your work and artistic license.
Now that we are here with a saved image load the image into Astraimage and go directly to process and split the image into the RGB panes. Under the restoration tab select Lucy Richardson and click on it. Now each planet has different settings that work, and this will depend on your scopes film speed and how bright the image is and what the seeing was like on the night. That said though I have found that with Mars something around 1.3 pixels and 3-5 interations works well. Do this for each image. You will notice that blue is always blurry and will need special care not to make it too grainy. If you do get blue exposed correctly as well as the other panes, write the settings down for later imaging runs. Once you have done all three panes then recombine under the process tab and do a 0.8 gamma correction to the image and if you like a median filter adjustment under the filter tab.
Finally go into PS and do any other image croping and type work that you want.
Now for your other questions.
I use a Toucam with the raw colour mod for a smooth image and this allows me to do the sharpening myself and helps reduce noise. It is however, harder to gain focus and this will take some practice (not that I think I have it mastered yet).
I do use a filter and say that this is almost a must for Mars and works really well on the gas giants. I use the baader IR-UV cut filter. It stops Infra Red from bleeding panes and ruining your image. You should get one of these filters as soon as you can. Worth the money and it is how Anthony (Bird) Mike and myself get the images we get. I think we each use different filters from each other, but the end result is similar (although not as good as Anthony's stunning images)
Unfortunately, I cant make it to the camp, and would dearly love to meet both you and Ken and do hope that you have a great time.
Now I hope that this has helped and do let me know if you have any specific questions or if you think I might have left something out.
Wow this is a big post.
|