Hi guys.
What else to do when there's 6 days straight of clouds? Reprocess.
After speaking with Bird about the artifacts I was getting around the edges of Saturn where it meets with the rings, he suggested it could be one of three things:
1. Not enough light being captured
2. Registax alignment not locking onto the features correctly
3. Too aggressive in the processing
For #1, i'll try capturing a brighter image next time.
For #2, I changed my alignment box area (used size 128) and aligned it on the globe with a bit of the rings. Previously I aligned it on the edge of the rings to pick up the sharpest CD.
For #3, I've now reprocessed the same avi in the following way:
- Registax, to the wavelets tab, RGB align (no wavelets)
- PixInSight LE, wavelet processing and noise reduction
- Registax, histogram and gamma adjust
- Photoshop, colour balance and levels
I've gone much softer on the wavelet processing to try and maintain the "globe" shape, and a sure sign of overprocessing is when the Cassini Division gets wider and wider. So this time, i've gone soft to keep a smaller tigher cassini division.
So on the left is the new image, on teh right is my previous effort.
It's a tough call - I like the CD and shape of the globe better in the new image, but I like the banding right up to the SPC in the old image. The crepe ring is probably a bit more natural looking in the new image too.
So somehow I need to take the best out of both images
There's a bit of "fuzziness" to the new image as well which I'm not too fond of.
Anyway, for your consumption and feedback.. here they are.
More experimenting to do..
