I'm finally getting the hang of this new lcd monitor, but it's made me change my processing habits. The old images really don't look very good on a sharp monitor, too many artifacts are visible.
Here's an image from last month, reprocessed so that it looks "better". There's also something different about the processing here, I didn't use registax wavelets at all, instead I cranked up the deconvolution a lot more to compensate. The experiment is to see if I preserve more info this way...
Man oh man - you raise the bar very high Bird - only a bird could fly over it
It is a worry with the monitor designs all over the place - i am still using a 6 year old mitsi flat screen 17" CRT and its looks very, very good indeed.
Fringey
I see you have borrowed Hubbles optics again. Hell thats a nice image, without being too picky the onion skin effect is a little of a put off. Not much there but just enough to be annoying. (Or is this the layers of Jupiters Atmosphere ) The colours look quite nice, although not sure but seem a little pink. The detail between, and on the bands are the best I have seen from amature equipment, this is one image that should make it into a good Australian Astronomy Magazine.
Have you any more details on how many frames etc... you used?
Yeah, there are still some artifacts visible in the image, but this was as far as I felt I could push it. The real limitation is my camera, it has Issues - e.g. it gives only 128 grey levels instead of 256, has lots of noise etc. Someday I'll replace it, and that should help a lot.
The colour is probably not quite right, maybe a bit too red/brown, cause of my new lcd screen and the way is shows colours. I'll probably have to fiddle with the settings a bit more on it.
Equipment details:
10" f/6 newtonian, Deep Sky Optics primary mirror
4x TV powermate
fire-i mono camera
Astronomik RGB filters + TruTek filter wheel
Stacked best 500/800 frames in each of R,G,B.
Software: Coriander for Linux to capture the data, Registax & Astra Image under Win2k for processing.
Have you and Leroi been swapping secrets bird. You're shot blew me away. Then I had a look at that link From a TOUCAM!!!. Blew me right out of the water. At least everyone now has someone to aspire to. But were more fortunate. We've got you here in our hot little hands. I know I've asked before but please, please, PLEASE, can you do a "how to" review on using Astra image. I've tried it and just keep getting frustrated.
hmm don't know 10" v's 14" A little bit more detail on the C14, yes. But I think if you do get a better camera, I think you will be right there with the C14.
I know I've asked before but please, please, PLEASE, can you do a "how to" review on using Astra image. I've tried it and just keep getting frustrated.
Ok, maybe I'll write something up. btw I tried to go to the website of the software developers for Astra Image (www.phasespace.com.au) but that site doesn't seem to be working anymore.
I wonder if they are still in business?
I've just run across another package that looks like it might also be good - AstroArt. It's a bit $$$ ($275 aussie dollars) but it has some nice features, like reading 32 bit FITS files, RL deconvolution, etc.
I'm going to blow the budget and buy a copy to try out. They have a demo version that's free, but it's missing a few things.
AstroArt has one BIG positive - it's extensible, and comes with a free SDK (Software Developers Kit). Something that bugs me about our existing tools like Registax is that I can't jump in and fix it's bugs (and there are still many). At least with this package I might be able to write plugins to implement some of my ideas.
I like your first version more, this one is too 'bubbly' instead of 'spotty'.
Leroi's images does not only have a high resolution, but are also very wel processed with very few artefacts, albeit a bit yellowish in my opinion.
It is also a nice demonstration that aperture does matter, as long as the seeing co-operates.
What also surprises me is that the optimised mode shows less posterising than the normal mode, last year I found the opposite, so this might be due to the different settings required when switching modes.