Well, I have been playing around and capturing some more data with my webcam, I collected about 2.5GB of AVI's last night in variable conditions, however I seem to have improved on my first prime focus from the other day. These photos were done with my 2.5x APO barlow inserted and Jupiter at or after Zenith.
I have attached 2 processed files below combined from 2 X 5fps captures of 30 sec each on the first one and 2 X 15fps captures of 30sec each of the second one. I have processed and aligned in Registax and then adjusted the levels and unsharp in GIMP before doubling the image scale from 640x480 to 1280x960 before cropping. Each image in registax has also had the Mild wavelets settings applied and the RGB channels lined up correctly.
I welcome all comments as well as anyone who would like to show me how the post processing is done in their neck of the woods. I have linked each 901kb BMP file (photobucket doesnt allow tifs ;( below so that people can hopefully process their own way to see if they can improve on my limited skills and get a better result. I would love to see a better output than what I can get.
The GRS looks a bit strange in my images so I am keen to see if this is my images or something else I have done wrong?
edit: PS for some reason Photobucket converts the bmp to a jpg image, dont know why. I have moved these to IIS FTP website instead and saved them as TIF files (1.8MB each)
Thanks for your time.
Cheers
Chris
Last edited by Screwdriverone; 24-06-2008 at 04:09 PM.
Reason: changed file positions to IIS FTP and THEN read the download instructions DOH!
I cant help myself, I have reposted all three of my best ones so far in this post so you can see them side by side. I just finished some from 10:43pm last night which makes 5 images in order from left to right from 10:30pm to 1:42am.
I think the Van Cittert Deconv gives the best results so far.
PS. my favourite so far is image2, sorry about the different sizes. You can actually see the GRS transit too, thats pretty cool!
Seems that maybe it was a touch out of focus... When I focus, i set the cameras gamma and brightness up full this generally gives an image of a big white circle, but you can tell focus when the edge is really sharp. it softens or feathers out around 3mm inside and outside of focus.
Heres the edit, applied a slight unsharp mask, edited the curves a touch, croped it down and used Maximum entropy deconvolution.
If you can upload one of your avi's to the IIS FTP site, I'll give it a go for you from go to woah... see what I can do... Or even better mike might have a go at it! If they are huge, then just upload it, pm me, i'll download it then u can remove it afterwards..
Looking good Chris! I think I'm going to have to start saving for a webcam!
Just out of interest, have you been able to visually identify the GRS through your SW135? I've had brief moments where I think I can see it, but the general detail is not as good as in your images (as expected I guess).
Thanks for taking the time to have a go at this for me. I have zipped the virtual dubbed and PCFE'd BMP's into a file and uploaded them to the IIS FTP site as Screwdriverone 1516 avi BMP's.zip so you can have a go starting with Registax or DSS.
I have had some trouble with focus like you said, thanks for the tip on the gain and gamma, its pretty hard to get it right, especially because there isnt much tolerance for fine focus at the slowest speed on my electric focuser. I have to "pulse" the button about 4-5 times from slightly off focus to try and get the best / closest focus I can see on the screen. When I don't use the 2.5x barlow, the focus is a little easier because there is no lens in the way but the image scale is a lot smaller and less details are revealed.
I have even tweaked the collimation slightly on this night to see if that helped but practice is probably the go. Seeing wasnt too crash hot either, Jupiter started off doing the conga earlier in the night but the later captures looked more stable.
See how you go, the file is here ( warning, its 13.56MB). What program do you use to do the max entropy deconv in?
Looking good Chris! I think I'm going to have to start saving for a webcam!
Just out of interest, have you been able to visually identify the GRS through your SW135? I've had brief moments where I think I can see it, but the general detail is not as good as in your images (as expected I guess).
Cheers,
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the praise! They are getting much better now.
I have occasionally glimpsed it when using the 2.5x barlow and my 12.5mm ED eyepiece (at 200x mag) but its a bit hard to detect, you have to wait and wait until the detail becomes visible. You will notice that the longer you look, the more you see. It also depends on the seeing too. Generally I can only see two bands with a very white disc.
My suggestion for you is (if you dont already have some) buy 1 or 2 quality eyepieces such as an ED 10-15mm and a 20-25mm one. These are fantastic for eye relief and show much more field than the standard plossl's that come with it. Having said that though, after I sorted out my collimation issues, ALL my eyepieces now give pretty nice views, the smaller original ones have more contrast than the bigger multi-elemement ones so they are a good choice for wider field nebulous areas and clusters.
My next purchase is probably going to be a quality ED 5x Barlow for planetary pictures if I don't talk myself into buying a 12 inch DOB as well!
Keep in mind that our scope's limit for mag is about 2.5x the aperture which is around 300x so a 3x barlow with a 10mm eyepiece is starting to stretch the friendship a bit. This is why I went for a 2.5x ED (after many great words of advice from IISers) because it makes my eyepiece set go like this (the * indicates the originals that came with the scope:
EP Magnification With 2.5x Barlow
10mm* = 100x 250x
10mmWA = 100x wide angle 250x wide angle
12.5mm ED = 80x 200x
15mm = 67x 167x
20mm* = 50x 125x
So you can see there is a nice spread of magnification from 50x to 250x there which is great for choice. The one I probably use the most is the 12.5mm ED so that is why I suggest you get an ED eyepiece. The only cost about $49-$69 from Andrews Comms.
I just realised that I wandered off track as usual, you asked about the GRS and here I am giving you a scope/EP lesson. Sorry, but as its my thread anyway, too bad!
I just realised that I wandered off track as usual, you asked about the GRS and here I am giving you a scope/EP lesson. Sorry, but as its my thread anyway, too bad!
No worries Chris - I was going to ask about EPs and barlows next!!!
My next purchase is probably going to be a quality ED 5x Barlow for planetary pictures if I don't talk myself into buying a 12 inch DOB as well! [/quote]
a 5x ed barlow will not be as good as a TV powermate.. and in either case, your scope wont handle the magnification. If I were you, I'd go for aperture before magnification, your images will increase in quality heaps with a bigger scope more than longer focal lenght...
I've got 3" aperture over you and a 3x barlow, and im moving to a 12" before I think about a 5x powermate.
I thought I might be pushing the envelope a bit and considering that sooner or later the aperture fever is going to strike, I will save my piggy bank for another day.
Jupiter 23rd June - Processing help please
If they are huge, then just upload it, pm me, i'll download it then u can remove it afterwards..
