My reprocess of astro_south's AVI's

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all

Andrew (astro_south) sent me 2 avi's from his magnificent first ToUcam effort.

They were only 1 pass, 60-odd and 30-odd frames respectively. Such incredible detail in such a short avi. The seeing was really good, focus is spot on.

What was the shutter speed?

Advice:
- More exposure! The raw frames are very dark. Try running with more gain and around 40-50% gamma, and a longer shutter speed (1/25s).
- Use k3ccdtools and have the exposure meter up above 200.
- More frames! You've done well on that 1 pass, but repeat the procedure on more passes (within about a 2 minute period). You can use virtual dub to combine all the avi's into a single one.

My reprocess isn't that much better than your original - you've done a great job already. I've found that my processing routine helps bring out more detail in average seeing, but in very good seeing (like you had), even minimal processing can show a great deal. Just look at Dennis with his "wavelet 1 =40" processing routine

My processing was my usual split RGB processing routine.

Anyway, an incredible job Andrew. But I do feel sorry for you - such good data and very good seeing on your very first attempt.. it's going to be very frustrating when you have endless nights of poor seeing

Thanks for letting me play with your data.

[h0ughy (David)]

in a day or so he will have good seeing, but also a moon.

[davidpretorius]

nice work mike, yes, it is all downhill from here, and just when you have placed you gear for sale on ebay in disgust, you get a great nights seeing and a buyer!!!!

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by iceman

What was the shutter speed?

From memory I think the shutter speed was 1/100. The avi's without the barlow looked better at 1/50, but at higher power (ie barlow used) the detail was washed out. Changing this to 1/100 brought the detail out - albiet a bit dark. I was using K3CCDtools for the capture. I didn't check at the time - but is there a way to modify the shutter to any rate? The slider seemed to go from 1/50 to 1/100.

Originally Posted by iceman

Advice:
- More exposure! The raw frames are very dark. Try running with more gain and around 40-50% gamma, and a longer shutter speed (1/25s).
- Use k3ccdtools and have the exposure meter up above 200.
- More frames! You've done well on that 1 pass, but repeat the procedure on more passes (within about a 2 minute period). You can use virtual dub to combine all the avi's into a single one.

I had the gain and gamma both set to zero from memory. I will look for the exposure meter and set set it to 200 as well. looking forward to getting back out and having another go with these new tweaks. I realise my next attempts might suffer from the conditions, and that I got luck for my first time out - hopefully I can have the capture process sorted out for the next time the conditions behave themselves

Originally Posted by iceman

Thanks for letting me play with your data.

Thanks Mike for offering, having a go, and providing advice. I will let you know how it goes when I get back out there....just a bit of study to clear off my desk first

[iceman (Mike)]

The shutter speed can be 1/25, 1/33, 1/50, 1/100 ...

1/100 is awfully quick.. at 5fps, I usuall use 1/25 or 1/33, but that's using a 5x powermate. The less image scale, the more light coming in so you will need to use a faster shutter so as not to overexpose.

I had the gain and gamma both set to zero from memory. I will look for the exposure meter and set set it to 200 as well.

Upping the gain and gamma will not only give you more exposure, but you'll get some data around the limb as well, which is lacking in those avi's.

Just to clarify, you don't "set" the exposure meter - it goes up and down in response to what it sees on the screen - based on YOUR settings for shutter, gain, gamma etc.

You should set your shutter, gain and gamma to values that give a value of approx 200+ on the white level meter in K3ccd.

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Ahhh - makes sense.
Thanks Mike. Heaps of things to play with to improve.

[Robert_T]

some great detail in these ANdrew!

Mike the re-processing KING

cheers,