Here is my latest Saturn. There was no wind on the night and the seeing as reasonable. I have also included the raw image for comparison with the processed one. You can just make up 2 satellites the below the planet on the right hand-side. When increasing the brightness, I can see 4.
Nice and sharp! Looks like the seeing would have allowed some more magnification too.
Thanks for posting the raw image as well, I always love seeing both.
Peter: Yes, you are right. It's a good idea to have both raw and processed images, that way we can appreciate the original capture conditions and the processing work done.
Stuart: For some reason, I am unable to play (and process) AVIs with 4000 frames or more on my laptop. I don't know why (I have a 2 year old DELL XPS Core I5 with Windows 7). So I am limited to smallish AVIs. Because of this limitation, I feel that I have plateaued in terms of quality of my planetary imaging. More frames would perhaps allow me to use a x5 powermate on Saturn instead of the x2.5. I have to try another computer.
Have you tried opening the avis in virtual Dub as it will fix these problems with larger avis sometimes though 4000 frames is not what I would call a large avi unless its in 1280x960 format. Seems bizarre that your laptop can't handle them as my little netbook is happy with avis over 20000 frames long.
Edit: are you stacking in registax or autostakkert?
Thanks Stuart, I have just done that and managed to repair, save and open a 10,000 frame AVI I took on the same night. VirtualDub seems to indicate that there is a problem with the file's index block. My laptop has been very reliable in terms of video playing and video editing, so I am not quite sure what's wrong. But at least I have a way to circumvent the issue. Thanks for the tip!
