Finally got a fine night with only moderate turbulance. Decided to astrochristen The ToUcam with my first ever planetary shot. Love to hear comment on improving the image.
Paul,
a few details would assist.
Scope, frames per second, total frames etc.
I use the auto white balance for about 5 seconds, to allow the camera to set the "proper" colour setting, then uncheck it.
Cassini is good, and all looks well. Keep shooting.
Gary
Yes Aragorn, apart from the colour I'm very happy with it. Especially when you see the original I had to work with.
I'm going to muck around with the original in Photoshop, plus do a couple more tries in both Registax and L3ccdtools and see if I can do something with it. If you've got any suggestions about how to go about it I'd love to hear them.
Paul,
thanks. For some reason I use 10fps, and I really would like to know what actually works the best. Your raw/single is good, but the fact that you only used 50 of the 500 is a worry. I normally set about 85 - 90% as the cutoff, and still use about 250 - 400 of the 600 or so originals, so maybe the seeing wasn't flash.
As Rumples will attest, Waveletting is where it is at. I am fortunate to have a slave for mine, but as I have said a few times lately, I must become more efficient at this stage of the process.
The colour balance I have already sorted for you, perhaps try the stacking again, and also the waveletting as well. I doubt P/Shop will fix anything too much, I feel it is more in the latter stages of Registax.
Gary
Great shot Paul,
Good clarity on the Casinni Division. Try doing a grey scale of the image. This can help with detail when conbined with contrast adjustments. It will also silence any "colour balance" knockers (not that you'll find any on this forum).
Did you use the new Registax 3?
I've also been using 10fps due to a gbeal suggestion, but may also try higher. Saturn seeing is never flash due to it's northern declination so you have done very well...! If this darn cloud ever moves we'll be giving it a go here too!
Rob
Very nice Paul, Gary is right Wavelets is where all the magic happens, but you have to have good seeing to begin with. Good to see some good images coming now in this forum. I am going to trry myself tonight. Clear skies.
I've taken onboard your suggestions and reprocessed the images.
I originally used the wavelets but I got a bit more aggressive this time. I also used Reg 3 this time, instead of two (I think I like the new one. Still being a wet behind the ears newbie to astrophotography I don't know them that well yet )I've also done a bit of processing in PS with levels, curves etc.
I'll certainly try the white balance info next time Gary. I think that part of my problem may have been using 15fps and then upping the brighness and contrast. I will certainly try 10 next time. BTW my exp was 1/33 if I remember correctly. I was trying to shorten the exposure time as much as possible to try and "freeze" the turbulance as much as possible.
p.s Gary, my setting was at 80% or 90% cutoff. Total images were 341/509. Duh me! I thought that meant that only 10% - 20% got used. I know better now. New images used 80% cutoff.
Alright, I tried a little PS work on this shot myself. So I did a little colouring, some curves, a despeckle and increased saturation. Don't know if it is better, but I think subjectively it does. What do you think, If only I could capture shots this well.
As was mentioned earlier what a great "team effort"...
As a new person to the hobby it is really great to see everyone share their experiences and knowledge...and see the collective knowledge improve the output.
Great Work All!
Makes me feel even more comfortable about asking questions and reading posts to learn more about astronomy!
Excellent work Paul, great image and really crisp on the focus. RR, your reprocessed one introduced some violet/purple around the edges. I think the original (reprocessed one) is much better.
1Ponders, the settings I use are similar to what Gary and others have suggested.
5 or 10FPS, 1/25s exp, low gain, 0 to low gamma, and use auto colour for 5-10 seconds before switching it off.
No NIR filter used (don't like the blue colour, though it should be removable in PS. I'll have to do a bit of research into that).
I tried the setting suggested the other night and the colour looked much more natural". Unfortunately I pushed to hard with the resolution and magnification ( experimented with 640 X 480 and two 2X barlows) and the shots looked terrible so I ditched them even after processing in REG 3 an PS. I'll try again when the clouds clear again up here but keep resolution and magnification in the reasonable range.
yeh good idea, you can really only push the magnification if the seeing is excellent.
Is your NIR filter blue as well? I'm unhappy with mine and i'm trying to return it.. there has to be a neutral colour one around.. probably costs a lot more though.
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First light with the Toucam - Saturn
Still being a wet behind the ears newbie to astrophotography I don't know them that well yet
)I've also done a bit of processing in PS with levels, curves etc.
