Well, I finally got around to running my Saturn avi from 01/02 Jan through Registax and here is the result. I also did a couple of screen captures to show the settings I used.
Histogram was around 160 – 170.
C9.25
X2.5 TeleVue PowerMate.
Philips ToUcam 840.
Captured via K3CCDTools.
Processed in Registax.
2100 frames
1302 selected
Andrew - I had just re-built my PC and hadn’t loaded all my apps, so all the processing was done in Registax. I fiddled with the Histogram, Gamma and Contrast/Brightness. I then converted the final bmp to a jpg on my Notebook using CorelPaint 12 with no further processing.
Beren – Yes, I subsequently read in the ToUcam YahooGroup not to do this! Someone recommended leaving the Brightness and Gamma sliders as is (central) and increasing the Gain to bump up the brightness, something I will try the next time.
Matt – Although I used K3CCDTools for the capture and it invoked the two screens, the same screen can also be captured from within the Philips ToUcam native software. The link to K3CCDTools is here http://www.pk3.org/Astro/?software.htm and it’s not free. Cost approx US$49 for Version 3. I’m still on V2.
dennis, my settings are brightness and contrast 50%, gamma 5 or 10%, exposure 1/25 and lately with a 5x powermate in a f5 newt, gain at 50% and 75%, both with very nice colour results
Thanks Dave - I'm still struggling with the optimum settings and still mostly get onion rings, so I will try a higher gain...if the clouds ever blow away.
Let's try again...previous post looks screwed up on my system
And here's another one, taken later the same morning, but after Saturn had crossed the Meridian, so the Tak mount had to do a Meridian flip and almost tore the TouCam cable from the Notebook!
This time, I used the K3CCDTools software to auto grab 5 avi's, each of 210 seconds, at 4 minute intervals, and save them using the advanced file naming format in K3CCDTools. Meanwhile, at around 02:09am , I was upstairs having a cuppa!
This time, in Registax, I opened 2 of the best avi’s at the same time from the set of 5 giving a total of 4200 frames. Registax can handle up to 5000 frames apparently. Although I had the “Automatic” box checked to Align, Optimise & Stack without user intervention, after Registax had chewed its way through the first avi, it paused and politely asked me to place the alignment box on the 2nd avi before it ran through to the Wavelets phase.
C9.25.
X2.5 TeleVue PowerMate.
Philips ToUcam 840.
Captured via K3CCDTools.
10 fps.
1/25 sec.
4200 frames (x2 avi’s of 2100 each).
Processed in Registax.
1867 selected.
I was free wheeling so I had stopped taking screen captures and notes at this stage, hence I’m not sure of the Image Controls and Camera Controls settings, but from memory, as I was experimenting with the Brightness slider hard right, I think Gamma was more to the right and gain was hard left? Even though this one has more frames stacked (from 2 avi’s) the dreaded onion rings have reared their ugly heads.
The Cassini Division looks “sharper” than the previous effort.
Very nice shots Dennis! Interesting seeing other peoples setting too. Even at high gain I've been getting the onion rings at times.
Pity about those darn onions...it's enough to make you cry! lol. Sharpest shots of seen of Saturn apart from Birds I reckon. Your image scale is huge! too.
More gain zero-little gamma to cure the onions, or so they recommend. Seems to have worked for me in most AVIs now.
Ken - the effect on the disc is the "Onion Ring" effect due to underexposure so when Registax stacks the images, the underexposed limb appears as a series of rings.
John - thanks for the tips. I started maintaining a Word document with screen captures against the filename of each avi so I could record what settings each avi was captured with. I've not been consistent in doing this, which I now regret, as I have avi's whose settings I cannot recall.
If the onion ringing is due to under-exposure what does the K3CCD light meter indicate when you're capturing (I usually sit around 150-180).
I actually run with the brightness fairly high at the expense of gain. I'm still playing around with this, but am still a little wary of too much gain = grain - but then it depends a lot on seeing an number of frames I've got to stack.
Terrific processing work too Dennis. I had a bit of a play (hope you don't mind) with your 1st image & I could'nt really improve on it any better than what you've already done with it!
If the onion ringing is due to under-exposure what does the K3CCD light meter indicate when you're capturing (I usually sit around 150-180).
Hi Rob
If your "light meter" is my "Histogram" bar, which K3CCDTools calls a "Brightness Meter", then I was on 160-170 for this shot. I'll refer to it as Brightness Meter next time to avoid confusion
However, Celestron, TeleVue, Takahashi and Philips deserve the accolades for producing the fine equipment that made the Saturn image possible.
Not to mention my excellent schooling in ToUcam techniques and settings, at the one and only “Ice In Space” on-line University of Planetary Imaging – thanks to all the guys for sharing your results and settings, along with the advice and feedback via this forum.
It is quite remarkable to be able to post images, get instant feedback and help from like minded souls and then apply the lessons learned the very same night! Almost as fast as 20-20 cricket!
The encke division is a very small feature, it hasn't been captured in Dennis's image (as fine as it is).
The image scale needs to be much larger to capture such a small feature. What most people see in amateur images is what has been called "the ghost of encke", which is really a processing artifact from sharpening.
Interesting with the brightness tab all the way to the right 
