Saturn/refractor

[asimov (John)]

Hi.

I'm only posting this pic because I wanted to show you I've pretty well licked that saturation/gain/un-natural colour derived from an achromatic refractor problem I was having....With the help of the fringe killer & plenty of toUcamming experimenting.

No need to comment on the quality, lol. It was shot in absolutely TERRIBLE conditions. {1/10} 1500 frames....57 frames hand picked & stacked {& half of them should have been subtracted!} Was also miles too low but the clouds were heading in so it was 'shoot now or forever hold your peace!'

Also wanted to try out my extension tube for better image scale.

Now gimmee some good seeing conditions!!

[Robert_T]

WOuldn't even know it was taken through an acro refractor - well done. So come on Asi, tell all about this Toucam experimentation to get natural colour?

Oh and image scale looks great - go that little extension tube!

cheers,

[iceman (Mike)]

Good colour asi! Shame about the conditions but when they're good, you'll be on track for a great image.

[asimov (John)]

I'll have to consult the 'oracle' for the settings Rob...{still saved on the laptop} I'll get back to you on that shortly. As far as image scale is concerned, I'm after more! he-he!

Yeah, can't WAIT for a good night Mike.

[asimov (John)]

Unless the settings change by themselves by un-plugging the camera & then plugging back in to the laptop, even with full-auto un-ticked?

brightness: 75%
gamma: 40%
saturation: 80%
Gain 40%
10 FPS @ 1/50 sec.
Once those settings are made, auto white balance for 15-20 sec then un-ticked....capture.
Only on saturn with baader fringe killer attached of course...no doubt without my extension it would be different settings as well.

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Nice colour and image scale there Asimov, just have to luck out with good conditions now.

Even though it's a refractor, you might find some improvement in image quality if its left out to cool down for 30 mins or so before you start imaging.

regards, Bird

[ving (David)]

good colour and scale...
your conditions were better than mine tho

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by asimov

Once those settings are made, auto white balance for 15-20 sec then un-ticked....capture.

How does one do this ie the white balance???

[davidpretorius]

hey and great colour mate, way better than i have been able to get with sauturn so far.

And it is also great that we can all feel that we can post crap photos so we can all learn from them, so that eventually, we are smacking bird around the head with 1400 x 1050 images of one of the moons of saturn!!!!!!!!!

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

How does one do this ie the white balance???

I think (from memory) there is a checkbox somewhere in the software marked "AWB" or "white balance" or "auto-white balance" or something. When you turn that on the camera looks at the image it's receiving and tries to adjust it's colour levels.

Bird

[RB (Andrew)]

That's so good Asi,

Nice colour and only 57 frames in bad conditions, mate your doing well.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by bird

I think (from memory) there is a checkbox somewhere in the software marked "AWB" or "white balance" or "auto-white balance" or something. When you turn that on the camera looks at the image it's receiving and tries to adjust it's colour levels.

Bird

got it, thanks.

now how to get 20 seconds (before turning off) of saturn at 500x so that the camera can colour adjust in the 7 sec it is on the screen???????

hmmmm, now this will be interesting!!!

[asimov (John)]

Actually I don't think 20 secs was totally necessary, It just got recommended to me to leave it that long. I've also taken most of my toucam pics on auto white balance so far. This only becomes a problem with mars & the refractor.