First night out in ages. SkippySky said vgood seeing but it was above avg with occasional good moments.
I finally got a Great Red Spot bang in the middle. I also got Ganymede but seeing needs to be near perfect for Jup moon detail. Seeing tends to fail past the meridian. This is the highest Jupiter has been since 2010. Cloud came just as I was packing up at the end of the night luckily.
Jupiter RGB 1425hrs
Jupiter IR 1506hrs
Ganymede 1355hrs
Mars 1659hrs
Saturn 1754hrs.
My processing Jupiter skills are a little rusty as I have not done Jupiter for 5 years. I sharpened a little too much - but its good practice. Mars looked fine on the screen as I could see detail easily.... cant wait for 18 arc seconds in May.
Special views there, loved the detail and colour. For the planetarily inexperienced like me, would you mind sharing any info on exposure and gain you used for each planet (assuming same values for each filter)? Am still working out optimal settings (albeit with OSC), would be great to have a little more knowledge of a master's secrets
Thanks Trevor, I was surprised how easily I settled in for a night considering the long break from planets. I only forgot the focuser extension so could not focus - but quickly corrected.
Hello Andy, Jupiter is so bright that I usually expose at 50-55fps reducing gain (usually 70-80% of max) till I get 85-90% on the histogram using Firecapture. Firecapture allows files to be named so Winjupos can read them for quicker processing. I collect 5000-7000frames with 120secs each filter RGB. It depends on your FL I use a long FL, if you go shorter like many gain can go down even more reducing noise further. FL of 10meter for Jupiter is fine - I use 12meter.
We stack frames using Autostakkert which is fast and seems the best and is not complicated to use.
Don't use any gamma
With one shot colour you can go for a long time like 10mins and derotate the avi using tools in WinJupos. The great thing about WinJupos is you can stack several data sets over 30 mins say for extra detail when seeing is wonderful.
I am not sure what settings others use or if mine are even reasonable but I get good detail with good seeing. You may have to experiment with gain exposure and frame number but Firecapture will remember your settings for next time.
Hi John that's super information on some of your techniques, and very much appreciated! I started applying some of it last night, will explore others soon, it's going to be a busy planets season. It's really good to hear what works for producing excellent images, thanks.
