Jupiter on Saturday night, opt. v normal

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi guys.

Although we were at the mini star party for dark sky feasts, I couldn't help but take advantage of Louie's 4" Tak FS102 on a vixen mount to do some planetary imaging.

I also took the opportunity to appease Mr Gary Beal and do a comparison of optimized colour mode vs normal mode (I didn't do a "raw" comparison).

Details:
- 4" Tak FS102 (thanks Louie)
- 2.5x Powermate (thanks John) giving a FL of 2000 mm
- Seeing: Good to very good
- 5 fps, 0 gamma, 90-95% saturation, 1/33s exposure, no gain

The capture settings were identical between the optimised colour and normal modes. Nothing was changed between the two types of captures.

Conclusions?

Hard to tell.. it's obvious that the optimised colour mode does less sharpening or internal processing.. however it can also make the image look soft. When shown a comparison, my wife picked the "normal" mode one because it looked more detailed.
I did a slightly more aggressive than normal unsharp mask on one of the optimised colour ones to see how it then compares to the normal mode.

I think you can probably image in either mode, and both will produce acceptable results, but it's clear to me that they may require different amounts of post-processing afterwards.

A bit more image scale might've helped make the comparisons easier to see, but alas, maybe next time I'll try it on Rod's 10" LX200.

[atalas]

Dam !nice work Mike .

Louie

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nice work Mike. Personally I think your best yet Tracking tracking tracking

[gbeal]

Hhhmmmmmmmm,
firstly, thanks Mike for at least giving it a go.
Secondly, you are correct, maybe stick with the Normal mode. It certainly looks that way, and if your wife thinks so then it is sealed.
Only suggestion I have, is come across in May to Robby's do, and image there. I will lend you the gear, and you can go to it.
Gary

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Mike, I'd be very interested to see the comparison with imaging through the LX200. Seems the images were too small to get sufficient colour or detail for really good shots.

I am glad to see the GRS. Even though I looked and looked through my scope on Sat night, I just couldn't see it clearly. Maybe my eyeballs had a dew problem as well..

Rodstar

[iceman (Mike)]

Rod don't feel bad, the GRS had just about transitted off the face by the time you had even arrived

I'll keep experimenting, and definitely will do so in Rod's scope next time. The longer focal length might bring out some more food for thought.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

OK, I'll keep looking for the GRS then.....just need the clouds to clear up....

What's Jupiter's revolution period in earth hours/days??

Rodstar

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Rotation period, I meant to say!

Rodstar

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

About 10 hours Rod

9hr 50 min 30.003sec

[iceman (Mike)]

Rod get the "jupiter 2" program that vindictive started a thread about in the "Tips" forum. It's a great program for findnig out when there's going to be transit events (GRS, moon, shadow).