Venus & Saturn reprocessed.

asimov (John) · #1 20-12-2005, 12:49 AM

From 18th & 19th Dec.

Been doing a bit of experimenting lately with the toucam & one is combining AVIs taken at different exposures to see the effect.

Venus is comprised of 1 400 frame AVI taken at 10 FPS/1/50th sec. & colour adjusted until a deep purple (basically underexposed) on the laptop screen. Another 400 frame AVI was taken straight after but at 1/33 sec & colour on auto. Gain was added until a slight overexposure was achieved.

Stiched both AVIs together in bink & smacker, taken to registax & each frame eyeballed & rejected as necessary.

A total of 200 good frames was stacked. As to the ratio of underexposed versus slightly overexposed frames, I used more underexposed frames. (roughly 70/30)

Saturn received no special treatment. 3 AVIs stiched together & 'eyeball stacked' lol.

RB (Andrew) · #2 20-12-2005, 01:46 AM

These are very nice John,

I really like your Saturn, very good colour on that one.

asimov (John) · #3 20-12-2005, 05:15 AM

Hi Andrew, & thanks mate.

The only trouble I'm having now is coming up with 'concrete toucam settings' for Saturn. Although this is where it becomes an 'art' I believe....there IS no 'official settings' The colour, or lack of natural colour drives me nuts. Every photo of Saturn I take ends up different, although this is the second image that comes close to the same colours as my avatar picture. (my fav.) Astrophotography using an achromatic refractor is far more challenging than I'd bargained for! You reflector boys have it easy!

BTW I hate altering colours by way of software, it's almost like cheating, but a lot of times I will just to get a pleasing image!

iceman (Mike) · #4 20-12-2005, 06:41 AM

Nice work john, they look great. Huge image scale with Venus!

Robert_T · #5 20-12-2005, 07:18 AM

Beautiful! You're Venus shots have a lovely smooth yet still crisp feel to them and how do you get Saturn to have that 3D look - well done.

Know what you mean about colour and acromatic refactors though - my 6 inch looks at me dejectedly from it's box (it no longer enjoys a mount) since the two flashy reflectors have come along, a rejected and bitter mistress

cheers,

davidpretorius · #6 20-12-2005, 08:39 AM

gee you are churning out some fantastic stuff. that venus is so sharp and i love the colour of saturn.

i predict that with big blue up and running in the new year, you will be playing with the big planet boys. (anthony, bird, rumples,ice)

if santa is good for you, hopefully a memory stick will get you mastering registax 3 on the bigger computer as well as you are with registax 2

well done!