Planetary Imaging

[onyx garnet]

sure

or whatever you think is best

[lament turtle]

u wanna have a go at processing and stacking it?

[onyx garnet]

yup

[lament turtle]

ok sure

theres about 1200 frames so its gonna take a bit to get into google drive lmao

but ill start doing it and send the link

[onyx garnet]

alright

[lament turtle]

about 15 mins left

[onyx garnet]

alright

[lament turtle]

sorry it delayed, theres about 10 mins left

[onyx garnet]

all g

[sharp jacinth]

with hazy clouds - not bad

[sharp jacinth]

bit better

[kindred imp]

I literally tried the same target lmao

At the exact same time

[sharp jacinth]

lol it was the only time i had clear skies, damm clouds came back now

[kindred imp]

Yep

[kindred imp]

Without sounding creepy, I think we are in very similar locations

If I remember correctly that is

Yep, just checked the logs, we're like 15 minutes away from each other lol

Also with the same scope lol

[sharp jacinth]

where bouts you then?

[sharp jacinth]

Bout 75mi away lol

[kindred imp]

Ah that's not thaaaat close then

[sharp jacinth]

I'm right on the coast down in SE Kent lol

[kindred imp]

Oh damn

I thought you said Uxbridge lol

[sharp jacinth]

nah im more closer to Dover lol

[kindred imp]

Ah that's alright

[oak shale]

Wooops I just bought a Bresser 127/1900 mak. Great deal and saved about €100 on it

Anyone used this scope for AP?

[white prawn]

I haven't but I was looking at a Basch&Lomb 80/1000 Mak. I was told that b/c of the f/r it was not ideal for AP, that Bresser mak might be a similar situation.

[oak shale]

Ah yeah read something too about it. Pretty narrow fov with imaging

But we'll see. Also cool for visual and I'll keep using my 130pds for AP mainly. Just thought it would be cool for some lunar and planetary imaging

[sharp jacinth]

Planetary will be good with that scope, I got a skywatcher 127 Mak and get good shots of Jupiter and the moon

[kindred imp]

I've got the skywatcher 127mm Maksutov and can also confirm it's very nice

That was the orion nebula in bortle 7 tonight

That was an 8 second exposure on 400 iso

Focal length at 1500mm and the 25mm eyepiece

[oak shale]

Ah the only difference is that the SW is f1500mm and the Bresser 1900mm

[slate juniper]

Had to tape the blue filter on my cam cuz the threads were too smol on the filter xd

[steep apex]

Just the disk of Ganymede?

[hasty hull]

yes

[hasty hull]

80mm travelscope Saturn, 400mm fl

[vital shoal]

Not mine picture but it's edited

[cloud copper]

Guys whats better a levenhuk ra 300N or an explore scientific 254mm tuss tube

Just optics

[steep apex]

The explore scientific truss tube is very questionable for its low price

[steep apex]

Should I stack barlows?

[white prawn]

When I was using my DSLR I got decent results from stacking a couple of 2x. 3x and 2x, not so much. Wouldn't recommend if you have a dedicated planetary cam, it'd be way too much.

[thin aspen]

I stack 2 2x barlows and i get way better results then just one

[nocturne zinc]

Is my view just bad? I feel like I cant really focus that well. Well tbh my view was shit like awlays but I still feel like I cant focus. I use 9.25 with Uranus C

[coarse aspen]

You can if the barlows are high quality

[steep apex]

X-cel

[steep apex]

If you couldn’t get a good focus point then it could be bad transparency

Also use a Barlow

[fading plume]

Better to extend an existing barlow likely. Make sure you don’t break the 7x rule.

[stark abyss]

Saturn by 5 inch scope

Can someone process it

[kindred imp]

What is the 7x rule?

[fading plume]

7x pixel size will spread your telescopes max resolution over 4 pixels.
The end number is ideal F ratio.

[kindred imp]

So you shouldn't go over 7x

Noted

[uncut glade]

Bintel has a calculator for it, curtesy of dylan o donnell

[steep apex]

What is this? It fits in the 2” focuser

Also me new scope

[livid sierra]

2” eyepiece adapter

[livid sierra]

Interesting how every SW Flextube I’ve seen after I got mine does not have the clutches to move the scope manually.

I’m glad mine does have them. I don’t think you can move your scope manually can you? Or at least not supposed to

[steep apex]

I can move it freely, what clutches?

Now I’m just waiting for the power boxes so I can power the goto

[thick heron]

Pretty sure this depends on size. I think the 300P, 350P, and 400P have them.

None of the older models have them.

400P old vs new on right.

My uni has an old Orion XT12G with no clutch and it's a pain.

I expect clutches on my 400P. We'll see what I get when it ships.

[livid sierra]

Yeah that and the difference between older and newer models

LMC’s 350p doesn’t have the clutches

[livid sierra]

Interesting, how do you engage the motors then

On my 300p the motors don’t engage if the clutches aren’t tightened

So you can switch between manual and goto

[thick heron]

They are always engaged.

It's annoying with a 12" solid tube.

[steep apex]

I have to wait to test out the GoTo stuff because I need a battery thingy

[thick heron]

The azimuth rotates easily but it's impossible to turn the altitude key by hand without the tube on.

[livid sierra]

Comet Lover says he can move it freely. How does that work when using the goto then?

[thick heron]

I'm guessing rotating the azimuth without a clutch is just overcoming friction.

I can overcome friction on most of my EQ mounts too just by pushing on them hard enough.

Or forgetting to balance.

200P and 250P have Freedom Find, so they knew people would push them.

I have zero use for this but still want it.

Sky-Watcher USA doesn't even offer it here like half of all Sky-Watcher products.

Honestly, it's probably awful.

[livid sierra]

It sounds fun but yeah it’s probably really unnecessary and indeed pretty awful

[thick heron]

Messier marathon but with only a StarWand for pointing.

No manual pointing or hand controller.

[livid sierra]

Any%?

[thick heron]

I have a friend who did 108/110 this year.

Really, the only challenge is the very early and late stuff.

There is a enough time to take an hour or so break in the middle of the night while you wait for more targets to rise.

I am a very bad visual astronomer but I'm sure bagging the vast majority in one night after a little practice on starhopping is realistic.

[thin aspen]

You could use a dc power plug and an extension cable if you have those.

I personally use it but I don’t know if it gives the scope sufficient voltage.

[remote star]

Jupiter through my untracked 8" dob

[thin aspen]

That’s looks insane! What equipment did you use?

Nvm I saw your other post

[sharp ridge]

Good one 👍

[slate juniper]

Dude HOW?????

[remote star]

Properly white-balanced version

does anyone know why I'm getting a ring around the planet?

[green pebble]

Out of collimation

[remote star]

👍

[sharp ridge]

are you alt az?

[remote star]

yes

[sharp ridge]

how long did you capture and what alt of planet

@remote star

[remote star]

don't know the exact altitude of the planet

[sharp ridge]

i think you have field rotation issues

[remote star]

hold on a sec let me check

[remote star]

could be

[remote star]

length was about 5 minutes in total

[sharp ridge]

ah makes sense, uh try splitting the original vid into 1min chunks in pipp and stack

in 5mins field rotation esp at high alts is huge

[remote star]

yeah alt was very high

[remote star]

so I just stack 1 minute?

[sharp ridge]

yeah, for all 5 parts

then derotate perhaps

[remote star]

sounds good

is there an option in PIPP to split?

[sharp ridge]

hmm, actually try splitting in autostakkert

press "expand" in top left

frames is number of frames in full vid divide 5

between is 0

[remote star]

so if I have 19149 frames, it would be 3829 frames?

[sharp ridge]

yeah

[sharp ridge]

yeah, try it

everything else is normal

[remote star]

and I imagine these blue lines is where each video splits right?

[sharp ridge]

no, its just the percentages 25% 50% 75%

[remote star]

ah ok nvm

[sharp ridge]

dont worry about graph just stack the usual

[topaz elk]

yeah it does look like rotation issues

[steep apex]

Got the battery for my GoTo 10” Dob

Now just gotta wait till it’s clear

[thin aspen]

What battery did you get since I would like to get on too for mine.

[steep apex]

The battery I have isn’t where you just plug the cigarette lighter port into the battery, I had the power plug fiddled a bit to make it work

[steep apex]

Should I get a 685Nm IR filter for Uranus’ poles now?

[steep apex]

Ok so my dovetail slot for my finder scope is slanted and with the screw it pushes the finder scope more to the left making it impossible for proper finder scope alignment

Is there any way I could fix this?

[sharp ridge]

1. Try undoing the screws and nudging the assembly
2. Uh there should be screws on the finderscope itself to move the pointing around

[steep apex]

I’ll try undoing the screws but the screws of the finder scope can’t fix this problem

[fading plume]

3. File the screw holes so they are straight again

[barren dune]

processed some of kens data using manual derotation

those curios about manual derotation dm me on IG same as my discord name

[livid sierra]

Why tho

[somber stratus]

huh

[thick heron]

huh

Didn't realize derotation could be more manual work than it already is.

[thin aspen]

Manual meaning manually putting in the cords and time?

[barren dune]

no

[barren dune]

damian peach manual derotation

its on patreon I can do a demo for yall in a call later perhaps

Manual derotation uses an hour or more of data. get 2 images that are complete (derotated and post processed) with a gap of 45 mins to 80 mins. then run those to jupos to get ims for those. then derotate the 2 frames bieng sure to click save as individual images

from there you will have derotated images with a sharp left side and a sharp right side

pick one from for example the right side (sharpest) to be the master image. then use lasso to select the sharpend opposite side

*(left) side. and do a 20 pixel feathering. copy the selected area then paste onto the master and aling to surface featutres

very rough draft but thats the jist

[coarse aspen]

Actually looks really good

Except for the dark lane running down Jupiter

[steep apex]

What’s up with the line in the middle

[somber stratus]

Seems a lot of effort for not much benefit.

Just edge sharpness, which I have other ways of getting around without an hour of data

Also, that middle line is very distracting tbh

[vapid depot]

lol i had to step back to see it but thats an interesting approach to the whole deroto method

alotta work tho geez

[barren dune]

its really not imo but idk ive been using these softwares for min and can hyper focus on processing

normal derotation of the same data

mostly just helps with clean edges

[sharp ridge]

i think that it looks unnatural cuz of the bright limb, would have to correct that

i do like the sharpness tho

[coarse aspen]

this might be a hot take but this does look better than normal derotation

[steep apex]

Where do you guys check for your predicted seeing for a night?

[fading plume]

outside

[steep apex]

yes of course

like for other nights though

[fading plume]

i use meteoblue and skippysky to try and plan, but 90% of the time it isnt even remotely right.

[steep apex]

I just want to image with my 10" dob already

[sharp ridge]

It never works tho

Just gotta go out and see

Although I can just "feel" the seeing outside

[sharp ridge]

Nah at least weather forecasts are reasonably accurate

L

[main flume]

anyone knows if sv cameras are any good

[somber stratus]

Built different.

[somber stratus]

Looks unnatural though.

Limb darkening as Ken said, and you can just tell the processing has included map computation/manipulation. Personally I think it looks meh, but that's my opinion. Limb is sharper, sure, but at the cost of everything else I don't think it's worth the extra effort.

[near quiver]

they are not.

[steep apex]

They’re cheap for a reason

[prisma heron]

same here

[oak shale]

Just came in the mail

Last week I saw a video mentioning how to calculate the optimal pixels/camera for planetary. I just cannot find the video right now. Does anyone know where I can find this tool?

[vapid depot]

https://astronomy.tools/

[vapid depot]

It’s about 5-7x pixel size that you want the f/ to be at though

[kindred imp]

What mount is that?

[oak shale]

Eq5 pro goto yes

[oak shale]

Ah that's it, thanks

[vital shoal]

Isn't that Chromatic aberration beacause you can easily delete it

[remote star]

I don't think it is... usually chromatic aberration is a bright red, green, or blue

and that blue you see around is from atmospheric distortion

because I don't have an ADC

[kindred imp]

nice, how heavy is the scope?

[steep apex]

Anyone online that can help me collimate?

[oak shale]

Spec said 3.4 kg

Feels heavier than the 130pds

Which is 4 kg haha

[white prawn]

@steep apex Eh, I found this that I captured last year w/ the SV105 that I had. I had the gain and light set way too high and had to correct in post, but I couldn't correct the fact that I wasn't collimated. My troubles were that it kept crashing the software, and after speaking w/ @fading plume last night I might have figured out why. Maybe they've updated firmware since then, if so then eh not bad I guess? Maybe if I had a little bit more time with it I could have done a little better but "not horrible, I suppose" if all you have is $60 to get your foot in the door with planetary then 🤷‍♂️

TBH I kind of wish I had that one for a little longer so that I would be more proficient with my ASI585 right out the gate.

[steep apex]

Yeah not bad, I’ve seen a little bit of decent results with the SVBONY planetary cameras

also are these the screws to move the spider vanes for collimation?

[coarse aspen]

yes those move the spider vanes

dont touch them

especially as you don't have a collimation tool

[steep apex]

Yeah I won’t, I’ll check collimation via bright star and then I’ll see my collimation tool options again

Looking at Cheshire collimators, Are the longer version and shorter version good same for use or is one better than the other?

[coarse aspen]

never used a cheshire, but i think the longer version is prob better

i use a basic old collimation cap

[steep apex]

The best option I had was the Orion collimation cap and it’s 10$ with 22$ shipping and it’ll come within like a week and a half, everything else 2+ weeks

[coarse aspen]

ok yeah no get a cheshire

its just a collimation cap with crosshairs

secondary can be collimated well with a cheshire. primary you will collimate under the stars with sharpcap

goto dob?

[steep apex]

Yeah

[coarse aspen]

then collimating primary will be easier under the stars

[steep apex]

From my memory I think primary is tilted

[coarse aspen]

what?

[steep apex]

Nvm idk something about tilt and flare

[coarse aspen]

ye idk what you mean

but the goal is move screws until centered

and move the correct screws

[kindred imp]

https://tenor.com/view/взгляд-2000-ярдов-война-war-soldier-gif-3632617944134077161

[white prawn]

Yeah, that's the important part.

[oak shale]

Not that bad though

What's your setup?

[kindred imp]

Skywatcher 127mm Maksutov (FL 1500mm)
Standard az GoTo mount
Nikon DSLR 3310, sometimes phone + Celestron NexYZ

I'm trying to save up for a Zwo Asi 585MC colour because that will help with planetary

[steep apex]

Should I collimate while my telescope is pointed at a star and I have my camera on with high power?

Or is that not a good idea

[coarse aspen]

sounds good if the star is bright enough

[steep apex]

Also what’s the rule with good seeing and bad seeing for capture settings? I know it’s something with fps n stuff

[fading plume]

Uranus C if possible, a little bit better.

[white prawn]

You know, if I get another planetary Camera, it's going to be a Uranus-C

[coarse aspen]

why?

you have an asi585mc, that would be a huge waste to upgrade

"upgrade"

[white prawn]

Where did I say "replace"? 😁

I'd love to have a DSO rig going while doing a planetary image session ... would require 2 cameras

[coarse aspen]

ohh

For DSO ares c is better

[white prawn]

😐 At that price point, it had better be.

[coarse aspen]

uranus c is still good though

[kindred imp]

How so, are they not the same sensor?

[coarse aspen]

they are the same sensor, but some minor driver differences and build afaik

difference between the 2 cams is negligble

[sharp ridge]

Uranus-c pro

[fading plume]

They are but the Uranus has better support hardware, so less noise and a few other things.

Also better passive cooling ability and better build quality

[kindred imp]

Alright, I'll look into it thanks

[oak shale]

So Uranus c also good for DSO? Looking into it but also very happy with my D5300 for dso

Unmodded though

[coarse aspen]

Its great for DSO, at least 2x better than any DSLR it's so ridiculously sensitive

And low noise

[thin aspen]

would neptune 664c be good just lower fov

[oak shale]

Sound promising then, isn't cooled though right?

[coarse aspen]

30s sub

[coarse aspen]

There's a cooled version, I used the uncooled one

[coarse aspen]

(Processed)

#1181798279772635176 message

[oak shale]

Oh that's good

How's your tracking on the eq3?

[coarse aspen]

Single subs on horsehead and flame fresh out of nina

[coarse aspen]

Good surprisingly

[oak shale]

Cool, did the goto kit yourself?

[coarse aspen]

Yes, diy

[oak shale]

And guided?

[coarse aspen]

No

Unguided

[oak shale]

Ah ok

[coarse aspen]

I do 60s exposure now

[oak shale]

Cool though, looking good

Haha I use the svbony 165 and a 105 for guiding

Super budget

[coarse aspen]

I'll be getting guiding soon

Using an SV106 guide scope and ceres C

[oak shale]

Cool, much better I think

Had the sv105 laying around so tried it out and it worked surprisingly

Exposures of 3 minutes on eq5 pro goto now

Have to work on the calibration though. Have not payed much attention to it yet

[jolly leaf]

pff my 8in newt is over 2m when on its mount

[cloud copper]

Guys, are 12" dobsonian telescopes good for planetary?

I will get one second hand at just 630 euros

Its from omegon

Omegon advanced x 304/1500

And I already have a planetry cam, ceres-c imx224

Will it be a good setup?

[white prawn]

Yes absolutely

[white prawn]

I don’t see why not. I don’t have that specific camera though

[vapid depot]

yeah you'll be limited hard through manual tracking but itll work

need a barlow lens too

something like a 2.5 or 3x. small chip on the imx224 makes things a bit rough in terms of FOV for manual

[cloud copper]

Yea, ik thats why im making an eq platform

[vapid depot]

oh nice

i almost went that route but deep space astro interests made me get an eq mount and go that direction in the time being

[cloud copper]

I already have a gso 2.5x barlow, is it good?

[vapid depot]

recently got a c9.25 to join bigger aperture club lol

yeah that should do.

lol i use a $20 cheapo 2x barlow lens on my sct and dob when I had that

[cloud copper]

Im thinking of deepsky but it is more expensive and I dont realy have a big buget because im only 15 XD

[cloud copper]

Oh lol, this barlow is a quite good one, spent like 80 euros on it

[vapid depot]

yeah definitely good enough

that was something I was eyeing before I upgraded my camera, which has smaller pixels

you typically want to be around 5-7x the pixel size for your f/ratio. and barlows help you do that

[cloud copper]

Its hereee

The 12"

Its a beast

[high hull]

hehe big lad

[cloud copper]

Yess

[steep apex]

Have fun with that

[cloud copper]

Thanks, i will for sure

[steep apex]

Transparency turned bad as soon as I put my camera in

[white prawn]

Ooof I hate when that happens

[steep apex]

Yeah and when I could’ve gotten Ganymede detail too

But seeing through the 10” visually was like eye candy, I saw actual detail in Jupiter for the first time

[white prawn]

I finally got a decent image of Jupiter. I haven't shared it here yet.

Side note I need tips on WinJUPOS. Someone said he processes just a little bit before sending to WinJupos, but how much is "a little"? Like, RGB Balance/Align, wavelet?

[white prawn]

Also that's great, I remember seeing Jupiter/Saturn first time visually with the 8" and it was great, I imagine that w/ a 10" would be a bit better. 🙂

[steep apex]

The only thing I’ve heard before derotating in winjupos is wavelets

[white prawn]

So do a complete wavelet fix before WinJUPOS.

[steep apex]

Yeah that’s the only thing I’ve heard but try get some other person to tell there might be something else

[white prawn]

I imagine that wavelets are easier to work with if the RGB is set

[heavy mirage]

Light wavelets and rgb align on raw stacks -> derotate in winjupos and save as tif -> final wavelets, color calibration and denoise on winjupos derotation -> save as png

I may be wrong but you don't need to do color calibration before winjupos. I think to me the best way to explain is that you want to boost the snr in the raw images

[thin aspen]

Hi, just saw your YouTube channel and saw your deep sky pictures. Did you capture them with your 10inch goto dob? If so what process did you go through?

[white prawn]

Can you define "light wavelets"? Like halfway to what would be final? A quarter of the way?

[vapid depot]

i do it to where noise is definitely not overtaking the image

[heavy mirage]

Maybe somewhere around there

[sharp ridge]

Natural wavelet, rgb balance, levels adjustment, all in astrosurface batch tool

[white prawn]

My HF wavelet slider is size 5/ strength 200 practically nothing on the LF wavelets for it to come out. I'm going to share my latest Jupiter process in a minute I think. Maybe I need to start touching HF set? Or maybe not, based on what Ken said.

[white prawn]

If I'm going to be doing this on the regular, and 20 images is enough work, I think I'll become familiar w/ the batch tool pretty quickly. 😐 😁

[heavy mirage]

Yes those were captured with the dob. The process is generally this: shoot a bunch of 3 minute livestacks with 1 second subs in Sharpcap -> stack the livestacks in DSS -> final color calibration, sharpening, denoise, star mask if necassary, etc ,etc

[sharp ridge]

only hf is required

[white prawn]

I remember someone said that, thank you.

[thin aspen]

Thanks. How do you get the goto to track that accurately?

[heavy mirage]

Well it doesn't have great tracking which is why I used 1 second exposures, I typically have to recenter the target in the FOV every 5-10 minutes. But for best results I ensure my dob base is level using a digital level and do 2 or 3 star alignment.

[thin aspen]

Could you use platesolving for better tracking?

[heavy mirage]

Not sure

[frozen hound]

that's a hell of an image 👍👍👍

certainly one of the best I've seen of Jupy

[cloud copper]

first light with the 12'' dob
used a ceres-c with an uv ir cut filter
stacked 1500 frames
hand tracking a big dob is hell XD

[cloud copper]

Guys, what barlows or what stuff do you use to make your planets look so big, I use a gso 2.5x on my 1500 fl dob and it still looks small

[dark cargo]

Ken is using a 16" dob so the planet can be really big on the sensor due to the better max resolution of the scope, so keep that in mind(you'd also need insane seeing to take advantage of that).

You can use extension tubes to place the camera further away from the barlow to make it more powerful(eg turn 2x into 4x). You can figure out what barlow power you want with this formula: 5(or 7 as maxish) times pixel size in um divided by focal ratio of the telescope.

[cloud copper]

I am using a 12" dob so I should get good and big results. And what extension tubes should I use?

[dark cargo]

This is roughly the max size you could get with an 8" dob, 280 ish pixels across. had to extend a 2x barlow into a 4x with around 10cm of extension tubes to get my 600D to work.

[dark cargo]

What camera are you using? I used 3D printed ones for stupid cheap which did work. You can buy some 1.25" metal extensions through, ideally ones that are flocked/baffled. Just to make sure no internal reflections happen, and that it doesn't sag(probably not a big issue with an astrocam).

[dark cargo]

You would have to wait for some good seeing to take advantage of it's full potential through... planet ideally should look very still with an eyepiece at max magnification. I think you can get away with worse conditons if you have an astrocam

[cloud copper]

Like this?

@dark cargo

[dark cargo]

Pretty much, not sure if you can unscrew the silver part from the GSO to leave just the barlow lens with a thread you can screw into an extension tube. but that would work as well.

[cloud copper]

I can but it doesnt fit

[dark cargo]

the imx224 in the ceres does have fairly large 3.75um pixels, so the max barlow in your case is around a 5.25x, while the gso is more like a 2.3x as is. Probably need around 8-10cm of extensions?

[cloud copper]

Will my scope reach focus?

[dark cargo]

most likely, I think the barlow would actually stick out fairly far, I have to rack my focuser almost the way out to focus.(can just slide the barlow a bit up if that happens)

[cloud copper]

couldnt I just buy a nice 5x barlow

or a 2x and stack it with the 2.5x

[dark cargo]

Unless you get a televue or something, I think the gso would be better with extensions. The barlow would be long anyways/

[cloud copper]

could you give me a link where I could buy extension rings

I have a 3d printer so I could print one, if I can find a model online

[livid sierra]

Keep in mind the higher your magnification the harder it gets to handtrack

[dark cargo]

thats easy then, i even made an openSCAD file for custom length ones. You can find a bunch on thingyverse etc

[cloud copper]

could you send me a file

I cant find any online

[dark cargo]

Heres a really simple one, can make a custom one in openSCAD. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2015811 Only issue is that you'd have to sand the inside a bit to get the camera nosepiece to fit

I did make my own with a captive nut for a way to hold the camera properly, but as usual I cannot find it

[cloud copper]

thanks

how long is the long one XD

[dark cargo]

Here is the one I made for open scad, just have to edit the top parameters. Uses an m4 nut/screw if you want some friction to hold the camera, not sure about the tolerances through, never ended up printing this one as I got some metal ones for almost free.

[cloud copper]

thanks

[cloud copper]

@dark cargo is this good?

[oak shale]

first time there were little gaps between clouds in weeks. Tried out the new mak but when I found a proper setup clouds rolled in again. This is with a DSLR though. At least a little bit of detail

When I tried it out with the sv105 my fov was very nice. Io and Europa just fitted in. Have to power up the mount and track it next time though

[dark cargo]

Sure, might have some internal reflections through, could paint the inside of the tube.

Try measuring the diameter of jupiter in pixels with that setup, then use the calc i linked before to figure out your effective focal length. It will be a pain to track planets at that fl, so make sure your finderscope is well aligned and your mount's movements are smooth.

[dark cargo]

do try using a barlow with the dslr. Also try to test and see what video resolution on the camera gives you the same or similar size planets as in a raw picture. If they are different you are going to lose some detail due to resampling from the sensor(1 pixel on video is not 1 pixel from the sensor).

[signal holly]

This is just 1 of 21 photos i took last night of Jupiter. I had to make the photo monochrome to get rid of the green moon filter i was using (top). Does anyone know how i can stack them? they are all stacking all over the place (bottom). Also does anyone have any tips for future photos of Jupiter?

[whole osprey]

when it comes to imaging planets it is usually better to take a video instead of a bunch of exposures

[signal holly]

thanks, i'll start taking videos.

[dark cargo]

green moon filter? Try using PIPP(https://web.archive.org/web/20230531163522/https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/downloads The download is archived here), to get it to crop and center the planet in the frame so autostakkert can stack it easier.

[signal holly]

it came with a national geographic kit and was the only thing that would allow my camera to show details.

[dark cargo]

70/700 scope? You should ideally reduce the shutter/exposure speed to do that, if it doesn't change how bright things are you have to turn off auto exposure or auto iso settings.

[signal holly]

910mm focal length if that is what you are asking. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1308494-REG/celestron_22095_14_nexstar_90_gt_computerized.html/reviews

[dark cargo]

aah ok, so it's not a national geographic scope, which is a good thing. 90mm F10 refractor should be pretty capable, not much chromatic abberation and decent aperture.

[signal holly]

abberation like in this?

also i have tried stacking someone's data in autostakkert but it just turns out black

[dark cargo]

Yep the red and blue is chromatic aberration, a faster refractor would have a lot more. Might just be the atmosphere splitting up light a bit.

[signal holly]

ok, so would cloudiness and haze worsen this?

[dark cargo]

No, it gets worse the lower altitude the planet is as light from the planet goes through more of the atmosphere. Above 30 degrees is best, as you are only imaging through two atmospheres worth of air, while it quickly increases the lower you go

[dark cargo]

its definetly overexposed through, so you'd need to lower the shutter/exposure time to get the bands to show up. What camera are you using?

[signal holly]

a 10 year old nikkon d3300

[signal holly]

Jupiter had barely even risen at the time of that photo, that makes so muich sense thanbks

[signal holly]

also do you have any idea why every time i stack the photo is black

nevermind i accidentally checked a random setting

[dark cargo]

make sure to turn auto ISO setting as well

[dark cargo]

not sure what it was, but try to keep to the default settings for now

[high hull]

tried processing it, seems very undersampled

[oak shale]

Thanks for taking the time to do that, yes pixel size on the dslr I used is 4.78 and the scope is f15

Svbony 105 is 2.9 so that's better

Maybe I'll buy a focal reducer soon.

[white prawn]

You won't need it for planetary.

[oak shale]

Ok good to know then

[white prawn]

In fact, if your goal is planetary, I would suggest against a focal reducer.

Barlow lens on the other hand, yes.

[oak shale]

Ok good to know then

[oak shale]

Yeah I only have one of those way to cheap Barlows. Tried it yesterday but couldn't find Jupiter anymore and couldn't focus yet. But the clouds we're annoying too

[white prawn]

Ah, the "here's your plastic thing that we're going to call a Barlow put into the same box as your scope."

Sucks as a Barlow, too light to use as a paperweight, I used to say to seal it and use as a small glass but ... no. Just a complete waste of material. If you're really good maybe you can get a couple of watch batteries, some wire, and some LEDs to make a small light.

[signal holly]

thanks. by the way, would a 2x barlow lens, or something of the sort be better for focussing at higher magnifications?

[dark cargo]

huh that should only change how bright the planet is, at 70% it should have been fine.

[signal holly]

that's weird, when i turned off the setting everything worked all of a sudden

[dark cargo]

Barlow would make it harder to focus, as you need to be more precise, but it would make the planet bigger in the image which is what you want.

[signal holly]

sweet. I may be fully wrong but is there a way to focus the camera automatically, or through a computer rather than twisting a knob which shakes the telescope?

[dark cargo]

You'd need to have a motor turn that knob for you, an easier option is to get a bahtinov mask(stupid cheap to 3D print or even make out of cardboard), makes it a lot easier to tell when you are focused(have to do it on a star then move back to the planet).

proper focus is achieved when the sensor is a certain distance from the telescope lens, so you have to change that distance somehow.

[signal holly]

so the bahtinov mask needs to have the same diametre as the telescope right?

https://skeye.rocks/tools/mask/

would this work?

[dark cargo]

Yep, you can either print the svg to cut out in cardboard, or 3D print the stl file.

[steep apex]

[signal holly]

i took lots of videos but have to go to bed now

hopefully i can show you tommorow

[signal holly]

Unedited stack of the top 50% of 3100 frames

[thick heron]

I would like to apologize in advance to @barren dune for whatever poor weather comes with this shipment.

[steep apex]

When my 10” came in I had a week of clouds after

[steep apex]

Snek pek

Ft Io and its trailing shadow

[signal holly]

dayum

[thin aspen]

That’s crazy hopefully I can match that if I get a planetary camera

How was the seeing?

[steep apex]

7.5/10

[thin aspen]

How do you find the tracking cause mine seems to drift of about every 2mins

[steep apex]

I try and put the most accurate stuff for my tracking and usually it drifts off a teeny bit but enough to stay inside the ROI box so I can record

[uncut glade]

Io pole details

Nice contrast on the clouds, rare to get it that clearly

[oak shale]

Would you guys try to shoot with this type of weather? Last 2 months was terrible and I'm getting desperate

[livid sierra]

By the looks of it I doubt you’re even going to have a glimpse of clear sky

[oak shale]

Yeah feel the same. Forecast got a little bit better though. I'll peek outside just to be sure

[white prawn]

I'd at least check the sky and where the clouds were and plan accordingly.

[white prawn]

@coarse aspen I'm still timed on the solar system pics ... I didn't properly export the image so I'm adjusting ...

[oak shale]

Let's say Santa asked me to choose a Barlow for around €60/70. What would be your choice or advise?

[white prawn]

I had an Astromania 3x for about that price. No complaints, ask @near quiver how it's working out for him.

[oak shale]

Looks like that one is not for sale in nl or eu.. have my eye on this Omegon 2x for about €100. All positive reviews and almost no ca

Bit more expensive though haha

[cloud copper]

What could I buy to upgrade my images with 100 euros max

I have a gso barlow 2.5

And a ceres c with uv ir cut filter

[dark cargo]

You have a 12" dob right? Are you using that barlow with any extension tubes?

[cloud copper]

No

[dark cargo]

what focal length is the dob?

[cloud copper]

1500mm

Not much

[dark cargo]

with your setup if you use this formula: 5(7 max) times pixel size in um divided by focal ratio = barlow power you want you get to 3.75x-5.25x

[dark cargo]

the further you put the camera from the barlow the more powerful the barlow becomes, so you could turn the 2.3xish gso into a 3x or 5x with enough extension tubes.

[cloud copper]

But idt it will reach focus

[dark cargo]

basically if you have very good seeing, using that barlow power would allow you to take full advatage of the resolution that that scope can give you

[dark cargo]

It should be able to, pretty sure it pushes the barlow to be further out from the focuser to get into focus.

[cloud copper]

And the extension tube should be placed between the barlow and the camera?

[dark cargo]

https://www.astropix.com/html/astrophotography/astrophotography-calculators.html#eflap you can calculate the effective focal length(and therefore the barlow power) using this formula "Effective Focal Length from
an Object's Size in an Image" just look up on stellarium what angular size the planet is when you take the image, just measure the diameter of it in pixels and you are done

Realistically you probably can't use the max barlow power, so 4x should be fine outside of really really good nights of seeing. Also here is a rough chart of the increase in magnification of extending some televue barlows

Does depend on the barlow ofc, so you have to test it. But I'd guess 8cm of extension tubes would get you to ~3.5x?

You could ofc just buy a 4x barlow, but I have no idea which ones would be actually good for the price. and more importantly better than the gso one you already have

[cloud copper]

Wouldnt it get to about 4x?

The gso i have is good, right?

[dark cargo]

Not sure, you could calculate it but you'd need to know the barlows focal length. GSO 2.5x should be good afaik

[dark cargo]

that site i linked before has a calculator for extending barlows, so if you measure the fl of the barlow somehow you could use it

[cloud copper]

But I have an extension tube that I 3d printed,tested it and it couldnt reach focus cause I have a low profile focuser

[dark cargo]

Barlow had to be closer to the tube to focus? Might be able to unscrew the lens cell from the tube, then somehow add an extension between the two.

[cloud copper]

Wdym?

[dark cargo]

The closer to focuser part?

[cloud copper]

The other part XD

[dark cargo]

Basically the gso has the silver tube, which I assume holds all the actual glass for the barlow lens. It has some thread to connect to the thicker tube, could get or make an extension tube to put inbetween those two so barlow lens can be closer into the focuser.

[cloud copper]

Thanks

Ill try that

[steep apex]

Jupiter has a lot of disturbances in the northern band as well as the growing storm to the left of the GRS

Cc Eric sussenbach

[oak shale]

First time really using my mak. Finally a clear evening. This is with a cheapo svbony 105

Going straight in for a mosaic

After this Saturnus and Jupiter haha

[oak shale]

loads of diffrent things to try out but here is the first. cheap cam, cheap barlow but its something

[brisk yacht]

what scope and cam?

[oak shale]

Bresser 127/1900 and svbony 105

[oak shale]

One of those €5 Barlows in between though.

[brisk yacht]

what barlow?

[oak shale]

Ehm brandless I guess. 2x

[brisk yacht]

you should get a better camera

you have like 3800 mm of focal length

[oak shale]

Yep I know haha

[brisk yacht]

yeah thats the thing holding you back from getting way better images of planets

[oak shale]

Yeah saving to buy one. Wanted to try planetary so invested in the mak. The Nikon d5300 I'm working with is good for DSO but the Barlow sucks too much to use the Nikon with somehow

[brisk yacht]

if you are on a small budget then ill recommend you get asi 224 mc

[oak shale]

Getting a better Barlow for Christmas and will try the Nikon first. Otherwise I'll Invest in a cam

[oak shale]

Thanks for the tip

[brisk yacht]

if you have a bigger budget ill recommend you getting something like asi 178 mc or asi 585 mc (i have asi 585 mc but i couldnt test it due to clouds and terrible seeing conditions but ive seen some pics in #older_system_pics )

#older_system_pics message

look at this pic

its at 3000 mm focal length

and the person used asi 585 mc

[oak shale]

Ah that's cool

I'll look into the cams you recommended. Thanks

Did you ever try a mosaic of the moon?

[brisk yacht]

yes but it was with a different cam

well i actually have made a mosaic with the asi 585 mc but its pretty garbage compared to the old cam's moon mosaic because i only took a picture, no stacking, i took it through a window 💀 and finally the seeing was bad

just 2 panels because thats how wide the fov is

i have taken a closer view of the moon through it where i actually did stack

hold up...

does this count as planetary?

[oak shale]

This looks pretty promising to me with such a shitty cam

From a 1 minute video. About 5 procent stacked

[oak shale]

well shit, harder than i thought

wish i had photoshop

[sharp jacinth]

Try Autostitch - it's free and really easy to use (upload your pics and press Go) - I used it on a 43pic moon mosaic and it worked really good

[thick heron]

What could it be?

[sharp jacinth]

I'm gonna say a ton of spent money all wrapped up ready for Xmas 😂

[cobalt viper]

a mount

it says skywatcher on two of the boxes

[thick heron]

But is it a mount?

Or is it something more?

[thick heron]

You know it's a team lift when there is a team of team lift stickers to indicate a team is needed to lift the team lift.

[brisk yacht]

mount

[thick heron]

The bottom box is pretty short and wide. What could possibly fit in there? 🤔

[steep apex]

Your 400P? and a hefty load of clouds?

[uncut glade]

Just in time for a nationwide cold front

[thick heron]

My oversized R2-D2 has been assembled in the dining astronomy room!

[remote dragon]

someone's gonna have fun i see

[oak shale]

Ohhh thanks, didn't see this one yet

[frozen hound]

is that a C9 in the background?

damn

that dob is huge lol

[kind orchid]

holy hell thats amazing

[kind orchid]

ive been using the uranus which is 585

[main flume]

its an okay quality i guess...

[thick heron]

That is an EdgeHD 11.

My dad is currently using it for planetary imaging.

EdgeHD 14 is just outside frame sitting in the wagon.

[thin aspen]

how much is it?

[frozen hound]

DAAAAAAAMN

I would like to have a dad with expensive telescopes too lol

you are gigachad

[whole osprey]

I took this with a 6" dob and my phone, I used pip, autostackert, and regi stax to process, does anyone know how I can improve the quality in my planetary images?

[signal holly]

i use the sharpened option on blend 0%

this creates a sharpened and non sharpened version

*autostakkert btw

[whole osprey]

ok, thanks.

[signal holly]

heres the difference for me

screenshots of the tif files sorry i didnt convert

[fading plume]

Registax or astrosurface wavelets

Don’t use autostakkert sharpen. It’s only good for finding ideal %

[whole osprey]

much better result now, it looks a lot sharper.

discord obliterates the image on desktop though.

[onyx garnet]

yeah there's a huge diff

[sharp ridge]

nice, how in depth is it?

[alpine escarp]

Its a very good book!

and its very long aswell

Here is a random page

It talks about filters, processing, different methods for different planets, etc

worth checking out

cat also loves it

[proper oyster]

Ill save dat i have a feel this will be very use full for me

[white prawn]

I got it a little while back, working my way through reading it. Yeah, it's really in-depth.

[thick heron]

I have it too and it's an in-depth book. For me it's great to have as an occasional sanity check.

[tiny topaz]

Can anyone help me understand why I have a lack of colour as well as a very evident ring around Jupiter when processing

[signal holly]

can someone join the speak easy and help me process jupiter?

[peak lance]

I think its called an onion ring. Caused by oversharpening

[tiny topaz]

Oh okay because out of autostakkert I have one of the options as stacking 15% so I’ll try to stack the un stacked one and see how it does, thank you again

[signal holly]

maybe you checked sharpen?

that also sharpens it heaps

sometimes it is too much

[tiny topaz]

Yeah I usually do a sharpened and normalize stack and then I usually work on the stacked one but I guess I should stick to working on the unstacked one in registax

[signal holly]

maybe

[fading plume]

You should always stack

Then sharpen the stack

Don’t use autostakkert sharpen

[kind orchid]

y'all's, should i drizzle each panel of a lunar mosaic or is that silly

[tiny topaz]

Oh okay I’ve been mainly going off of autostakkerts sharpen but now I’ll make sure to avoid that

[clear pier]

hey guys quick question, how many 2 minute captures of jupiter should i get tonight to ideally utilize winjupos? also my framerate is quite low at about 42 since i don't use an roi to the pain of untracked and because im untracked im not going to be recording the planet for the whole 2 minutes, thanks!

[thin aspen]

@steep apex srry for the ping but your the only other 10inch goto on the server I can think of. Does your scope have balance issues cause mine needs a counterweight and was wondering if that’s normal?

[sharp ridge]

Ask j3rry

[steep apex]

I don’t have balance issues with my scope, maybe j3rry would have experience in that?

[white prawn]

As many as you can. I recently imaged Jupiter with 20 2min videos.

My feet were starting to get pretty cold so I came in

[clear pier]

the thing is recently i did try one and the issue was that i got really weird artifacts

this was the last time i did it

[white prawn]

Mine didn't? Maybe I got lucky though?

[steep apex]

Should I get player one UVenus filter?

[white prawn]

🤷

I'm a little beside myself about getting filters in general with my ADC ... or specialty filters especially.

The ADC says that when making adjustments one should NOT have a filter. So after getting it adjusted I've got to yank my camera, attach the filter, put the camera back, and hope that my planet didn't move too much in the meantime. Because my finder scope is doubly useless.

That said, I know that filters can improve imaging, and for Venus you kinda ... really need that filter because of the clouds.

I know, not much help, just a shrug and a long-winded "dunno." But info?

[thick heron]

Santa brought me poor seeing for my first light with the 400P. 🎅

[somber stratus]

or is it the optics? says at least one part of everyone's mind

[thick heron]

Merry Christmas to you too Tom. 🎄

Did check for astigmatism and there is none.

[somber stratus]

yeah, was joking about how you never truly know how good the mirrors are without perfect seeing

I always had a subtle doubt in my mind anyway, until I had decent conditions

[somber stratus]

merry xmas

[thick heron]

With the winter jetstream I may as well just use the scope as a Christmas tree.

[brisk yacht]

i can finnaly say that one of my images is okay compared to enthan chappel's image

[brisk yacht]

LOL

[craggy wasp]

Filmed this with my phone

[steep apex]

http://www.damianpeach.com/jup23.htm Damian peach released some of his Jup images from 2023

[coarse aspen]

wow the red spot used to be so wide, thats crazy

[steep apex]

What’s also crazy is the image that the lick obs got in 1891

[coarse aspen]

pretty uncanny honestly

[thick heron]

Interesting to see the North & South Equatorial Belts were gray in 1961. Never seen any color besides brown.

[coarse aspen]

how did they get the color for 1891 image?

[thick heron]

They photographed through multiple filters onto photographic plates like we do with monochrome CMOS cameras now.

I'm guessing they didn't make color images back then but it would've been useful for detecting color changes over time.

[oak shale]

Got a explore scientific 2x focal extender for Christmas! So for my mak 1900mm x 2 = 3800 : 127mm = 29.9 and my d5300 is 3.9um x 7 = 27.3. would this be ok for photography?

I'm also getting a sv305 pro. Which is at 2.9 um x 7 is 20.3. what can I do to make this combination better?

[oak shale]

Or 2.9x5 is 14.5 though, dunno if the 5x or 7x is better and why

[cloud copper]

DUUUUDE I have realy good seeing rn but my collimation is baddd

I lost soo many detail beacuse of bad collimation

[steep apex]

I cannot count the endless amount of perfect seeing condition nights wasted due to clouds

And to make it better, the El estupido niño jetstream is attracting more clouds to my location more than ever

[cloud copper]

took this rn with my 12"

lost sooo many details due to bad collimation

[steep apex]

I had to collimate my 10” first, I tested it on Jupiter and it was blurry as crap

[cloud copper]

Same

I collimated it today with a collimation cap

It looked perfect but it wasnt

Same picture but processed a bit better

[steep apex]

Is it worth it going for clouds on venus with 10 inches of aperture?

planning on getting a UVENUS filter

[white prawn]

TBH it would probably be worth it to see what could be done 2/8"

with 8" goodness

[steep apex]

I could also get the CH4 Methane Band filter

[white prawn]

Isn't Uranus or Neptune covered in methane?

[steep apex]

Don't know

[white prawn]

contains ice particles which include methane

[steep apex]

Yeah, you can see the poles with IR Filters

[sharp ridge]

Yes

[white prawn]

That's the tl;dr version of what I said 😄

[steep apex]

wish I could derotate, you could combine Methane band and IR to get a pretty nice image

[sharp ridge]

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/691881-venus-in-uv-8-newt-asi183mm/

[white prawn]

I ... have some hand-written instructions that I planned to type. They're based off of a video done by @vapid depot

[vapid depot]

lol feel honored but def better tutorials out there

Glad I’m a starting point or whatever 🙂

[white prawn]

Definitely so.

My thing is that I couldn't get the stacks to show a date/time and I had to manually enter all of the times. Was not impressed by that feature. 😕

PIPP "extract date/time" feature didn't work. And no way to directly input where its needed.

[thick heron]

Another night of poor seeing but it's good to learn the scope before a good night comes around.

[fading plume]

Nice

[white prawn]

Not bad for poor seeing. I feel like my poor seeing nights come out worse. Then again I'm comparing my equip to larger equip.

[frosty narwhal]

i dare someone in this server to try to get mercury

[livid sierra]

#older_system_pics message challenge accepted and completed

Other people have done it too

[frosty narwhal]

ok

[frosty narwhal]

it's crazy getting even slight detail on jupiter's moons, nice job

[steep apex]

No fair yesterday the clouds blocked me from that view

[steep apex]

You guys should give me some clear skies I’m struggling with El estupido nino here

[thin aspen]

the uk is being hit with so many storms making the seeing (when there are no clouds rarely!) like a swimming pool.....

[coarse aspen]

#older_system_pics message

#older_system_pics message

#older_system_pics message

#older_system_pics message

[thick heron]

Even in not ideal conditions it is possible with an 11” telescope.

[steep apex]

CH4 Methane band or UVenus Filter?

[thick heron]

Apples to Oranges IMO.

What do you want to do more?

[hasty hull]

These were (uv)RGB with ma 6” dob using the w47 filter strat so yeah go nuts

2nd one is way too cooked I wish I still had that data set

[cursive inlet]

8” with the similar filter setup as willaf above

I’d say go for it, Venus is a really cool target

[kindred imp]

Do you need a solar filter for Mercury?

[uncut glade]

NO

[frosty narwhal]

idk i'm new

[uncut glade]

Anyway, no you don’t need a solar filter for mercury.

It should have a separation of a few degrees so just be careful, keep your scope in the shadows to play it safe

If you’re tracked, cover your finder scope and just make sure it’s centered properly.

[frosty narwhal]

why would you respond to that then

[uncut glade]

I see I was the jerk mb, didn’t see response.

Sorry about that

[frosty narwhal]

mean either

idc

[kindred imp]

So I don't need a solar filter to observe Mercury, I just have to be careful?

[uncut glade]

Yep

If you need a solar filter something has gone unbelievably wrong

[kindred imp]

That is good to know, when is the best time to safely observe it?

[high hull]

after sunset or before sunrise, same as any other planet really

if your tracking is good and it isnt too close to the sun you can continue after the sun has risen

although i also havent observed mercury with a telescope so take that with sodium overdose levels of salt

[uncut glade]

I’ve had my best results after sunset, guaranteed no sun, but sky is turbulent. Sunrise has better conditions but is scarier

[kindred imp]

I'll take the safer option, thank you both @high hull

[coarse aspen]

Wait for the right time of year and right part of orbit

January 9th 2024 roughly is a great time to view mercury in my location, far from the sun

Safe distance in the morning right before sunrise

[hasty hull]

If you are going for it in the daylight, try when it’s near perihelion. Surface brightness will be somewhat comparable to Venus. Although if it’s in a crescent phase it is nearly impossible to see for some reason so wait for gibbous

[kindred imp]

These are some good tips, thank you very much

[nocturne zinc]

Hey all, finally had decent seeing and this is from C 9.25 together with Uranus-C

I remember reading about stacking processed images together to get more details, is that a thing or am I trippin?

This image is stacked with autostakkert and then edited in registax 6

[main flume]

Is that skyliner 400p?

i have looked through a 8" one

[thin aspen]

WinJupos stacks processed stacks together when planet rotation becomes an issue. Maybe that’s what you saw?

[cloud copper]

whats up with this ?

why do I have thoes circles arownd jupiter

[kindred imp]

i get the same artifacts, i have no idea what causes it. Deringing it and denoising it doesnt fix it either so i'd love to know a fix

[cloud copper]

now im tring to stack in autostackert

mabey astrosurface is the problem

[kindred imp]

i used autostakkert and get that

[cloud copper]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o_soHeBFbnhaMVXmGQF9AHVK2A44USri/view?usp=sharing

this is my data with the artifacts

can someone try to process it

mabey its a problem at my side

[thick heron]

What does your histogram peak at? Onion rings usually mean the raw capture is too dark.

[white prawn]

I'm poking at it right now

My goodness it's dark

[white prawn]

@thick heron I took it to Astrosurface and did a set black level, then took it to Registax to do RGB Align and Balance then light wavelets. Not fully adjusted but did got rid of the onion rings.

Also, looks nice

[white prawn]

Here, that gets you started where I was working from.

[cloud copper]

How did you get rid of the onion rings? @white prawn

[white prawn]

I ran RGB Align and RGB balance in Registax before doing anything, saved the file, then took it to AstroSurface and adjusted wavelets instead of going right to sharpen.

The file I shared is right out of Registax so you can work it from there. Wavelets first then sharpen

[cloud copper]

and you stacked it in astrosurface?

than took it to registax?

[white prawn]

I stacked it in AutoStakkert.

Took it to AstroSurface to set black level on the image (maybe an extra step but I had some Jupiter images that needed the extra step), then saved it.

Took that image to Reigstax to do RGB Balance and RGB Align, then did all and saved it.

That's the image I shared back.

If you take it to AstroSurface and fiddle with wavelets, then do sharpen/denoise, you shouldn't have rings this time

[cloud copper]

is astrosurface's wavelets better than rexistack's wavelets?

Im used to registcks

[cloud copper]

so if I do RGB align in regitax I should uncheck this box in autostackert, right?

[white prawn]

I keep mine checked, doesn't seem to hurt

[cloud copper]

and what does normalise stack do

I always use it but idk what it does XD

[white prawn]

Neither do I

[cloud copper]

lol

[livid sierra]

It normalizes the stack histogram to a given %

[cloud copper]

so 50% is good?

[livid sierra]

50-60% is fine

[cloud copper]

great

Next time I'm imaging I should expose the planet more to avoid onion rings, right?

[white prawn]

Def helpful ... across the board

[livid sierra]

What did the histogram peak at?

The raw recording that is

[cloud copper]

where can I see that?

[fading plume]

In FC.

It’s right there on the main screen

[cloud copper]

well, its too late now

@white prawn how did you set the black point

[white prawn]

Click "BW-Point" and when the menu comes up draw the selection across the entire image (black space included) and then click "Set Black"

[thick heron]

Histogram peak is in the log file for every video created by FC.

[dusky holly]

what software is this in the screenshot?

[white prawn]

AstroSurface

[dusky holly]

ok

thanks

[dusky holly]

why does my Jupiter appear to be colorless (I used PIPP and Autostakkert), any ideas?

[dusky holly]

and also, if i want to stack rgb in autostakkert, it wont really go well

[dusky holly]

oh wait

problem solved

[steep apex]

Bought the UVenus Filter

[brisk yacht]

nicee

[white prawn]

Let us know how it is

[cloud copper]

@white prawn here is my process from your stack of my data, thanks for the usefull tips

looks ok

I bet that I will get better results as soon as I get good collimation

and as soon as I buy an x-cell 3x barlow lens

[wet nest]

why does it look like you stacked a bunch of images of your dob XD

bros to used to stacking images xd

[white prawn]

Good collimation, good seeing, good equip, and practice processing. That image looks alright. Seems a little heavy on sharpening or wavelets or saturation ... and that'll come w/ practice. Should see some of my attempts before I shared ... been deleted but I was heavy handed on the sharpening and saturation

[cloud copper]

Any good processing videos that I could use?

[white prawn]

Let me see.

https://youtu.be/zQYbtzsnQ3E

https://youtu.be/FQagPJ8pM7Y

I started with those and then practice and trial and error. He uses Registax, which is how I started, and that will give you an idea. I use AstroSurface and seem to get better results on wavelets and sharpening. Registax is GREAT at RGB Balance, esp on Jupiter

[cloud copper]

Yea, I already know how to do those things, I was thinking of something more advanced

[white prawn]

Then it's just practice and getting an eye for things.

[cloud copper]

lol, I knocked my telescope back in to collimation

[coarse aspen]

I remember when you doubted the effect of seeing

You finally got a night with 3/5 seeing and it was the best image you took

[white prawn]

Unbelievable. Not sure if it was me doubting effect of seeing or overall just really frustrated and wondering if it was something in the equip. Nice to see it wasn't the equip. I might try to set that file so that I can share it so you can judge the seeing.

[cloud copper]

my new jupiter image, big improvement from yesterday

[coarse aspen]

With perfect seeing, perfect collimation, ADC, you would be looking at results similar to this (actually better, Newt has a higher potential than SCT)

#1037734400651169932 message

[dusky holly]

Should I use gamma?

For planetary imaging?

[white prawn]

I don't touch it

[white prawn]

Something tells me that I'd still need 6/5 seeing to get something like that.

That looks professionally computer rendered

[coarse aspen]

Theoretically you can slightly beat that image

[white prawn]

In theory. I still don't have the onstep so I don't know how much being manually tracked will limit capability. I'd like to get out on a night that I can track it for an extended period of time. I'd have to bring both the laptop and minipc ... laptop to drive and minipc to image b/c it has a bigger/faster drive.

[cloud copper]

Do you guys know any good 5x barlows in the 100euro range

Or will a 3x X-cel lx do?

[sharp ridge]

X cel + spacer or adc

Or televue 5x

Or create the perfect 5x barlow by buying a 2.7x apm barlow and engineering a spacer like Marco Lorenzi did

https://www.glitteringlights.com/Articles/5x-Comacorr-Barlow

[oak shale]

heeelp

anyone has the sv305 pro?

[thin aspen]

I love british seeing.......

[fading plume]

better than mine

[main flume]

Its big

[kindred imp]

i get the same problem as the onion rings, how do i make it brighter without losing any quality whilst recording?

[thick heron]

Funny you mention that… considering the same without the custom machining of adapters.

[white prawn]

You can adjust the gain in Sharpcap. I think mine is at around 350 or so, brightness at 0.

[kindred imp]

Ah, I'm using a phone so would that be ISO?

[white prawn]

Yes. Same concept, different numbers. On my DSLR I used ISO 200 or 400 for Jupiter, it's bright

[kindred imp]

ah, ive been using an iso of 60-90 and 1/30 -1/60

[white prawn]

If that seems too dark then certainly lighten it. I was at ISO 200 and 1/30. Registax RGB Balance can actually compensate for it being dark, when I was doing my rotation some of the stacks were dark and when I ran them through Registax RGB Balance it got the colors corrected.

[kindred imp]

I also do an RGB balance which doesnt necessarily brighten it but it does correct the colours

[white prawn]

Ah. Ohh, well if your starting point is darker it might not work the same as what happened for me.

[kindred imp]

yep, im looking into getting a uranus c soon, hopefully, so that is an alternative fix xD

[white prawn]

You can fix brightness/exposure in gimp and other processing apps as well

[kindred imp]

i dont have that sadly

is it any good?

[white prawn]

Gimp? Yes, it's free and an alternative to photoshop

[kindred imp]

that sounds good then

i'll look into getting it

[steep apex]

[thin aspen]

Really nice

[thick heron]

Two Jupiter impacts have been observed within a day, ONE OF WHICH STILL NEEDS VIDEO CONFIRMATION! If you were recording on December 28th around 23:52 UTC please run your videos through DeTeCt (http://www.astrosurf.com/planetessaf/doc/project_detect.php) and send the results to Marc Delcroix.
http://pvol2.ehu.es/pvol2/news/view?id=48

[kindred imp]

I think I got that

I'll have to check in the morning

But I noticed a weird dot on Jupiter on my stacked photos

I can't guarantee it

And my scope is only 5 inch

So don't get your hopes up

[thick heron]

Unlikely either impact left a scar and they likely would’ve been seen by now if so. All that would’ve been recorded is a bright dot for a second or two in the raw video, which would’ve been averaged out of the stacked image.

[kindred imp]

Yeah I don't think I would've got that sadly

[thick heron]

Doesn’t hurt to check if you were recording at the time.

[kindred imp]

Also not sure if I was recording Jupiter at that time, I don't think I was sadly

Yeah I went in an hour prior

Sadness

[thick heron]

Targic.

When I recorded one in 2019, there were people that told me they had stopped/started a few minutes before/after it occurred.

[steep apex]

Is the detect software only for windows?

[thick heron]

Only for Windows. Might be able to run on Wine since it’s a fairly simple program. https://www.winehq.org/

[halcyon wagon]

I had really good seeing last planetary attempt but i was so stupid and took a bunch of 7ms frames instead if a video and now autosttackert doesn't recognize it. I wish I had a recording of the seeing. Barely no movement. Is there any way to stil stack the data?

[thin aspen]

Wdym by not recognised? Is it too dark?

[halcyon wagon]

It doesnt accept single raw cr2 frames. I didnt take a video that'd why

[thin aspen]

Ah I see how many frames did you take?

[halcyon wagon]

It was 4 takes of 8k frames every 3 mins

[thin aspen]

Wow so quite a lot that’s good

Try use PIPP to produce an avi

Drag and drop all the frames in However I don’t know if it could handle 8k individual files

[uncut glade]

I've put about 1000 full frame shots in and it worked, should handle it. Might take a while

[cloud copper]

Guys what camera is better for planetary imaging:
•Mars-c
•Mars-c II
•Neptune-c

[somber stratus]

Mars-C II (IMX662) probably

Newest sensor there, highest QE and joint-lowest read noise. Good full well too for a planetary cam. Sufficient FPS.

Mars-C (IMX462) is becoming more outdated, but it's a good sensor too.

I personally wouldn't go for the Neptune (IMX178)

[kindred imp]

Which would be better, Uranus C, Zwo ASI 585MC or the Mars C 2

[somber stratus]

585MC and Uranus-C are the same sensor. But probably the 585 over the 662. Most people here use the Uranus-C, and for good reason.

But the Mars C II is still great.

Very similar, just smaller version of the Uranus.

Whichever your budget allows for. Uranus-C is better, but it's also more expensive last time I checked.

[kindred imp]

I'm thinking of getting the Uranus c or zwo asi 585mc. Is there any specific reason as to why I should get one over the other. This is my first dedicated astrocam so I'm unsure on lots of the things I'm seeing like "full well" and "qe"

[somber stratus]

Uranus-C has passive cooling, and that's it. Other than that - and the camera's appearance - they are the same. Full well is how many photons each pixel can register (at unity gain) before becoming saturated or overexposed. It's useful for higher dynamic range in long exposures and might help with getting faint moons. Might be wrong here, but it's not as big a deal with planetary for the most part. Deep sky imaging benefits more, but it's still nice to have.
QE is quantum efficiency. I believe it's the rate at which photons are registered/not registered. Higher QE % is objectively better.

I'm open to correction if I've got those definitions slightly wrong, but that's the gist.

[kindred imp]

Thank you very much, that is a great explanation. It looks like the Uranus C just pips the Zwo 585MC by only a little on the specs. 👍

[somber stratus]

They will have the exact same specs in reality. Both companies will publish their own findings, but they use the same Sony sensor.

And so must be the same I think.

(Excluding the noise vs ambient temperature performance, where the Uranus will win with the passive cooling)

[white prawn]

My own $0.02 is that the Uranus-C is not built by ZWO with the thought of being in their "walled garden" and is a little less expensive. For what it's worth I have a 585 and that's because I didn't want to wait 2 weeks for the product to arrive on the dealer's shelf before they would be able to ship it and be another week or so.

In other words I was a little impatient. Currently looking at getting another camera and am looking at the Uranus-C

[somber stratus]

You can order the Uranus from P1 themselves and it ships from China in under a week usually.

Free shipping over $199, unless they changed it.

[white prawn]

Now I just need to find the $$ for the camera

What I really liked about the 585 though was the shop I bought it from was in Canada and the price was $550 ... which after exchange was US$450.

[thick heron]

Not anymore.

Just noticed yesterday.

Dealers still may offer free shipping. Astro-Hutech does in the US.

[somber stratus]

rip

I shouldn't really need anything from them for a long time, luckily.

Sorted on cams for the time being.

[white prawn]

@somber stratus can I ask your opinion on my latest Jupiter in Solar system?

[thick heron]

Whatever I need next from them is going to be the Uranus-M. Just need them to make it first.

[somber stratus]

This would be the exception.

[somber stratus]

Can't search for your name in the explorer for some reason. Could you post it here? The December 6th one?

Was it this one

[cloud copper]

I think so

[white prawn]

The derotated #older_system_pics message and the rotated #older_system_pics message

I think that's the derotated one that you shared

Yep, it is

[somber stratus]

Derotated one looks good with respect to the level of sharpening used, and lack of noise. Personally I think it's a little too contrasty at the edges - the blacks are a bit too strong. Whites/highlights are fine though. Colour looks fine to me, perhaps a touch too blue/green but it's pretty subjective when it comes to colour and satuation.

[white prawn]

I see what you're saying about the contrast at the edges, I'll have to practice that out. I've been setting black level in Astrosurface to help with RGB balance, so maybe it's an extra step that I don't need. I did need it for some images that were causing problems at one point.

[somber stratus]

This is a good example of how I like the contrast/colour but again it's subjective to the imager.

Note the limb at the poles have a clear edge.

[white prawn]

That's what I'm aiming for.

[somber stratus]

Whereas in yours it just kind of fades to black, rather than being clear-cut

But I'm being picky here. Good image nonetheless

[white prawn]

Thank you. And what you may think is "picky" is me thinking "this guy is putting to words what I'm trying to do" so it works.

[somber stratus]

I find normalisation in AS!4 sorts the black level. 1.10 gamma in the Astrosurface wavelets can do nicely thereafter, and then leave the black level of course.

[white prawn]

Aha. Okay, I'll try that.

I still have the frames

[somber stratus]

You might need a bit of contrast in PS camera raw or GIMP as the gamma increase can "flatten" the centre of the disk, but it preserves the darker limbs.

This was how the image above looked before Photoshop.

Normalised in AS!3 upon stacking, then wavelets and 1.10 gamma.

thats it

[white prawn]

Nice.

[somber stratus]

But you can see I had to "re-brighten" the core of the disk to bring back the 3D look.

[white prawn]

So that's what the gamma does?

[somber stratus]

It just reduces contrast in effect. Brightens the darker limbs, and dims the brighter core.

[white prawn]

Oh wait. Gamma flattens, contrast brings it back.

[somber stratus]

Yeah, pretty much

[white prawn]

Okay.

[somber stratus]

But 1.00->1.10 is pretty small of an adjustment.

[white prawn]

I've noticed small adjustments can make a huge difference sometimes.

How was the rotation? Decent enough given?

[somber stratus]

Looks fine to me yeah.

[white prawn]

Thank you

[steep apex]

1 or 2

[white prawn]

I want to do another one sometime, that was actually fun.

[white prawn]

1

[somber stratus]

2

[thick heron]

Looks like pixels are being clipped in your color channels.

[kindred imp]

Just bought the Uranus C from Pro astronomy (officially licensed by p1), thank you for the help @white prawn

[somber stratus]

nice

[white prawn]

How to avoid that? And could it be seeing?

[white prawn]

You're welcome

[thick heron]

If the pixels are saturated in the raw data, nothing else can be done except to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future.
If they are saturated during sharpening you can decrease the normalize stack value in AutoStakkert.

It's obvious to me now that I can look at the extracted channels.

[main flume]

that is just so good bruv

[thin aspen]

just captured the moon this morning using firecapture and all the files have just disappeared or never saved somehow.......

[cloud copper]

lol

[cloud copper]

Guys should I use 16bit or 8bit when imaging

[uncut glade]

16 but for anything faint, mag 12 and below, 8 bit for above that.

[cloud copper]

So for jupiter I should use 8 bit?

[uncut glade]

Yep

Jupiter is so bright 16bit would just slow you down

If you’re going for say, amalthea, 16 bit might be useful

[kind orchid]

the player one 585 comes in passive and active cooling models. one is Uranus C and one is Uranus C pro. i have the passive and love it for DSO and lunar. havent shot jupiter or saturn yet.

[oak shale]

Bit of improvement 🌚

[oak shale]

Older version with a different cam though.

But I'll look into it

[oak shale]

Yep, was also a first try with the sv305 pro and only had about 15 mins of clear sky and bad seeing

Still not very clear for me what is the best setup. Using the 305 on a 1900/127 scope

Have a 2x focal extender which I didn't use yet. But don't know if it's good to use in this setup

[vapid depot]

https://youtu.be/BgbCr_OIB0k interesting

[steep apex]

Go into firecapture and click the file selecter and see if it's there

[somber stratus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgDLNcMzwG0

Saturn

I bet it's even more wild visually as normally you can't see 889nm

[vapid depot]

Yeah should be a lot clearer visually it’s hard to describe

the cameras just pick up much more of the noise in a way

Lol presented green but infrared data Jupiter is a trip visually

gotta try it

[thin aspen]

looked again today on the ssd and all the data magically appeared

[thick heron]

Apparently I was wrong that they don't do any free shipping anymore. PO raised the minimum to $299.

[thick heron]

I did this in October with a PVS-14.

I would say the video is accurate to how it appears visually.

Perhaps less green IRL, but it might depend on the NVD they used.

Also tried a 1010nm filter and saw nothing.

[vapid depot]

Yep , Gen 3 ir sensitivity won’t go that far

[somber stratus]

Imagine, visual Venus nightside

[thick heron]

Blinded by Venus dayside.

[white prawn]

Rate my seeing? 🙂

And why in the world do my videos not show a preview?!

[thick heron]

You have to be careful with pointing them at bright sources of light.

Friend of a friend had their PVS-14 damaged by the Sun even though the objective was capped. The cap had a hole in the center and it was facing out of a window. Left a permanent line in the FOV of their $4.5K device.

[steep apex]

try put the file to .mov

[white prawn]

I really, REALLY absolutely LOATHE that I have to send my file to an online conversion service instead of one of the dozens of processing programs I use having that capability natively.

Oh look it even made the file bigger.

sigh.

[cloud copper]

How does this guy get craters sooo sharp with a phone and a 130mm scope, I don’t get it

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeYKQKgR/

[somber stratus]

This should tell you everything :)

Zenith Moon

[nova delta]

Southern hemisphere privileges 🤷‍♂️

[dark cargo]

They had very good seeing, partially caused by the light from the moon having to go through as little atmosphere as possible.

not really due to southern hemisphere, it's just that the moon can be overhead(and therefore you look through only 1 atmosphere of air vs 2 at 30 degrees alt) if you are within 28.5 degrees of the equator, and most land in the south is much closer to that than the north. eg europe is much more north than australia is south.

Furthest area from the equator of australia is around the same distance from the equator as the southern most place in europe.

[dark cargo]

Could just use something like handbrake to convert the video into an mp4 with the file extension renamed to webm and it will embed the video. It's more intended to encode lossy video so you do get a pretty big filesize reduction(3.9MB for this one).

[cloud copper]

opinion on my new image?

with a 12" and am imx224 + 2.5x barlow

[cloud copper]

why does winjupos crop my planet so much, to the point that I cant see the moon I captured anymore

can someone help me ?

this is the final image after derotation

[livid sierra]

“Quadratic image size”

[cloud copper]

Yea, found it already , thanks tho

It’s something from my laptop, looks more bule on the laptop

I’ll fix it on my phone