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First Jupiter of the season, and more...

JamesF

By JamesF
in Imaging - Planetary

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JamesF

JamesF

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The sky was absolutely beautiful last night; the first really decently clear night since the start of September.  I therefore had to go out and do some imaging of Jupiter for the first time this season.  As it happens I had a few hardware niggles, perhaps partly due to the cold and certainly because of my lack of recent practice, compounded even further by trying to use the new beta release of FireCapture for the first time with the ASI120MC.  I also took the opportunity to test the capture software I'm writing for Linux for the first time ever.

As luck would have it I wasn't at all happy with the images from FireCapture.  I was debayering before capture and perhaps I didn't have the correct bayer pattern.  Something wasn't right, anyhow.  Fortunately the images captured using my own application turned out rather better.  I think they're still a bit noisy and perhaps I should have a go at stacking some more frames (I used 40% of 3600 frames in AS!2), but I'm not unhappy with the effort particularly given that my rustiness needs a bit of working out.

127 Mak. HEQ5, 2.5x Revelation barlow, ASI120MC, oaCapture (second alpha release, source and binaries for Linux coming before the end of the month :D.  120 seconds capture at 30 fps, preprocessed with PIPP, stacked with AS!2 and postprocessed in Registax v6...

montage.png

And an animaton...

jupiter-anim.gif

Not sure what the pink frames are about.  I seem to get those somewhere between AS!2 and Registax for some reason.

James

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Steve Ward

Steve Ward

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Great work with producing the software , looks to be working well ....  :laugh:

I've been following the development thread silently , in admiration ,  from the back of the room so's to speak . . . :smiley:  

Most of the computerspeak went straight over my head unfortunately , last time I programmed a computer was with punched-tape in another life ....  :p

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JamesF

JamesF

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Nice work James. Maybe I should give planetary imaging a go with my C8 this season.

Chris

Jupiter is nicely placed now and should be for a few months I guess.  Be a shame to miss the opportunity  :evil:

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Great work with producing the software , looks to be working well ....  :laugh:

I've been following the development thread silently , in admiration ,  from the back of the room so's to speak . . . :smiley:  

Most of the computerspeak went straight over my head unfortunately , last time I programmed a computer was with punched-tape in another life ....  :p

Thank you Steve.

I don't go back as far as punched tape myself.  I've used a computer with a teletype unit for a console, and 1/2" mag tapes in tape units the size of a very large fridge (oh, and those disk packs that looked like top-loading washing machines), but that's about as prehistoric as I can manage :)

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Nice work there James. I would agree with you there that maybe a touch too much noise either due to number of frames stacked or a bit aggressive on the wavelets maybe?

I think so.  Perhaps a bit aggressive with the sharpening I think.  It didn't really show up until I tweaked the colours a little to get a more pleasing balance.  It was quite a shock to the system to be planetary imaging again and I don't feel as if I really properly got to grips with things.  Other than a single capture run on Saturn at the start of July (which I did more or less for fun just because Saturn happened to be there whilst I was doing other things) this is the first time I've done any in well over six months.  I need to get some more practice under my belt.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Great images, and I love the animation!

I love my little Mak but unfortunately it hasn't seen much use since I got my 8" SCT.

Angie

Thank you.  Once I have things more permanently set up I think the Mak may see quite a bit less use, but I was thinking about it earlier this evening...

It's not a great DSO viewing scope, but it's ok.  It's not a great DSO imaging scope, but it is possible to a certain extent given a reasonable mount.  It's a quite acceptable planetary and lunar visual and imaging scope, and not bad for solar visual and imaging either.  And it's fairly portable.  Mine goes with us on holiday to France in the boot of the car along with everything else a family of four needs for a two-week holiday.  That seems like an awful lot of value for money to me.  If someone didn't require portability or wasn't interested in imaging then it's not the scope I'd recommend, but I think to enable someone to do "a bit of everything" it's hard to beat for the money.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Some nice images James :)

.....nfi personally, but fwiw Torsten (Firecapture) recommends using AS!2 to debayer the colour cams post-capture due to its' superiority thereon...

Thanks.  I shall have a look at that then.  I can see the sense in it.  There are debayering algorithms that are claimed to function much better than those that tend to be used when it must be done "in real time".

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Nice images James. How come you didn't try the C9.25

It's not set up at the moment.  I have the NEQ6 out to put it on, but the weather has been so awful here that I haven't had the opportunity to get it all set up properly.  And real life has been getting in the way a bit too.

I'm hoping I can get it set up for the weekend as the forecast for Saturday is looking quite promising.

James

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neil phillips

neil phillips

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It's not set up at the moment.  I have the NEQ6 out to put it on, but the weather has been so awful here that I haven't had the opportunity to get it all set up properly.  And real life has been getting in the way a bit too.

I'm hoping I can get it set up for the weekend as the forecast for Saturday is looking quite promising.

James

Ahh Real Life, I try to avoid it like the plaque :evil:

Just Kidding

Yeah I was looking at Saturday. Its really not good at the moment. I get amazed how long The UK weather can mess up our plans I really do.

Look forward  to seeing the Celestron in on the action James When you have time.

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