Imaging efforts

[northcanadian]

Hi folks:

Last night I ventured out ...it was -14 celsius and I could feel it ...I have to do something about this addiction. My wife thinks the cheese has slipped off my cracker! I wanted to try some imaging with the ASI 120mm and filters (only about the second go with filters and this camera) and Firecapture (2.4 version)

Guess the frost heaved my alignment off somewhat so I could only capture in max (kept drifting off in 640x480 ROI).  Have to do another drift alignment, apparently

Also I could not find the exposure range settings (cog wheel?)  Is that on the histogram somewhere? I couldn't seem to get the gain/exp settings right...blue was very dark.  Tried with 3x barlow...then switched to 2x barlow. It was an ok session (learning wise) which brings another question to mind.  Since Jupiter is so high, should one do a meridian flip right off?

Anyway here is what I did get...I can sure tell this camera is great (in the right hands of course)

Thanks for looking (sorry for the long post)

Cheers

Roger

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some nice detail there!

[Starlight 1]

You will not see me outside under -5 , I do look at  all your posts think this one have come out well keep at it and I hope to see lot more  from you. Well done.

[jambouk]

Yes great detail starting to appear. And well done for the -14, I hope you have suitable clothing.

Good polar alignment isn't necessary for planetary imaging, but it greatly helps as you can forget about the tracking and making corrections, and concentrate on the focus and image capture 100%

I woiuldn't worry about meridian flipping, turn it off in case it kicks in at an inconvienent moment.

Are you keeping an eye on the Jet Stream? http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=jetstream;sess= If there are colours above you, the seeing will be poor as the air high up will be very turbulant. Focus is also key and this is difficult to achieve when the seeing is perfect let alone when the seeing is poor. What some tend to do is increase the gain and exposure time if necessary, to make a moon next to Jupiter bright enough to see, zoom in on the moon and then adjust the focus until the moon is as small as possible. This alone can be difficult so what I have done in the past is to identify the moon being say 1cm big when zoomed in, and count the number of clicks/turns to take the moon through optimum focus and back out the other side to 1cm big again, then divide the number of clicks by two, and go back that number and hopefully that will be about right, then go back to Jupiter and don't adjust the focus for half an hour or so. Damian Peach says he focuses on the bands, but with my kit I just don't find that easy.

If imaging over 120-150 seconds, you may find it useful to use derotation software like WinJupos; again I've not found that easy to use.

But you are going great guns. Maybe tell the wife you need more cheese, and a few more crackers

James

[northcanadian]

Thank you for your kind comments Michael, Starlight 1 and James, also for your suggestions....I did find the exposure range settings ....just clicked on the bar (so embarassingly simple)  I find that Firecapture is much easier to for me to  use than IC Capture (which I used with the DBK21)

Cheers

Roger

[ollypenrice]

Heroic stuff. You Canadians know how to enjoy life!!

lly

[PeterCPC]

Hi Roger

For what it's worth I find Sharpcap easier to use than Firecapture but I'm sure many will disagree with me. But then I use the colour ASI.

Peter

[northcanadian]

Hi Peter

Sharpcap is a great program too....I had used it with my DBK21 and found it so much easierto use  than the dedicated camera software. 

Cheers

Roger

[stepping beyond]

That's a very good mono capture, I too have tried Jupiter with my newt. and the results were good at least I could see banding but the 2x wasn't enough for image scale where I could work with it . Focus ,focus, focus is all I get told, so next time I'm focusing my pants off and maybe I'll get it right. Which scope did you use on this NC?

[zakkhogan]

i use the ASI120mm and colour wheel, i find sharpcap so much eaiser as all the exposure, gain, gamma settings are all there on the right hand side