yelsac

We feel your pain, one storm after another here & rubbish seeing.

Your IR image looks great though & detail on Ganymede 👍

Geof love the detail especially on the ir, methane looks interesting to,really nice 👍

13 hours ago, geoflewis said:

I’m still finding my feet with the CH4. Currently experimenting with 2m at 100ms, which capture speed was suggested to me by one of the Aussie planetary imagers. I’ll try derogating and stacking the TIFFs from a fee SERs and take it from there. I’d like to go faster, maybe  70ms-80ms, but will wait to see how 100ms turns out before changing anything.

Thanks Geof 👍

Just out of interest what settings do you guys use for ir? I used basically the same for colour images around 5ms but upped the gain to 310 in sharpcap. 

14 hours ago, Kon said:

Regarding CH4, Geof @geoflewisand I have been comparing notes. I have tried around 50ms with a histogram of 70% but recently I am working at 95% for my IR so I want to try again. Geof can comment on his settings. I am at 8" and with a very narrow band ch4 of 890 at 10nm. My last attempt I combined 4x2min in Winjupos.

Interesting, I'm sure I'll have a go at some point, but thanks for the info Kon 👍

3 hours ago, neiil phillips said:

Excellent captures. Worth getting a IR685. As the resolution loss will be less. But you have got a great result no question. Nice scope 

Thanks Neil

Must admit I really love the VX12L, think it's my perfect scope, couldn't really manage anything bigger & the skies on the IOW are awful 😞 

Got the Dob version 2nd hand for viewing & mounted it on Neq6 for the planets, so I've got the best of both worlds.

How are you getting on with your 12" Stella Lyra?

5 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Those have come out very well! Yet to try my QHY ir850 on Jupiter 🙂

Thanks Stuart.

To be honest I've had that filter for over a year & just never thought about using it, I've also got a methane ch4 filter that came with the camera to. I've absolutely no idea where to start with the settings for that one 🥴

7 hours ago, Kon said:

Some really nice details coming through these IR images. I like transits with it as you can see the moon that usually gets lost in colour captures due to low contrast. My last few outings with Jupiter have only been possible with an IR as the colour captures are awful. We need a filter that cuts through thick clouds 🤪.

Oh wouldn't that be nice 😁

Thanks for the comment Kostas 👍

3 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Very nice results and yes, IR can help cut through poor seeing.

Thanks Geof

If only normal use could cut through the awful seeing 🥴

Totally forgot that i had an IR 850 filter that came with the camera, so thought why not have a go. Actually think I might have got some small detail on Io in the first picture & definately some on Ganymede in the second although the seeing was a lot worse then. Extremely happy to finally get some moon detail.

VX12L, QHY5 462C, IR850, Baader x2.25 Barlow

Nothing fancy! They are so good, love the contrast between the ir & colour image, seriously looking forward to your fancy pictures 👍

Wow they are wonderful, some of the best images of Jupiter I've seen in a while.

Extremely jealous of the setting to.

That is really special, I love it how the detail stands out on the animation, a pleasure to watch 

Love that fact you even got clear detail on Ganymede with bad seeing, fantastic 👍

On 28/10/2023 at 11:44, geoflewis said:

I was out again imaging Jupiter for 3.75 hours capturing the GRS almost limb to limb and almost all of the Europa and it's shadow transits. During the session I captured 132 x 1m SER videos, totalling 330GB of data...!! I had to stop when my imaging laptop SDD was full, but by then the transparancy was getting very poor due to thickening clouds. I'd been capturing between and through variable cloud much of the session, but the seeing was good, so I thought it was worth persevering. Here are examples of what I was imaging through...

No way would any DSO imager capture during those conditions.....

....but, I promised a taster image, so here is what I got from the best 2000 frames from a single 1m SER.

It's a little soft and noisy, but the GRS is in full view, Europa just made contact and it's shadow is already transiting. The resolution should improve once I've processed a bunch of SERs then stacked and derotated the resulting TIFFs. I'm looking to put the best from ~15 videos into each image, so +/-30k frames each. If all goes well I might also produce a rotation GIF of the entire session. This lot is going to keep me busy a couple of days I think, not least cleaning up the smeared Europa & shadow transits after derotation; hence the taster image....

Thanks for looking and watch this space.....

Absolutely love your finished images 👍

It's amazing how ones process their data differently.

So just to confirm you take 15 or so 1 minute sers, process them, stack them & then de-rotate the stacked image for one finished image? Is that correct?

That is brilliant, love the detail 👍

1 hour ago, Kon said:

I do not think you have over done it. GRS is showing some nice details. Resizing to 150% is not realyl supported by the image as it is a bit soft. Under really good seeing I might resize to 120%.

Thanks for sharing the data. This is my attempt in Astrosurface and Gimp. Either seeing was not great or focus a bit out.

 

Kon thanks for having a go, to be honest it wasn't fantastic seeing (mind you I do struggle to get good focus 🤦) it was just good to get out with the awful weather we're having.

Yes I know what you mean about resizing, it was for my benefit really, it looked better on my laptop a little bigger.

I like the soft look of them just reminds of a pastel painting 🫣

Had another go at the images from the 15th, sharpened them a little & resized to 150% original. My processing skills aren't great but I think they are the best images I've got to date. Not sure if I've overdone the sharpening a bit.

Also included the original Tiff images from Autostakkert if anyone wants to have a go

2023-10-15-2316_9-U-IR-Jup_pipp_lapl6_ap67.tif2023-10-15-2352_0-U-IR-Jup_pipp_lapl6_ap69.tif

2 hours ago, Kon said:

Very nice images. As Stuart said you might be able to push them a bit more.

(They could do with horizontal flipping as it is confusing to see them this way round)

Thanks Kon

Do you know I hadn't even noticed it was the wrong way around 🤦 think I did that on registax 👍

5 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

That's more than a tiny bit of detail! GRS has nice detail for starters. I reckon there could be more in those images 🙂

Thanks I'll have another go 👍

My problem is I always seem to over cook the wavelets & make it look artificial 🥴

5 hours ago, knobby said:

Nice, glad the patience paid off.

4 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Stunning images of Jupiter.  Cant wait to have a crack at the planets over the next month or two.

4 hours ago, Craney said:

Great images.    They have a 3D look to them.... almost as if the planet is a shiny spherical pebble lodged in my laptop screen.

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

Very nice detail and colour rendition.

Chris

15 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

Superb images 👍

Really appreciate all your comments, it was nice to get some half decent seeing albeit for just an hour but we take what we can get 👍

Clear skies

So put the scope out at 6pm (sunset) Cloudy/misty, kept coming back to it no good! Finally at midnight was going to give up when the mist calmed a little. Seeing wasn't stunning but it was considerably better. Actually got to see some detail on the laptop for a change. Still not amazing but definitely some more detail coming through.

VX12L, QHY5III462, NEQ6, Rev 2.5 Barlow, UV/IR cut

Thanks Kon

Just out of interest what histogram percentage do you record images at with Jupiter?

Had another go with colour balance hopefully looks a little more natural.

14 hours ago, Kon said:

Good first imaging with the new telescope. Yes second image has some more details.Your histogram may have been clipping one or more of the channels as you have a very washed out patch in the EZ. The last image has a nice colour balance but the other two are quite blue. Registax should be able to take care of this.

Appreciate the feedback, yes I can see what you mean, think I forgot to balance in registax 🤦 the eyes aren't great these days.

As I said I've been viewing with the new scope rather than imaging & I find I forget the process easily.

Forgive me but when you say clipping do you mean that the histogram was to bright when recording? I think it was around 70%.

2 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Nice start with the new scope. As Kostas said colour balance is best on the 3rd image. 

Thanks for the comment, got to try & remember it all again. It would be lovely to have a crystal clear night to experiment but that's wishful thinking 😁

First time since January managed to get out without completely useless seeing!

I think everyone is frustrated with the rubbish seeing we experience, not sure if living on Isle of Wight makes it challenging (sea mist & all) but it does drive you nuts.

Anyway managed to get hold of a second hand OOVX12L in the summer (again probably to big for my skies) & absolutely love observing through it, however its a little different when imaging. Anyway below are the first not great but respectable images I've managed to get. Jupiter with Io transit on the 7/8th of Oct. The first one with shadow was awful, slowly the seeing got a little better, think the middle image is the best before going downhill again. I did try the ADC but it pushed it out so much further the quality dropped even more.

setup- VX12L, QHY5III462C, Rev 2.5 Barlow, UV/IR cut

Interesting so a small amount of movement isn't a problem. I'm used to an old skywatcher mirror cell where the mirror was held firm no movement.

I suppose I was just concerned about collimating the scope. I really enjoy planetary imaging where collimation is important.

With the movement, every time you slewed your mount to another target or had to do a meridian flip you'd have to constantly re-collimate.