CraigT82

West of meridian is minus, east positive.

I've had a go at your 300 and 3000 frame stacks, just to see the difference that ten times the frames gives you.  Same processing in Astrosurface (I applied the processes to the 3000 frame image first then applied that same process to the 300 frame). No other post processing or touching up applied, not even any noise reduction.

300 frame on left, 3000 on right

Nice, lots of readily identifiable surface features visible there

Super interested but not sure I can make it due to childcare. Don’t suppose the sessions will be recorded and made available at some point? 

Fab images Neil some really fine details there, some artifacts in the small crater shadows on the second but that’s easily sorted. Love the central peak of Moretus poking up into the sunshine. 

As it's cloudy I've had another go, this time I made use of the Wiener deconvolution function in Astrosurface. Tried to define the detail whilst maintaining smoothness.

First attempt left, latest right.

Thanks again for sharing your data @symmetal. If I ever get around to capturing anything this apparition I’ll be sure to share it too! 

In Astrosurface you can use the white balance tool to auto balance the colours, should render a more natural coloured image. 

That’s really nice, lots of detail and very gently processed, I like it👍🏼

I think you’d probably have to lift the dob off the trolley and put it on the EQ platform. Are you making your own platform or buying? If making you could probably design it in a way to accommodate the trolley. But then again you’d still have to lift the lot up onto the platform so might as well lift the scope in its own rather than scope + trolley.

Or are you thinking of having the scope on the platform and then having both on top of the trolley? Supposed that would be ok if the feet of the platform have somewhere to sit on on the trolley and the trolley was level (though I think some platforms have levelling built in though). Might make the EP quite high though.

4 minutes ago, Kon said:

Ok, i had a play again and I agree that the original ones were over processed. What are your thoughts on these two. I think I am drawn to the second one although the first is more natural looking? Second is a blend of the first image below and my oversharpenned i posted at the start of the thread from registax. Topaz denoise doesn't make much of a difference in these softer images.

       

Those are much better to my eyes, the first one for me I think, very nicely done, could probably stand a saturation boost to make it come alive 

1 hour ago, neil phillips said:

Its the little things that make a whole. worth doing Craig. I used photoshop. different process same result. Both look good

Indeed! Always good to share the little tricks of the trade 

Yeah I used an inverted elliptical selection and applied a slight Gaussian blur to the edge of the disk (in gimp). Sorts out the ghosted limb and just gives a bit more of a natural looking disk. 

Nice one, love playing with other peoples data... good practice!  Here's my attempt, using Astrosurface and Gimp.

Cheers

Very handy….Interested in your DIY laser cutter! 

Very nice image Neil, do you submit any images to Mars section at the BAA?

Yes will get up to 17.2" at opposition so should be able to get some real surface detail on a disc that size, will be a while before we see the 22" disc of 2020 again though

Nice image btw the wide FoV gives it a real planet-hanging-in-space feeling which I like

Very nice, image, well processed, looks to have a slightly green cast on my phone.  I find it hard to get a colour balance I'm happy with between my phone, tablet, and monitor!

Thanks for posting your stacked tiff, I had a go with it in Astrosurface and Gimp - I'm a bit rusty as haven't done any imaging since last summer -  really nice data you're doing superbly with a manual dob!

Nice images with plenty of detail though I dont think the neodymium filter is doing you any favours

Knowing Televue it’ll be some obscure imperial thread that’s incompatible with anything else. 
Why don’t they just put a T-thread there so you don’t have to fork out for an adaptor? Oh I know…. more money, more money, more money! 

Another stunner Neil!

What were the capture details for this one? I put the two images together to better compare and there is no difference as far as I can see. Apart from size obviously. 

I would personally capture in RAW8 instead of RGB24. Id also use a longer exposure time of around 5ms, and lower gain if necessary. 
 

Try switching on high speed mode and see what frame rates you get. You’re using a USB3 camera but in a USB2 port, do you have any USB3 ports on your laptop? 

I mean nightside Venus imaging: longer (1s) exposures at above 1 micron to detect surface features (as opposed to cloud features). Granted a very niche appplication. But yeah the read noise may still be too much for the faint night side signal

Might be good for Venus imaging