geoflewis

I was encouraged by Kostas @Kon to have a try at this rare event this morning. What promised to be clear skies 30 minutes before the event turned to cloud. I got the Moon and Venus in my finder scope no problem but couldn't see anything on the sensor, so after thrashing around for ages, I thought I try the IR filter, which revealed that I'd left the CH4 filter in position, so no wonder nothing was showing. I just had time to get them on the chip, but then cloud. I'd also messed up focus hunting for something through the CH4 filter......

I sat and waited then a glimpse, so hit capture for 1 minute. I useds PIPP to cut the best 500 frames, ran those through AS3! + Registax and here's what I got...

Yeah right...!! I got a lot of doughtnuts and smears, boy does that sensor cover need a bath. Can you see the faint edge of the Moon at the top 1/3rd of the image? Good hunting...!!

I decided greyscale processing might show it better, so after heavy cropping and clone stamping out the donughts, etc. (badly), here's my final version...

Moon underexposed, Venus overexposed, everything out of focus, but I guess I can claim to have something....🙄. I wonder whether anyone else had better luck, sadly I know that Kostas didn't....

9 minutes ago, Neil_104 said:

Thanks for posting Geof - as we were discussing just the other day, I've been comparing a sketch I made at the time to your first image. Nice to see what was actually responsible for the detail I was seeing. Great images 👍

Thanks Neil, it's great to know that my images are helping with your visual observations.

57 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

A fine set of images, some lovely detail there

Thanks Pete

58 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

A cracking set of images, plenty of detail visible.

Thanks Pete

16 hours ago, Kon said:

Excellent set of images from the preview I saw earlier. In my eyes these images are a lot better in terms of processing and details compared to the previous post.

I am baffled on how you pull these details under our skies 😜. Seriously, I gave up on Jupiter last night after 4 captures as it was a soft mess. I should have persevered but like you said Uranus got my attention.

Thanks Kostas,

As I said in reply to Stuart, it's so easy to get carried away and press a bit too hard with the processing when looking at good data. It's the excellent feedback from you and others that allows me to step back and then go again with a gentler touch. Always learning, so keep the feedback flowing please.....🤞

Just now, Space Cowboy said:

Terrific images again Geof! I prefer the processing on these. Much cleaner with more natural colour balance.

Thanks Stuart,

I agree. I held back on colour sat + vibrance, as well as the wavelets, so gentler processing throughout. Despite doing this for years, it's still very easy to get carried away.....🙄

I had another session with good seeing last night and was chatting with @Kon whilst we were both trying to make the most of it. Kostas attention was mainly on Uranus, with superb results as he's recently posted. Whilst I also had a try at Uranus, my main course remained with Jupiter, whilst Io and it's shadow were transiting. I ran 3 sequences of 9x1m RGB, then a single set of 9x1m IR, followed by a couple of experimental runs with the CH4 (methane band) filter, all captured with the colour camera (ASI462MC) through my C14.

After discussions on my thread from the previous (5 Nov) images, I held back on the processing a tad, so will be interested what everyone thinks.

I'm still trying to get to grips with CH4 imaging, so this is best 30% from a single 3m SER. The other SER was 5m duration and Jupiter's fast rotation left that looking quite blurred. I'm feel that I'm getting on to the right tracks, but probably would do better by derotating and stacking the best frames from a few 2m SERs, so I'll give that a try next time.

Kostas,

As I said in our offline chat, this is a fantastic image; I just love to see Uranus surrouded by it's moons. I was using the IR742 Pro Planet with my ASI462MC, but other than a quick look to share with you earlier confirming the polar hood, I haven't processed them yet as been on my Jupiter data most of the day. I will post those shortly.

For anyone interested, I added a CH4 (methane band) image alongside the other images in the original post, to complete the set from the session. I'm really not too sure about either the settings for capturing CH4, or how to process the data. I tried both 5m and 2m SERs at 100ms (10fps), then took best 80% of each and threw them through Registax, WinJupos (derotation), Astrosurface (wavelets & NR), Image Analyser (Frequenct Domain Filter) and Affinity Photo. The images were very noisy despite the 80% stack and slow capture speeds, so there was a lot of different NR tools applied. I also suspect that 5m SERs are too long with Jupiter's fast rotation, leaving the features somewhat blurred, so in future will experiment again with 2m and 3m SERs and perhaps derotate stack half a dozen of those, to see what that gives.

3 hours ago, neiil phillips said:

Lovely fine detail Geoff. The Finer points in processing. Reading the comments. But you have certainly got the fine detail. Excellent Geoff. Good to see you getting some nice data. The big C14 really pulls out the detail

Thanks Neil, it's great to hear from you. Yes, the C14 continues to work really well, especially now that Jupiter has gained a decent elevation again after so many years down in the UK murk.

5 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Fabulous detail and clarity. Brilliant images and a good interesting write up to. Thank you for sharing. 

Clear skies for more 

 

Lee 

Thanks Lee, I'm glad the narrative and discussion is interesting for you. There are some excellent contributions from other planetary imagers, which help me to fine tune both my capture settings and processing techniques.

Very nice capture.

13 minutes ago, Kon said:

Excellent images Geof. I can't believe you got these while on my side it was pouring with rain. All looking great but I agree the last two look a bit harder on the wavelets. But I do not think it is the case. They are a bit more noisy than the first two. I took the liberty to try it, and I think it looks better (denoise 5 in AS). You can potentially go a bit harder on the wavelets and control the noise in AS. I have found denoising in imageanalyzer to soften the images too much but it does excellent colour noise reduction that AS doesn't.  But amazing images under this weather!

Looking forward to the CH4 one.

Thanks Kostas and also thanks for having a play with my JPEGs. They definitely look softer, but I wonder if what you think is noise is actually very fine detail (I really am wondering about that). It's interesting, because the data for the last 2 images is definitely superior to the previos two, which is not surprising since they were taken with Jupiter at a higher elevation, the 4th one very close to it's transit. If you want to have a play with the derotated TIFFs out of WinJupos rather than the JPEGs, here they are...

2023-11-05-2253_8-GDL-WJ-RGB-LD65.tif2023-11-05-2328_0-GDL-WJ-RGB-LD65.tif

I'm about to post the IR image alongside the RGBs in the original post on this thread, so if you want to take have a play with that too, here is the derotated TIFF.....

2023-11-05-2346_7-GDL-WJ-IR-LD65.tif

2 hours ago, orion25 said:

Absolutely superb images, Geof! Some of the best I've seen in a while. Would love to see some GRS images (no rush, lol)!

Regards, Reggie

Thanks Reggie, I'm affraid I let that (GRS) opportunity go. I didn't realise how good these were until today when I processed them and I'd moved on to taking some IR and CH4 images.

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Brilliant! I noticed that new feature on my images as well. Jupiter is nothing if not dynamic.

Reggie

Thanks Reggie

3 minutes ago, yelsac said:

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

Extremely jealous of the setting to.

Thanks and yes, I'm very happy with my location most of the time, though being rural can have it's downsides, e.g. when wind, or falling trees bring the power lines down......

Just now, orly_andico said:

As an update: I got my order from AllBatteries today, Nov 6 (order made on Oct 27). Six working days. Now to replace the battery and reflash the database.. not looking forward to it.

Good luck 🤞

4 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

They look fabulous Geof! Well done! Your persistence has paid off!

Thanks Stuart,

My mentor told me many years ago that you have to be at the business end of the telescope every possible opportunity, as it's the only way to know for sure....

Not only did I get some excellent images of the aurora from home early in the evening, but when I went to the observatory I was delighted with some excellent seeing and not too bad transparency for a change.

These were all captured with the ASI462MC through my C14 with ADC in train operating at around F12, so slightly undersampled. I ran 4 sets of 9x1m which is about 6000 frames, of which I stacked 1000 frames per SER (~17%). Processing steps for the colour images were:

1. Best 1000 frames in AS3!L
2. Light wavelets in Registax
3. Derotation in WinJupos
4. Wavelets, RGB align, colour balance and mild saturation in Astrosurface
5. Fequency domain (NR) and colour noise reduction in Image Analyser
6. Light levels adj in Affinity Photo, just to enhance limb shading

The detail coming through on the last 2 images was so strong that they looked over processed, so I dialed back the wavelets in Astrosurface and still it has me wondering 🤔. I think these are possibly the most detailed images of Jupiter that I have captured. Now I wish I'd kept going, as the GRS was about to reappear.

I have a set of IR an a couple of CH4 runs to process, but they'll have to wait as I have other chores to do now added.

Thanks for looking.

Those are fantastic.

Well done Kostas, that's a good result for these conditions.

Just captured these in the last 30 minutes from south Norfolk….

41 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Well done Geof! As you say it's fascinating to see the change in transit shadows. Even if seeing isn't great Jupiter always delivers.

Thanks Stuart.

26 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Great images Geof 👍🏻

Thanks Jeremy.

27 minutes ago, Neil_104 said:

Excellent images Geof, thanks for sharing. The third image with Io's shadow so close gives a fantastic 3D effect. I managed to briefly observe Jupiter last night at opposition, but just at 1x!

It's great when someone posts a planetary image and it confirms details that were seen on the edge of detection on the night - had that happen a lot during the Mars opposition last year 👍

Thanks Neil,

It's also very rewarding for me when one of my images helps confirm / clarify for others what they saw visually at the eyepiece.