Kon

Excellent images Geof. I really like the banding you have got, especially in the southern hemisphere. It's a shame excellent seeing was ruined by hardware issues. 

2 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Way to go Kostas. Superb results. Processing looks great on my 32"4 K. You must be pleased

Thanks Neil. Gosh that's a proper scrutiny! 😉. I am really pleased with the new setup and how much easier it is than dealing with my manual tracking. I know I know...you told me so 😂.

I hope we see you back on the game at some point.

Nice images and good details too.

3 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Very nice Mars, think you can just about make out the Tharsis volcanoes. No mean feat on a 7” disc…. Nice one! 

Thanks Craig. There are a few familiar features coming through. Let's hope for good skies near opposition.

Nice images Oskari. At this small size Mars and not perfect seeing, I also use Jupiter and tweak it a bit. You may want to add an ADC in the mix. There is one in classifieds UK on good price.

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

These are superb and are obviously the result of a lot of practice and effort!
 

I must give it a go, if it doesn’t work then no worries… I won’t know unless I try. I have given a go at manually tracking the ISS in my finder on a few occasions when it caught me by surprise when out observing. Once I got going it was relatively straightforward. And looking through the finder I could see that there was some shape to the ISS although couldn’t make out exactly what it was. 

I think you should give a try Peter. There were some posts in the mobile section with very good results. I am sure you can get something really good. Yes track it with the finderscope and make sure it is well aligned. To start with, passes at 60-70 degrees are easier to move the Dob but you get better results from the 90 but you really need to move fast and with the dob it is not as easy. The first 2 images are at almost 90 degrees whereas the last one is at ~70 and you can see the difference it makes in quality. 

Excellent images Martyn. Lovely banding and colours.

3 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Super clarity

In the skywatcher app downloads is a beta satellite tracker have you tried that

Thanks. I have all the required software installed and tracking working but I need to find the time to do an actual capture. Manual is a bit easier on a busy schedule as I can plug and be ready to go.

5 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Should I use winjupos before or after processing each video?

I would process first and then winjupos. Then see if you can sharpen tiny bit more. Even different exposures can be used, not ideal but give it a try.

These are excellent images with the setup. To be honest this Uranus puts images from planetary camera setups to shame.

ISS did a 90 degree pass over the UK tonight. Despite the windy conditions seeing was quite good and managed some decent images. Several modules are visible. I really need to sort my autotracking as I am still doing it manual with the 12" goto.

13 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

@Kon Oh right yes I forgot about the in and out focus star test Kon. I think I can even use an artificial star in doors by wrapping foil over the light of a strong torch, then putting a pin hole in foil and turning lights off?

yes at 2x Barlow I'm hitting F16, which is too low to achieve the 5-7 times formula.

Oh ok thanks, at least I won't break the bank for the UV/IR cut filter!

I recently collimate on the planetary moons, not showing flaring but you need decent seeing for it.

1 hour ago, wesdon1 said:

@Kon Kon I forgot to mention, I took a single shot of a bright star with the RC scope, and it's spikes were absolutely perfect, like the 'scope didn't need collimating after all?? 

So to conclude, I'm going to collimate the 'scope and then next session outside I'm going to start out WITHOUT the 2x Barlow because I have a sneaking suspicion the seeing just wasn't good enough for the circa 3300mm FL I was using that awful night. Then If the resolution seems normal again, I'll then throw the 2x Barlow on and see if I get the same awful blurry live views. Whatever the case I will solve this problem! 

Yes I definitely need an ADC, also a UV/IR cut filter.

Thank You again for the advice Kon, I really do appreciate it!

Clear Skies, Wes.

For collimation do a star test, InFocus and out of focus. Spikes can't tell you much.

For imaging, usually we aim 5-7 times the pixel size of the sensor so whatever your f ratio of the telescope is will tell you what Barlow you need to add.

You will need an UV/IR cut window too. A cheap one will do.

Good luck with your imaging.

16 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

 

Here you go, 

Two stacks from AS!4, 25% frames, one without drizzle and one with 1.5x. The image I posted above was processed from the 1.5x.

I look forward to seeing what you guys can get from it

2024-09-18-0040_5-Saturn_lapl6_ap17.fit 16.79 MB · 0 downloads 2024-09-18-0040_5-Saturn_lapl6_ap17_Drizzle15.fit 151.1 MB · 0 downloads

This is my attempt without the drizzle image. REgistax wavelets and colour balance, Astrosurface for further colour enhancement and some denoising. I cropped the rest of the black, so no resizing. Next time gather more videos as you can derotate them in winjupos and increase your amount of frames stacked thus reducing noise and select the best frames from each.

19 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Also happy to share the stacked image if anyone wants a stab at it.

Yes please.

12 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Thank you  

Usually I get banished to far off places, but I didn't realise I sent my wife this far away  

Thanks Kon, I did apply some sharpening with Wavelets but any further sharpening just looked too fake and showed off the pixels...badly!

I did use the RGB align channels within AS!4, so is this still incorrectly RGB balanced? I haven't tried registax or Astrosurface, so I will check those out, thanks.

Hahahaha....auto correct on my phone is to blame.

I meant to colour balance not align as it is currently a bit on the yellow side, otherwise they are really nice images.

16 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

I did apply some sharpening with Wavelets

16 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

I haven't tried registax or Astrosurface

Where do you do your wavelets? In registax or Astrosurface you will have a better control before it becomes pixilated and you can also apply denoising at the same time.

Very nice images considering the small aperture. The wife field view with the moons is putting it in nice perspective.

(It seems you have not done any sharpening from the description. You may want to try do some sharpening and RGB balance in registax or Astrosurface)

7 hours ago, wesdon1 said:

@Kon Hi Kon. I’m hoping it was simply very bad luck with my local seeing, because I have never had such awful resolution before. The only caveat was my RC scope is in need of collimation, but surely that couldn’t have been the cause for such blurry wishy washy views? I was actually planning another night outside tonight doing planetary but decided it’d be wiser to wait until I’ve collimated my RC scope. 
 

instead I’m currently outside now doing DSO with my small refractor.

Clear Skies my friend!

Wes

Collimation will have some effect on the final image, unless it's way off you may notice it in the live view. I rhe last couple of nights the seeing has dropped a lot. Last night Saturn looked as a fuzzy ball. I usually look at the Jetstream map but the predicted times can be a bit off. 

I hope you get the good seeing soon for some planetary imaging.

I noticed you don't have an ADC. Worth getting one for low elevation planets.

The seeing last night and tonight have been awful but the night before it was excellent even through high clouds. You can see in the planetary imaging section that several of us got really good conditions and reflected in the images. I got my best Saturn and I regret not imaging Jupiter that morning as I had to catch some sleep before work.

15 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Brilliant, Kostas! Easily one of the best images I've seen thus far of Saturn this apparition 🤩

Thanks Reggie. It's a great feeling when the  weather cooperates. Awful conditions since this capture.

22 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Wow what a difference a few days makes. I agree with Geof that these are the best that have been posted this apparition. They make me feel like going outside now to image.

That's very kind Ian, thanks. I tried last night but the seeing was awful so you may have to wait for the next good night. I may try tonight but it's really windy.

49 minutes ago, morimarty said:

Some lovely banding detail and great resolution on show Kostas. I have not captured any IR this apparition I must give it a go.

Thanks. I am very pleased with the result. I was hoping to do some methane too but I lost it behind trees.

55 minutes ago, morimarty said:

What a lovely image Kostas that as certainly wet the appetite for things to come.

Thanks Martyn. It's a shame that although it's high up it's relative size will be smaller than other apparitions to pull really nice details.

9 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Thought you might have something sweet to post today Kostas 🙂 The air was so still last night and hazy cloud usually means stable seeing. Shame trans wasn't better but you've got some nice data there for sure 👍

Thanks Stuart. It felt great to have the 12" finally delivering. Seeing is supposed to be good tonight too but it is very windy.

24 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Lovely images 👍

Thanks Michael.