Saturn tonight

[Chubster]

Seem to be stuck in a rut....just cant take my image to the next level. This is 500 frames un-barlowed. Tried with the barlow again tonight but just could not get focus. Collimation seems spot on...cheers Rob. Just at a loss as to how to improve.

Chub

[Kai]

Chub

With the barlow attached on my C8 (making it F20) i get a fuzzy image.I focus it until i can see Cassini and go from there.I try to get a light level of around 140 in K3ccd with the exposure set at 1/25 and as little gain as i can get away with.Gamma is around 60% and Saturation around 50.

On the screen i can just make out banding but now way is the image clear.Its Registax that does the magic.

[Kai]

For your info

Underneath are three images from the avi i took the other night.There has been no post processing.

The image was taken at f20 with the settings i described above.

Firstly the frame i chose to stack against

Then the image after stacking

It would be interesting if you can do the same so we can compare data as we have the same scope

Finally with just waveletts applied (mainly the first with a little of the second)

[Chubster]

Cheers Steve, very helpful and encouraging. Will give it a go tonight if poss.

I try to get a light level of around 140

?? Not quite sure what you mean by this...sorry. Is this a brightness setting ?

[Kai]

Sorry ,I use K3ccd and this has a option of showing the image brightness "live".I try to tune the image to around 140 so it makes it easier for me later on in processing

[Chubster]

Do you have the paid for version ?

[Kai]

Nooo just version 1 (the freebie one)

[Chubster]

Hmmm. Cant seem to find that. where should I be looking?

Cheers

Chub

[Kai]

On the tool bar next to the 5/10/15 frame rate buttons there is a button which is the brightness level meter.

[Chubster]

Me again....right got the level meter up. What do the two numbers mean and which one are you trying to get to 140. Sorry for all the questions but its partly your fault anyway. Wanna try and get my pics at least a little bit closer to yours

[Kai]

Dunno about the lower one but the higher one indicates how bright the image is.

You can adjust the brightness via the camera settings button after you untick the full auto tickbox.

I will take that as a complement

You should see the amount of avi's i have binned as they were poo after processing

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The big number is the value of the brightest pixel (out of 255) and the small number is the dimmest pixel. Kind of tells you if you need to go up or down with exposure.

Captain Chaos