Wavelet Settings.

[Trevor]

Last night was our Societies Monthly Meeting, one of the guys was giving a talk on imaging specifically the moon and planets, anyway he has a formula for using the wavelet settings on registax.

I tried the settings on a bad avi of Saturn, I must say their was a significant improvement on the finished quality.

I cant post the formula till I speak to him and get his permission, hopefully he will agree.

Trev.

[MartinB]

Would be interested in seeing this.

[Trevor]

Bear with me, I have sent him a Email to ask his permission.

Just to add to this, one of the other guys had a photo of geostationary satellites he had taken over a ten minute period, he had 3 in the frame, quite amazing to see the star trails and the little dots of reflected light from the satellites just quite happily sat there.

[Trevor]

With Ed’s permission.

This is aimed at beginners and what works for one person might not work for another.

Imaging the Solar System

with a Webcam

By Ed Sampson

Summary

Telescopes

You will need a telescope that can achieve a high f-ratio.

F-ratio = Focal Length of telescope / Telescope Aperture

Use you manual to find this information or look it up on the internet.

Planets require high F-ratios At least f10-40

Moon f3-30

Mounts

n You can use either an equatorial or an Alt Az mount.

n There are two essential requirements…

n 1 The mount MUST be stable

n 2 The mount Needs a Right ascension motor at the very least

A scope must have at least one drive; it is very useful if the drive speed can be altered

Web cams

You will need a webcam, popular ones are:-

· Logitech Quickcam

· Phillips toucam

· Orion starshoot SSI

· Meade LPI

· Celestron Nextimage

· Philips SPC900NC (toucam 3)

Prices start from £30 - £110

Barlow Lenses

n A Barlow lens is essential for image scale.

n They can double, triple or even magnify up to 5x.

n Magnification is not as limited with a webcam as with the eye.

n The F- Ratio of your scope will change with each Barlow you use e.g. an f5 reflector with a 2x Barlow becomes an f10 scope.

n Telescopes as little a 80mm can be used with a 5x Barlow if seeing permits

Hartmann Mask

This simple device aids focusing by splitting a star into 3 dots.

Simply rotate the focuser until the dots merge to achieve perfect focus.

These can be bought or made with different shapes.

Laptop or PC

At least 300MHz CPU and 10 GB HDD, Laptops are ideal but if you have a PC and don’t want a laptop you can buy a small TV from Maplin or Woolworth (£15-20) , USB Repeater Extensions (£10 any PC supplier though PC world can be Expensive) as many as you need And a video extension cable (£2 Maplin).

Software

Default Drivers

K3CCD

Iris

Astrostack

Autostar

Registax

Astra Image

All free or included with camera

Connecting a webcam

n The first thing you need to do is remove the original webcam lens.

n You will the need to insert a 1.25” nosepiece.

n Most lens threads are universal fitting.

n They can be purchased for around £15 or sometimes come already attached.

Do not forget take a Test Shot during the day it’s the best way to learn to use your webcam try targeting Chimneys or aerials and remember it will be very high magnification.

4 tips

for great imaging

1 Collimation - Use the web or Books like Norton’s star atlas to check your scopes collimation.

2 Focus - Select a bright star connect Webcam and run capture programme.

· Add Hartmann mask

· The star will split into 3 - If you have a zoom function use it now

· Slowly turn the focuser so the 3 stars begin to close (you can use an electric or large focus knob to reduce vibrations)

· When the stars merge perfect focus is achieved.

Check stars position in finder Move on to the target (Do not forget to remove the Mask)

3 Exposure

Adjust the Exposure and Gain sliders so the planets detail emerges.

· Too Much White bleeds onto disk

· Too Little Difficult to see any detail

· Just Right Planet looks natural to the eye

Press record Capture at least 500 to 1000 frames More frames = better quality of final image.

4 Processing

Converting your movie to a single image. Use Registax this programme is free, simple and ideal for image conversion.

· Run programme

· Press select and choose move to convert

· Select the quality estimate to 75%

· Check the automatic box in the processing box

· Press the align button

The software will now process and stack all images above 75% image quality.

Once done the image will need sharpening with wavelets.

Wavelet settings

1 Leave (too much noise)

2 as above

3 Set 26 – 40 depending on frames (500frames =26) (2000 = 34-40)

4 Set 10 – 13 depending on frames

5 Set 5 – 7 depending on frames

6 Set 6 - 8 depending on frames

Finally press estimate on the RGB shift box to get rid of atmospheric dispersion.

Saving

Select the Final Tab at the top of Registax and save image.

At this point you can also flip the image to give a true representation of the image.

Do not forget to log the time in UT to make your shot a valid observation.

The Meade LPI

Another method of imaging is to let the work be done for you.

The LPI does this exactly.

· Set up and focus your scope as before.

· Run the Autostar suite

· Press the auto expose button and slightly adjust the Gain and offset buttons until the image looks perfect

· Select Planet in the Image process box

· Type the name of the subject in the Object name box

· With the mouse pointer draw a box around the subject.

· Press Start and capture between 50 and 150 frames

· Press Stop when you are happy with the image.

Advanced Equipment

· Apochromatic Barlow's

· Electric focuser

· Flip Mirror system

· Filters – IR Block(essential) –UV– Colour filters – IR Pass

· Mono Cameras

The End

[dazza1639]

I've just reprocessed an old Saturn avi using this method. What do you think.

Here's the Reprocess

This is the original Posted HERE

In Registax

In Lynkeos

Darren

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Better give that a go later, thanks to you Trev. and Ed. Sampson.

Captain Chaos

[robindurant]

Very helpfull information shared with SGL members, thanks

[daz]

Indeed! I shall play with some old AVI's and see if they make a difference!