Mars 17.3.12 C11 + old SPC :)

[AztecastroMcJ]

well seems like i'm one of only very few on here still using this old dinosaur camera lol

so please bear that in mind, 10fps is real drag and i cant wait till i join the ever growing 618 club

still theres lots of details that comparable to others pics posted with more sensitive chip, and this is best seeing i've had this season on Mars,

i did quick star test on nearby Regulus before and collimation and seeing looked ok 7.5/10

tho i could see few thermal issues, tube currents or heat from ground maybe, as my scopes setup on patio

temp was dropping fast and it must of been close to 0c when these were taken

this is 1st time i have imaged the Tharsis region of Mars aswell and noticed a couple of dark spots when adding text to my pics, think bright cloud inbetween helps marks stand out bit more,

and having just read LukeB's post looks like i caught a Volcano or 2/3 maybe ? (thx for info Luke very helpful )

dont think there anyway near as clear but def a couple of spots there, more noticeable on 1st 2 pics which were at longer focal length than other 2

the longer focal length seemed to make ringing edge defect more obvious, so i decided to take few, my moving ext before barlow and shorter focal length,

details are on pics,

1st 2 are same stack just diff colour and saturation and were reg6 stacked and wavelets

other 2 were reg 5 and excatly same no. frames stacked and wavelets applied, so only difference was using Neodymium filter

seeing other pics i'm wondering if clouds on Mars appear brighter at limb of planet as apposed to when there at cm say ? anybody know ?

James

[AztecastroMcJ]

couple more to compare with above

1st repro from last month in poor seeing

and best result with 127mak from 2010 Mars Season

[Space Cowboy]

Nice results James!

Glad you had some decent seeing at last. For sure the webcam struggles more on Mars than Jupiter I reckon but you do have a pretty good scope there. 60fps certainly makes a difference when seeing is variable.

[bigal1]

Great images James nice to see you using your big scope

[Kokatha man]

Nice images James - I especially like the first set of four..!

[Russe]

Sorry for being daft, but why does 60 fps make a difference over say 5fps?

[Russe]

Great pics btw

[beamish]

These are incredibly good James, you ARE the Master when it comes to the SPC and they show a great deal of detail as a direct result of your deft skills in manipulating the captures to tease out the best !!

There are many that could take inspiration from your work. I could go on......

XLNT James, I eagerly await your joining the 618 club .

[Space Cowboy]

Sorry for being daft, but why does 60 fps make a difference over say 5fps?

The dbk, dfk and dmk cams producing 60fps gives so many more frames to capture those moments of good seeing amongst the bad stuff. Being usb 2 they produce un-compressed data where as the spc webcam is usb 1 so once you go above 5-10 fps video compression spoils the data.

[Space Cowboy]

Sorry for being daft, but why does 60 fps make a difference over say 5fps?

The dbk21, dfk21 and dmk21 cams producing 60fps gives so many more frames to capture those moments of good seeing amongst the bad stuff. Being usb 2 they produce un-compressed data where as the spc webcam is usb 1 so once you go above 5-10 fps video compression spoils the data.

[Olorin]

great results James , good to see you posting again - I was starting to feel I am the only one with the SPC

But deep down I can admit I wish i had a 618

Dror

[JamesF]

Gorgeous cloud detail in the first images, James. Am I correct to infer from the comments on the images that three of the first four were not using an IR filter at all?

I'm also an SPC900 user, Dror. There seem to be a smaller number of us this winter though. I feel sure you couldn't move for SPC900 images last winter/spring.

What's encouraging (in a way is that comparing my images to James's above, I think it's not unreasonable to believe that I'm reaching the limits of what's possible with the SPC900 and 127 Mak on Mars and in turn that means my imaging has progressed quite a bit from this time last year.

James

[Clayton]

The dbk21, dfk21 and dmk21 cams producing 60fps gives so many more frames to capture those moments of good seeing amongst the bad stuff. Being usb 2 they produce un-compressed data where as the spc webcam is usb 1 so once you go above 5-10 fps video compression spoils the data.

IMHO this is not entirely true Stuart, my best work with the Toucam 840 was at 20 fps. I agree the DXK series of camera (especially the 618) is streets ahead of the SPC camera, but if you can't afford one you can still turn out respectable images with the Phillips. Be prepared to try a few unconventional things though:icon_salut:

[Space Cowboy]

Point taken Rob but my experience of using 20fps with the spc produced compression induced ring artifacts as did James's I believe.

[AztecastroMcJ]

many thx for comments everyone, looking with fresh eyes today

think i could do better job esp with pic 3 n 4 which were processed very quickly

and i still feel theres more detail in those avi's just maybe need upscaling a bit and given more careful process,

thx again all comments appreciated

[AztecastroMcJ]

IMHO this is not entirely true Stuart, my best work with the Toucam 840 was at 20 fps. I agree the DXK series of camera (especially the 618) is streets ahead of the SPC camera, but if you can't afford one you can still turn out respectable images with the Phillips. Be prepared to try a few unconventional things though:icon_salut:

i would agree with what both Stuart and Rob has said here

its always worth experimenting, i've never used 5fps

and i've gone back to staying @10fps as 20fps can bring artifacts that need more processing,

but i did get my best Jupiter @20fps

i just feel its not worth dealing with extra artifacts

i still use 20fps for focussing tho and change back to 10fps for capture, image is much steadier @20fps and therefore easier to focus

[AztecastroMcJ]

Gorgeous cloud detail in the first images, James. Am I correct to infer from the comments on the images that three of the first four were not using an IR filter at all?

James

hi James thx for ur comments

i use cheap UV/IR cut on 1st 3pics,

last pic was using both UV/IR and Neodymium filters together

cheers

James

[AztecastroMcJ]

heres same reg5 stack/pic 3 above with enhanced clouds @ 100% 150% and 200% just resized,(not drizzle or upsample)

very noisy and some horizontal banding showing esp @200%

no noise reduction has been done tho, just levels, colour, unsharp mask in gimp

was hoping to try as2 restack and drizzle maybe but struggling to get stack unless i do master stack ??

any easy to follow as2 guides about 4 dummies ?

[eyepod]

Nice images!

I've only managed to find this on the web.

Planetary, Lunar and Solar image stacking in Autostakkert2

There is a new version just out V2.1 which has fixed a few bugs i haven't tried it yet but might solve your problem

Jason

[neil phillips]

heres same reg5 stack/pic 3 above with enhanced clouds @ 100% 150% and 200% just resized,(not drizzle or upsample)

very noisy and some horizontal banding showing esp @200%

no noise reduction has been done tho, just levels, colour, unsharp mask in gimp

was hoping to try as2 restack and drizzle maybe but struggling to get stack unless i do master stack ??

any easy to follow as2 guides about 4 dummies ?

Like the top image the most on those James, the edge looks better colour wise, your starting to get some good detail. Im finding mars hard this year dont know why

[bm1980]

Very nice images James, thats a very decent collection of mars you have got.

Regards

Ben

[Russe]

do you use pipp for preprocessing?

and if so - which settings do you use?

trying currently with -quality -qweight -centre -crop=200 (and tried -rgbsplit for -ser)

Can't seem to get a better result than with Registax6 though... mhm

[AztecastroMcJ]

thx again guys,

Jason thx for link

thx Neil yeh finding >f30 to much gain needed, but got much better result by reducing gain and focal length,

seeing was much steadier aswell making focus so much easier,

dont think i'll get any better now with Mars reducing in size, and very ltd clear nights i'm getting, Scotland's def cloudier than England lol

was Sunny and clear all day yesterday, untill darkness fell then total cloud cover

[AztecastroMcJ]

do you use pipp for preprocessing?

and if so - which settings do you use?

trying currently with -quality -qweight -centre -crop=200 (and tried -rgbsplit for -ser)

Can't seem to get a better result than with Registax6 though... mhm

hi Russe

i have used similar programs like PCFE before but not with these

these were castrated with castrator then put in reg 5 or 6

if i know theres very bad frames in avi i remove these with vdub before registax

James