my first picture of saturn edited

[bottletopburly]

tried registax for the first time didnt have a clue what i was doing but seemed to come out ok ish

Capture 19_06_2012 23_20_26 edited.bmp

[Aenima]

Wow, this is your 1st? Nice1!

I have recently got a spc880 already flashed, and just tried it out last night.Not as good as yours tbh. Previously I have enjoyed using the Xbox livecam mod - (thanks Cliff) - and after registax cleans the images up, the results are really good for £5 webcam + a little, easy modification, but im hoping now to get better images from the philips.

As a noob to this I had problems finding the right settings and kept getting error msg's saying "Can't change such n such setting - and something about only using the SPC900 philips camera??? Maybe i'm using sharpcap wrong, but whatever your doing, its working, nice pic. Keep it up.

Regards

Jay

[Aenima]

Just for comparison these were taken (by a noob - me) with the xbox live vision webcam mod.

Still very new to this.

But for five bucks can't complain.

1st - Mars - slight polar ice showing.

2nd - venus crescent

3rd - saturn taken through tree branch (!)

[bottletopburly]

it took me two hours to find saturn that night not that i couldnt find it i just kept over focusing it so it looked like there was nothing there very frustrating must have showed everyone at work this picture lol wait till they see the edited version

[Monki]

Nice they both remind me of my first (and only) Saturn.! Quite an experience, and by coincidence the last time I could use my scope too (April).

I hope you guys don't suffer the same curse as me after imaging it hehe.

These 2 are about best I could manage....not as sharp or clear as the ones from you guys though

Btw aenima....nice avatar haha.

Saturn2x-No2G.bmp

SaturnMono.bmp

[Aenima]

Hah, no way! literaly just noticed the Tool-type eye! I gather its from the band? or actual image from Alex Grey's amazing work? Anyway, those pics of saturn are really good - there's a lot of detail that still looks natural as oppose to my severly processed ones. And no, I wont get another shot of saturn until whenever it comes around again more to the east, its dropping down behind houses and dissapeared into a huge tree a few weeks back and my last attempt failed due to branch of doom, same with mars. Just metaphorically pacing until Jupiter show its brilliant self later this year - cant wait.

So how is the lifecam? I lokked at the mod how-to and was glad i'd done my xbox mod already cos its a doddle compared with taking the lifecam apart and the rest, does not look easy.

Thanks for the pics and the comment on mine - i've a lot to learn still.

Keep it up,

Regards

Aenima

[mallorcasaint]

Here is my first Saturn with the Phillips. Quite pleased with it.

[Cloudwatcher]

tried registax for the first time didnt have a clue what i was doing but seemed to come out ok ish

Looks fine to me.........perhaps a little sharpening and a hint of colour.......what do you think?

[Aenima]

it took me two hours to find saturn that night not that i couldnt find it i just kept over focusing it so it looked like there was nothing there very frustrating must have showed everyone at work this picture lol wait till they see the edited version

Btw, I don't know if your familiar with Bahtinov masks, but when your having trouble focusing they really help make the job easier and quicker. Probably there are more priorities regarding budget at the moment but when you get a spare 15 or so bucks look up starsharp Bahtinov masks, you just aim at a star or something similar and turn the focuser - bingo, scope now in focus then just center saturn or whatever your imaging on the screen.

I only recently got one and glad now that I did, when the target is in poor position (between tree branches in my case.) time is a factor.

As I said you might already know the masks and just havent got round to buying one, if so - its worth it.

Regards

Aenima

[Aenima]

Looks fine to me.........perhaps a little sharpening and a hint of colour.......what do you think?

Wow! Am i right in assuming this is simply a copy of the first pic, but processed a bit more? If so, what did you do?

Sorry if I'm mistaken, either way I'd love to know how you get that kind of detail.

Nice1

Regards

Aenima

[Cloudwatcher]

Am i right in assuming this is simply a copy of the first pic, but processed a bit more? If so, what did you do?

Regards

Aenima

You are right........nothing special done,just a bit of sharpening and addition of a couple of colour filters using Photoshop.

The tweaked image was placed next to the original simply for illustrative purposes.

[bottletopburly]

cheers cloudwatcher that looks brilliant will try that in gimp

[Aenima]

You are right........nothing special done,just a bit of sharpening and addition of a couple of colour filters using Photoshop.

The tweaked image was placed next to the original simply for illustrative purposes.

SWWEEEEEET. Ok. your gonna have to give me a few pointers here. -cheek mode- I have a rough avi of saturn jumping around behind tree branches, and the resulting bmp. is like the 1st image above, and this is after stacking etc. and i'm guessing if the 1st image can be tweaked into looking like the 2nd image....? I havent a clue as to how the software works, and my pics are result of pressing buttons until something happens, it would be cool to get a couple of tips on the technique needed to tweak my saturn avi/bmp. if you don't mind that is, it does sound a bit cheeky to me.....

but great image nonetheless.

Regards

Aenima

[Cloudwatcher]

I havent a clue as to how the software works, and my pics are result of pressing buttons until something happens, it would be cool to get a couple of tips on the technique needed to tweak my saturn avi/bmp. if you don't mind that is, it does sound a bit cheeky to me.....

Regards

Aenima

I don't mind cheeky,I just hope bottletopburly feels the same about having his thread hijacked.

Pressing buttons till something happens.......trial and error so to speak........ is a good way to learn processing and in Photoshop you can always go back if you don't like the result of the last press.

I did a quick sharpen and saturation of the Saturn image (which,incidentally,appears to have a ghost) but If I were you I'd be inclined to concentrate on the Mars image which is rather nice.The original has a 'fluffy' outline and to my eye anyway is shifted to far towards the red. A sweep with the burn tool around the edge will help define the outline and you can play with the colour balance until it looks 'right' to you.

My enlarged version is below.........hope you like.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Some awesome saturn images and few other planetary shots like the mars ones they hard to see so well done on them.

[Aenima]

Your right, CW, thanks and apologies to Burly, specifically for blindly leaping into the thread, but also posting my images - I appreciate the opportunity though should have asked first. Congrats on your original Saturn image, still the best on this thread, nice1. Whatever your doing - it's working.

I'm very impressed also with CW's re-doing of the sketchy images I posted of mars and saturn - taken with the x-box.cam - I have to say its the best image to emerge from my set-up thus far, though I have no idea where all the detail came from! And I like the idea that this kind of end result coming from cliff's xbox mod has great potential, and a good benchmark for others using, or thinking of using, the xbox mod.

May thanks,

Regards

Aenima