Jupiter, 10~11/08

[gary1968]

Right then, finally got out with the dob and the DFK21AS618 a shot of some avi's if Jupiter.

It has taken me a wee while to get a 'satisfactory' process of the data as I am fairly new to planetary imaging, not to mention RAW avi's and having to debayer.

Anyway, here is the result of my first outing. Not up to the standard of you guys yet, maybe the focus was a bit soft or collimation not quite right. The avi was shot around 01:30 on the morning of the 11th, so the planet wasn't really that high. This was taken at F10 as I only had an Antares x2 barlow, I have since invested in a AE x4 Imagemate so image scale should be much better next time.

Am am glad to note however that there is no evidence of the grid pattern or parallel lines that was discussed here earlier in the year, I hope that the camera continues to perform like this......

Jupiter and moon by gaz-anderson, on Flickr

C&C welcome as usual folks...... :-)

Gary

[digitalight]

For first outing that is pretty amazing. I'm a newby at planetary imagining and tried to get shots of Jupiter but none have come out as clear as yours. Well done

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one. Focus might be slightly off (always difficult). With some more practice you should be able to get very nice shots indeed with a 12" scope. How many frames did you stack?

[gary1968]

Hi, Thanks for the kind words folks......

It was 4000 frames at 60fps, avi ran through PIPP & debayered in PIPP then AS!2 set to stack best 50%. I tried not to debayer in PIPP then debayer in AS!2 but that always left me with a monochrome image...... I cant figure out what I am doing wrong there....

Gary

[cgarry]

I tried not to debayer in PIPP then debayer in AS!2 but that always left me with a monochrome image...... I cant figure out what I am doing wrong there....

Gary

If PIPP centres the planet or crops the the frame then the bayer pattern may or may not be correct for that frame, and certainly will not match between frames. The colour information is still there, you just need to figure out which bayer pattern each frame now has!

Thinking about it, I could overcome this by adding an option to only crop or shift the pixels by an even number so that the underlying bayer pattern remains in the correct place.

Cheers,

Chris

[cgarry]

Nice image by the way! After stacking, I would give it a go with the RGB Channel Align feature in Registax to bring the colour channels back together and take our the prism effect that the atmosphere adds when objects are low in the sky.

Cheers,

Chris

[gary1968]

If PIPP centres the planet or crops the the frame then the bayer pattern may or may not be correct for that frame, and certainly will not match between frames. The colour information is still there, you just need to figure out which bayer pattern each frame now has!

Thinking about it, I could overcome this by adding an option to only crop or shift the pixels by an even number so that the underlying bayer pattern remains in the correct place.

Cheers,

Chris

Ah, so its not something I was doing then Chris..... It did confuse me though as I had a vague idea that it had worked once, maybe was just lucky in the way it cropped the bayer matrix.

I look forward to seeing how you overcome this, if it is possible that is.....

Cheers

Gary

[Pentatonicblues]

Nice first image. You did well to image Jupiter at 01.30, it is pretty low then. When it is higher in the sky you will great images with your setup. After 4a.m. it is reasonably high and will get better all year. If you haven't got one, I recommend a Bhatinov mask to nail the focus every time. It makes it a doddle to get precise focus-one less variable to worry about!

Stewart

[gary1968]

Nice first image. You did well to image Jupiter at 01.30, it is pretty low then. When it is higher in the sky you will great images with your setup. After 4a.m. it is reasonably high and will get better all year. If you haven't got one, I recommend a Bhatinov mask to nail the focus every time. It makes it a doddle to get precise focus-one less variable to worry about!

Stewart

I had considered getting a Bahtinov mask for the 300p, I used to use them when DSO imaging, they are great. However, I was unsure how easy it would be to get a star on the chip, get it focused then get the planet back on the chip..... lol. I suppose a bit of trial and error might prevail there..

Thanks, I will consider it again!

Gary

[cgarry]

I stopped using a Bhatinov mask long ago for planetary imaging, at long focal lengths with UK skies I find the focus point moves about so much they are not much use. I simply adjust the focus until the detail on the planet is as good as it can be for most of the time, this can often take 10 minutes or so before I am happy with it.

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

I think that's pretty good for a first attempt.

James

[Space Cowboy]

Good start Gary!

Imaging Planets at a low alt is like looking through a steamed up window you wont believe the difference when Jupiter is over 40 degrees which makes focussing so much easier especialy if there is a moon in view. Get that moon pin sharp and your focus wont be far out.

As Chris said RGB Align will sharpen things up.

[Space Cowboy]

edit : I usually over expose the image when first focussing on a moon.

[luis]

Its not easy jupiter with a Dob...