Registax Help

[Yidoboy]

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is the right thread or not....

I've attached my latest pic of Jupiter and wondered if there is anymore I can get out of it in Registax?

One thing I would like is a more natural colour, as opposed to the green/grey colour I seem to have. Overall I think it's my best image yet but I'm sure more can be taken from the image.

Thanks

[Welrod50]

That's pretty good Yido to be fair

I'm no Registax expert, so can't advise on it really. Although there may be a way to alter the colour balance somehow??

I can however say, that if you have something like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (I use Elements 8, but started with Elements 3 some years back) then you can alter the colour quite well. There is a tool called 'auto colour correction' which will do a reasonable job for you. Or you can adjust it manually with either Hue/saturation or better still, by adjusting individual colour channels.

What scope did you use for this image?

Scott.

[Yidoboy]

Thanks Scott. I used my Skywatcher Explorer EQ3-2, with the SPC and then registax. I think it was about 3000 images but got reduced to about 300 I think - a downside of manually adjusting the scope!

I might have another go with the colour channels and see what happens....

Cheers

Mark

[Welrod50]

OK, keep us posted. Out of interest, are you using Photoshop/Elements or just registax?

Scott.

[Welrod50]

This is what you can expect to achieve......

It is by no means perfect at all, but average seeing conditions, taken with Kx video through a x2 Tal barlowed SW 8-24mm zoom EP at 12mm. Video processed through Registax and finished in Elements 8 (with colour channels adjusted).

Like I say, it is nowhere near perfect, but a reasonable enough start I felt.

Planet appears to be oddly shaped as video displayed a lot of 'wobble' if you like due to atmospheric turbulence/poor seeing. Originally it was greeny yellow, but adjusted to grey/red (or pinkish). I may well have another go at the original video when I get time. Telescope was a SW 130 f900.

[Nova]

Hi Yidoboy, you have practically the same set up as me is yours the 150P or the PL? (looks like you may be just down the road from me too). Thats actually not a bad pic at all. Just out of curiosity are you using an ir cut filter on your SPC? Photoshop is great for tweaking images but if you dont have it you could try GIMP which is free and although does not have all the features of PS is still a good piece of software. Feel free to take a look at my Flikr page to see what I have managed with the 150P so far

[cgarry]

Thanks Scott. I used my Skywatcher Explorer EQ3-2, with the SPC and then registax. I think it was about 3000 images but got reduced to about 300 I think - a downside of manually adjusting the scope!

I might have another go with the colour channels and see what happens....

Cheers

Mark

Try running your video through PIPP first to centre and crop the planet, Registax should do a much better job with the generated video. This is good approach for videos from manually targeted scopes as any frames without a planet in them are discarded and the planet centred in the remaining frames.

This example is pretty much what you need to do, but ignore the debayering stuff:

http://sites.google....uasge/example1B

You will probably need to change this option from 50 to 10 to ensure your planet is actually detected:

Processing Options->Minimum Object Size (Pixels) = 10

Also, to help with your colour issues set the following option:

Processing Options->Enable Histogram Stretch = Checked

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

My videos don't seem to want to load up on PIPP?!!!

Something about 8bit, 24bit and 32bit only?????

[cgarry]

My videos don't seem to want to load up on PIPP?!!!

Something about 8bit, 24bit and 32bit only?????

That output message should also have said what bpp it found in your file. Do you know what the value was?

Chris

[JamesF]

You'll need to experiment a bit to find the "sweet spot" for a given planet and your scope and camera. The first thing I do when imaging a new planet is spent a fair bit of time trying out different exposures and gain settings to see what comes out best.

I'd experiment with the gain setting for capture I think. I'd guess that it could go higher than you have it. Push it up in intervals of five or ten and repeat the captures. Don't be worried about throwing data away at the end of the night -- if you've learned something from it then it's not a waste. If you're using SharpCap for capture, make sure you get it to record the settings when it saves the video. It makes comparing images much easier.

I'm using a Skywatcher 127 Mak for planetary imaging, on a motorised EQ3-2, with an SPC900. That gives me a big advantage over the 150P in terms of image size, but it's the same mount and camera. These are some of my images from last weekend:

Realistically you won't be able to achieve images that size, but there's no reason that you shouldn't get close to that sort of thing on a smaller scale with practice and experience. Keep at it, and when it goes wrong (it inevitably does) just look on it as an opportunity to learn what not to do next time. Don't expect to be able to get it right first time, or second, or even third. Just keep trying to make a bit of progress each time and you'll get there.

James

[JamesF]

Oh, the other thing I'd say with the SPC900 is stick to 10 fps. Because the camera is USB v1.1 it can only transfer 640x480 colour images uncompressed at 5 fps, but 5 fps is too slow unless your seeing is absolutely perfect. From 10 fps the camera compresses the data and you lose some, but you lose far less at 10 fps then you will at 20 fps.

You may also wish to have a look at AutoStakkert!2 for stacking and then use Registax for wavelets. AS!2 often works better than Registax, but sometimes doesn't. I usually end up stacking with both and comparing the two images after wavelets to see which I prefer.

James

[Yidoboy]

I've had a play around with the colours using GIMP and it seems to have been improved....my next question is how do I convert the photo to allow me to post it?????

Sorry for asking so many questions!

[JamesF]

If you save it as a png or jpeg then you should be able to post it without any problems.

James

[Yidoboy]

And the simple answer is - "don't be so blumming lazy and expecting everyone else to tell you the answers. You're a grown man , so start acting like it!"

Roughly translated as use GOOGLE or have a look in GIMP!

Updated photo attached -

[Alan_B]

James

I'm using a Skywatcher 127 Mak for planetary imaging

Do you prefer the Mak 127 over your C9.25 for planetary ?

Recently bought a 127 myself and have not tried imaging with it yet but I wouldn't expect it to out perform my C8

Edit - oops nearly forgot - Great images by the way

[JamesF]

Do you prefer the Mak 127 over your C9.25 for planetary ?

Recently bought a 127 myself and have not tried imaging with it yet but I wouldn't expect it to out perform my C8

Edit - oops nearly forgot - Great images by the way

Thank you

It's not really a preference thing, to be honest. I've had to box up a load of stuff because there's either not room for it or I worry for its safety whilst we get some "house improvements" done and the C9.25 and NEQ6 were just too big for me to be happy having them sitting around. The Mak is small enough to stick in a cupboard or somewhere else out of the way. I've only really got the dob out because I've just finished it and it will stand on its own in the corner of my office. The plan was to get an obsy built this summer and move everything into that, but thanks to the weather, work and suchlike that hasn't happened yet. It's frustrating, but I'll get there...

James

[DBushell]

And the simple answer is - "don't be so blumming lazy and expecting everyone else to tell you the answers. You're a grown man , so start acting like it!"

Roughly translated as use GOOGLE or have a look in GIMP!

Updated photo attached -

That photo is great I can't even get the browns and greens, the best I've done so far after probably 5 attempts spread over a couple of months is this shot from 29th September.

[JamesF]

If you're not getting the colour then I think experimentation with gain, exposure time and saturation is called for. Possibly gamma, too, though I don't like to muck about with that too much. Gain and exposure time are probably the two to go for first, I'd say.

James

[Capricorn]

Is it just me but I see green and brown there?

Also suspect that a 5x balow would help as regards the size.

You need to collect as many scopes as James has, then get images on say 5 in one night and see which deleivers the best. :grin:

[DBushell]

Is it just me but I see green and brown there?

Also suspect that a 5x balow would help as regards the size.

You need to collect as many scopes as James has, then get images on say 5 in one night and see which deleivers the best. :grin:

I didn't even know you can get a 5x barlow! Do you recommend any that won't breake the bank?

If I had as many scopes as James has I think her indoors would leave me! I can just about get away with one scope and occasionally a night in the garden!

Would a 5x barlow affect the focusing of the scope seeing as it's only got a 650mm focal length and 130mm aperture?

Does the maximum magnification (according to other posts on the forum) of 200x still apply when using a webcam in our average seeing conditions?

[JamesF]

Skywatcher do a 5x barlow I think. No idea what its like though. It would push the focal ratio up to f/25 which is no bad thing for planetary imaging, though you really do need a very steady mount to be able to keep the image on the camera sensor at that point. Focusing would be tricky, to be honest. I rely on a motorised focuser that I bodged onto the scope now so I don't have to touch the OTA. Magnification doesn't really apply when imaging, and the limits of magnification suggested for visual use aren't really relevant. As long as the image frames are reasonably clean then the processing will deal with many of the problems you'd experience visually at the same focal length.

If the children are in the right mood I quite often have the ST102, ST120, 127 Mak and 10" dob out at the same time, at which point having quite a few scopes doesn't look so bad

James

[Cornelius Varley]

5x barlows start at about £41 (Modernastronomy) up to £175 for a 5x TV powermate ( Telescope House). The maximum visual limit doesn't apply to imaging because there is no magnification when using a webcam.

[DBushell]

Thanks for the great advice, so assuming that a 5x barlow would be very tricky to keep on target, can I stack another 2x barlow onto my existing 2x barlow to get 4x? Would that produce decent results on my telescope considering the light has to go through a couple more lenses?

[JamesF]

There's no reason you can't stack barlows, though obviously you'll lose a little light each time. The alternative is the 4x ImageMate, though that seems to get mixed reviews. I have one, but I struggle with it using the Mak and EQ3-2, partly because of the mount not really being up to the demands put on it (I'd be imaging at f/40 -- twice what you would get with your scope), but probably mainly because of the mirror shift inherent in the Mak when changing the focuser direction.

James

[DBushell]

Thanks, it seems if I buy another Celestron 2x Barlow it's about the same price as a Revelation 5x barlow. I've not heard of Revelation before but it seems to have some good reviews but with a dodgy mount it's probably best not to get the scale too high until one day when I can afford a larger aperture.

For the time being, until I've mastered proper Polar alignment and my scopes limited motor drive I'll be manually adjusting which is quite frustrating but the results are certainly worth the hassle! I think I'll go for another Celestron 2x as I'm quite pleased with the quality of it.

I don't know why, but I struggle to find Polaris - I have a feeling it's behind the house! Next time I'm out I'll try and find it rather than skipping to the planets!!