Registax Help

[JamesF]

Unless Polaris really is hidden behind the house, finding it is really a matter of sky quality. It's not a dim star, but if the sky isn't that dark it can be a pig to pick out. I take it you're following the two "pointer" stars in Ursa Major to try to find it? It's a pretty easy method, so if it doesn't work then I'd guess either it's behind the house or washed out by the sky.

James

[DBushell]

Hi James,

I think it is behind our house - our garden isn't very long, but I will check and see next time I can get a clear sky!

Thanks I will also try using the two stars you mention to find it. I have a book arriving shortly, Turn left at Orion which should help me learn how to effectively navigate. At the moment I use Solar Walk on my iPad but it's quite hard sometimes to find stars that are on there, but too dim for my eyes!

Apologies for accidentally taking this thread way off topic!

[Yidoboy]

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

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

Hi Chris,

PIPP doesn't seem to want to play any of my videos????

[cgarry]

Hi Chris,

PIPP doesn't seem to want to play any of my videos????

Does it give you a specific error?

[Yidoboy]

Does it give you a specific error?

Does it give you a specific error?

Yes - it says the following

"FATAL AVI FILE ERROR : Only 8bpp, 24bpp and 32 bpp supported for RGB video. (16 found)"

[cgarry]

Yes - it says the following

"FATAL AVI FILE ERROR : Only 8bpp, 24bpp and 32 bpp supported for RGB video. (16 found)"

Hi Yidoboy,

What software are you using to capture the AVI file?

16 bpp data was not supported by PIPP as it is not considered a good format for planetary imaging and I did not expect anybody to be using it. With 16 bpp each pixel consists of either 5-bits red, 5-bits green and 5-bits blue or alternatively 5-bits red, 6-bits green and 5 bits-blue. This is a significant drop in quality from 8-bits red, 8-bits green and 8-bits blue available from the camera.

With this in mind, can you change the compression/codec your capture software uses? RGB24 or YUYV have been shown to work well.

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

Ah, that's probably it then. I'm using WxAstrocapture with my webcam and am just using the first camera option that comes up. I'll have another look at it and change it....when the sky clears again!!!

[cgarry]

Ah, that's probably it then. I'm using WxAstrocapture with my webcam and am just using the first camera option that comes up. I'll have another look at it and change it....when the sky clears again!!!

Ah, so you wont be trying it in the near future then...

I am going to add support for 16bpp AVI files to PIPP even though it is not an ideal format with just 32 levels for each colour. It is fairly trivial to add and I think it is better to process the files with a warning rather than getting stroppy and bombing out with an error!

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

Will there be an update available then Chris?

Thanks for all your help by the way, it's very much appreciated!

[cgarry]

Hi Yidoboy,

There should have been an update by now but I have been unable to generate a 16bpp AVI file for testing, even using WxAstrocapture.

Do you have a a very short capture file, short enough to email (say a second or so long), that I could use? Actually it does not even need to have anything in the video, just pointing the camera at a coloured piece of paper and videoing it for a second or so would give me all the AVI file details and enough to test that the colours are being decoded correctly.

Let me know if you have something and I will PM you an email address to send it to. A longer file would be fine too, but obviously it gets to be a bit more tricky to send these.

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

I'll get one across to you this evening. Drop me a PM with your email address on and I'll send it over tonight. I would do it sooner but we've got guests round at the mo' and I just wont have an opportunity until later.

[Yidoboy]

If anything you've help me realise that there's a lot more from my camera and this is probably half the reason for my poor images so far...please accept my apologies for being astro-photographically challenged!!!!

ps - I'm sure 'astro-photographically' isn't a real word but it sounded good.

[cgarry]

I am pretty sure you can hyphenate what words you want together and they remain valid!

By using the codec you have been using you are only using 1/8th of you camera's dynamic range (32 levels vs 256 levels), so I am sure your images have been under-performing. It is an easy mistake to make though as 16bpp RGB sounds like it should have plenty of dynamic range.

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

All sent Chris. Checking through the options available on Wxastrocapture (sent you a screenshot), I don't appear to have the option of YUYV or RGB24????? I'll have a look through Sharpcap as well and see if that makes a difference.

[cgarry]

All received thanks.

Looking at your screenshot you should select YUY2 from the camera, this is actually the same as YUYV.

Cheers,

Chris

[Yidoboy]

That's the one I use.....

[Baz Pearce]

Hi Yidoboy,

This is my best so far with Jupiter. I'm using sharpcap in conjunction with the camera's own settings (options - video capture filter) to capture my AVIs. Using YUY2 colour compression and auto colour, with some or all of the Gamma taken out for contrast. Then stacking in Registax. Usually, i try to keep about 1000 frames. I've tried frame rates from 10-60fps, and don't find much difference. I also use a Baader ir cut filter and a 1.5X APO barlow (Astro Engineering) with my Celestron Astromaster 130. Since i am getting a bit of vibration from my mount, i usually just let it roll through the FOV then crop out the planet in the final stage of Registax, sometimes with small adjustments to hue/saturation/lightness.

I've gone through the flashing procedure on this demo to access more colour options and frame rates.

Baz.

PS anyone know what is causing the ringing effect in this image?

Ideas offered to me so far include, droop in my focuser, ice crystals in the atmosphere and incorrect gain/shutter settings. Initially i thought it was too much magnification. But i don't think so, because sometimes it's there and sometimes not at different powers. Focus shouldn't be causing it as i'm using a bahtinov mask.

[cgarry]

Yidoboy,

After examining the files you sent I am now sure your codec selection was good. The problem is wxAstroCapture is filling in the AVI file with inconsistent header values, the handler field indicates the data is in straight RGB format but the compression field says the data is in YUY2 format. Unfortunately PIPP guessed and believed the wrong one. I am adding some changes to handle this type of inconsistent file, it is not difficult but I need to be careful that I do not break anything else!

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

PS anyone know what is causing the ringing effect in this image?

Ideas offered to me so far include, droop in my focuser, ice crystals in the atmosphere and incorrect gain/shutter settings. Initially i thought it was too much magnification. But i don't think so, because sometimes it's there and sometimes not at different powers. Focus shouldn't be causing it as i'm using a bahtinov mask.

Insufficient gain is usually my favourite, or insufficient light getting onto the sensor. It can be related to overdoing the image scale with barlows because by adding a barlow you're spreading the same amount of light out over a larger area, thus reducing the amount of light per pixel. You can fix that, but increasing the gain isn't ideal because it doesn't solve the fundamental problem and introduces noise, and increasing exposure time can result in a poorer quality image in unsteady seeing.

James

[Baz Pearce]

Thanks James,

Next chance i get i'll try different gain/shutter combinations to see where the best settings are for my location. Will post my results here.

Yidoboy,

Sounds like your best option would be to give sharpcap a try and see how it works out instead of struggling with wxastrocapture. I've tried that software and found it to be nowhere near as good as sharpcap, or even VLounge. The only drawback i've noticed with sharpcap is that it can be a bit hefty on disk space when you ramp up the frame rate.

Baz.

[cgarry]

Hi Yidoboy,

PIPP v2.1.5 is now available for download (http://sites.google....opipp/downloads). It has a fix for the issue you have been seeing with the wxAstroCapture AVI files, so should work with your current AVI files.

Cheers,

Chris

[Baz Pearce]

Hi Guys,

I got some pretty decent captures on Sunday night despite the fireworks. A bit of slight haze helped calm the seeing quite well.

Captured at 9 minutes past midnight when Europa's shadow was central on the Southern polar belt.

The colours are a bit jaded due the dust in there atmosphere. But i'm pleased with the result.

There's another couple of images in this photobucket album. Including the same video without using PIPP, and a few Moon closeups i couldn't resist grabbing before i went to bed. My favourite is the closer shot of Plato crater with some zoom added:-

http://s1226.photobu...of good seeing/

Baz.

PS. Really pleased with what PIPP does. Thanks for the heads up on that great program cgarry.