Examples of Very Good & Poor seeing (Jupiter).

[Space Cowboy]

Thought I'd post up a couple of clips showing Very good and poor seeing for those newcomers who are not sure whether their images are effected by poor conditions or imaging setup.

Poor seeing :

Stacked image:

Very Good seeing : (Youtube video compression has degraded this somewhat)

Stacked image :

[Marki]

Interesting comparison, and instructive to see it makes a difference in the stacked images too (although not as much as I would have expected, not being an imager at all). Thanks for posting

[Delboy_Hog]

Good comparison Stuart, and interesting to see the effect on the final image. Oh for some more of those calm skies!

[si@nite]

Very intresting comparison Stuart, just shows how important the seeing is to all of us.

[neil phillips]

It is a interesting Topic Stuart, and its one that confuses issues in capture for many who are starting. Those that get blurry images all year round, Either have a very poor location or something else is upsetting the image. Learning what is what, can be very time consuming and confusing for some.

I have worked with scopes that were not performing well that appear like poor seeing, but were infact a problem with the scope. I have also worked with scopes that consistently perform well, ( is a good performer ) that under very poor seeing looked like a bad performer. As in Freddys recent post.

For the newcomer, sometimes it can be hard to tell what is the direct cause. Freddys setup is so well tuned we can easily tell what is happening quite quickly and easily.

But i think thats not always true for everyone, and we must certainly not all jump to the conlcusion that only poor seeing is hindering many images posted on here.

I know thats not the intention of these facts being shown in both yours and Freddys post, as we know your setup and Freddys are tip top performers. Unless a very poor location can be ruled out. ( and in my experiance even those will perform occasionaly ) one must look for consitency over a longer period of time, to really tell what is happening. As those with finely tuned setups do seem to get good images even under less than ideal conditions ( as you did recently Stuart ) Its the consitency over time, that i feel might be the real clue to a lot of this i think .

I recently had someone say to me can i post a good frame for there comparison. I then posted a averagely good frame, and pictures of my location. They then seemed quite shocked, and said they thought i was imaging somewhere exotic and free from houses, when in fact i am in essex surrounded by houses. ( not great in the winter i can tell you ) But its here you can see how well tuned my setup is, to produce consistent images over a long period of time all year round. despite poor, average or good seeing conditions.

The difference is a image that looks pleasing but quite soft and lacking fine sharp detail. then a image that is quite a bit sharper with some fine detail coming through. And finally ending with a image ( under good seeing ) that is tack sharp with many tiny spots and sharp details on show. There are so many variables in this game, that all and everyone of them has to be considered. Those who have mastered this, take for granted cool down and thermal issues, collimation issues. Precise focussing issues, ( and even in extreme cases poor optics for those unlucky few) but that is quite a bit rarer nowdays with good cheap optics being produced, but by no means non existent. worrying about houses with there heating is also important, and the time of year we image isnt something many will even consider. But are just as important issues surrounding these questions of poor seeing. As poor seeing isnt just about jet streams,As some people might think. when good versus bad seeing comparisons are shown. I am sure you agree

[Stargazer Jack]

Very good comparison, well done

[Ouroboros]

Now I'm not a planetary imager usually but I've dabbled using video obtained using a canon 450D.

I found it really helped improve the quality of the final image to go through a set of images manually throwing away the bum shots before putting it through the stacking program. Do you experienced guys do that too?

[neil phillips]

Would be interesting and very informing for people to post up location pictures. Hows this for a winter nightmare of thermals from house heating, Jupiter being higher this year should cope better with these problems. But i have got many of my best images in the summer and spring, and often early evening ( before temps plummet ) and early morining. under more thermally stable conditions

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks for your input guys! You are dead right Neil its not that simple though seeing is the major player in most circumstances. Looking at your photo I trust you've made your neighbours aware of the free roof insulation scheme.

There is an excellent article on Damian Peach's website discussing seeing and location impact :

http://www.damianpeach.com/seeing1.htm

[Space Cowboy]

Now I'm not a planetary imager usually but I've dabbled using video obtained using a canon 450D.

I found it really helped improve the quality of the final image to go through a set of images manually throwing away the bum shots before putting it through the stacking program. Do you experienced guys do that too?

Since I've been using a imaging source camera which produces 5-10000 frames each avi run and used the excellent AS!2 and PIPP (both have excellent quality selection tools) I no longer hand pick frames though I did on occasions when using the spc webcam (registax was too inconsistant).

[GreatAttractor]

I also have a sample video. The seeing was rather average, but it yielded my best Jupiter image so far:

Stacked: