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1st attempt at Saturn and planetary


Zendrix

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Hey guys!

I know, i have seen great pics of Saturn, really lovely ones, but one must start from somewhere, so i would like to share my first saturn and would love to hear your inputs and eventually evolve in planetary photography.

So, details:

I dont have a webcam (yet), so i decided to give it a go with what i have, which is a Canon 1000D. I captured around 4500 frames at 800ISO through a 130mm Skywatcher, EQ2, R.A. motor and a 10mm eyepiece with Liveview x5 of APT. My eyepiece is still the one that came with the skywatcher set, which i think is one of the main reasons why i get a very blobby saturn with Canon>10mmeyepiece>skywatcher.

Then i used PIPP to center and crop the pics in planetary mode, and limited to around 2700. Passed the .AVI to Registax, stacked 85% quality, which gave me around 2500.

My final result was this: post-23812-0-96016700-1368043815.jpg,

This is one of the original frames: post-23812-0-33372800-1368043929_thumb.j

Would love your input!

Rui

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Hi Rui,

That is a great image, especially from a 130mm Skywatcher. I love the comparison between the one of the original frames and the final image.

One thing I would suggest trying is downloading 'Image Analyzer' and using its 'Adaptive Noise Reduction' filter to smooth out some of the noise in your image.

Cheers,

Chris

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Thank you guys, that is very encouraging. I wonder what your opinions would be regarding the next step in upgrading material for planetary. Im definitely wearing out my EQ2 for DSO, but i guess for planetary is still ok, as long as i would have, maybe: a better eyepiece? a webcam would get better results than liveview x5, i would say? What do you guys think?

One thing I would suggest trying is downloading 'Image Analyzer' and using its 'Adaptive Noise Reduction' filter to smooth out some of the noise in your image.

Thanks for the tip, Chris. Why this specific noise reduction program? it has advantages, compared to, lets say, "noiseware community edition" or the "denoiser" from registax? And when would i apply it, after the image has been processed in registax?

It's amazing how much more detail you can produce once it's gone through registax.

Michael, i agree. It's magic! :)

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Thanks for the tip, Chris. Why this specific noise reduction program? it has advantages, compared to, lets say, "noiseware community edition" or the "denoiser" from registax? And when would i apply it, after the image has been processed in registax?

Hi Rui,

Image Analyzer is the best tool that I have found for reducing noise in my planetary images while leaving the detail intact. I think it beats the functions available in RegiStax, Photoshop and PixInsight. I have never tried Noiseware Community Edition, but after a quick look at its web page I shall be giving it a try!

When to use noise reduction and how much to use varies between imagers depending on their processing routines. If I use it I would apply it after using RegiStax's wavelets before moving on to another tool to tweak curves and so on.

Cheers,

Chris

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Hi Rui,

Image Analyzer is the best tool that I have found for reducing noise in my planetary images while leaving the detail intact. I think it beats the functions available in RegiStax, Photoshop and PixInsight. I have never tried Noiseware Community Edition, but after a quick look at its web page I shall be giving it a try!

When to use noise reduction and how much to use varies between imagers depending on their processing routines. If I use it I would apply it after using RegiStax's wavelets before moving on to another tool to tweak curves and so on.

Cheers,

Chris

Great, thanks for the tip! Any tutorial on how to enhance your data after registax? like photoshop or so?

And what is your opinion on what should be my next step in terms of gear, in a very low budget? A webcam is probably the next achievement, in my perspective.. im guessing it would make a better job than the still frames from liveview x5? or maybe not? maybe a 10mm quality eyepiece?

Thanks,

Rui

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Hi Rui,

I can't think of a tutorial that really deals with processing after RegiStax. It varies from image to image, but in general I would try the following steps:

* Use the curves tool with a slight 'S' curve to darken the dark parts and brighten the bright parts. The aim here is to improve the contrast a bit and make sure enough of the histogram is being used.

* Use the curves too again, this time to change the colour balance. Click on the middle 'dropper' on the curves tool and then click on pixel in your image that should be white, a pixel in Saturn's rings often works well. Keep clicking away until you find a colour balance you like or give up and cancel the curves tool as I often do!

* Adjust the colour saturation up or down to taste.

Basically at this stage or processing you want to use a very light hand with you processing.

As for how you would move forward, that is more tricky for me to say. I have never used a DSLR for planetary imaging, nor have I used EP projection. Personally I would go for prime focus imaging with a barlow and a webcam, though I am not sure how much, if at all, it would improve your images which look pretty good to me. I don't think a better EP would really improve things though.

I think the best thing you can do now is get out and image as much as possible to get the practice in and hopeful catch that night with magical seeing that we are all waiting for.

Cheers,

Chris

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Garry, thanks a lot for your input. I really aprecciate it! :)

Ah, so you just use the barlow between the Camera and the telescope.. so its like a prime focus with a barlow in between, like u said? i hope i got it right. Im gonna try it out, definitely!

And i guess post processing is like u said, its just a light hand after the stacking... i guess is much different than DSO's, that need a lot of processing after gathering the data.

Thanks a lot, you've been very helpful and positive

Cheers,

Rui

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Garry, thanks a lot for your input. I really aprecciate it! :)

Ah, so you just use the barlow between the Camera and the telescope.. so its like a prime focus with a barlow in between, like u said? i hope i got it right. Im gonna try it out, definitely!

Exactly so, just a barlow between the scope and the camera.

Chris

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