DP Color first shots

[rodrigol]

Here are my first shots with a DP Color from Astrophoto.co.uk CPC800. I have no relation whatsoever with Astrophoto and this is my first dip into astrovideography!

Below are M13, M57 and a crop from Saturn on May 6th. Viewing was 6/10. It got damp quite quickly so the session was short (couple of hours). I got into bed before 1am. There is a haze of light on the top of the images. I'm trying to find out what is going on here. However, the colour in the images is quite good and the resolution, all taken into account, is great for a camera that costs less and £100.

(All images have been processed using Registax6 -using defaults- and Nikon Capture NX2 (to correct and darken noisy background using black WB control point)).

[DoctorD]

Hi Rodrigol

Welcome to the wonderful world of video astronomy!

If these were taken at native F10 of your CPC800 then they are very impressive - I usually use a focal reducer on my C8.

How many frames were used for each shot and what camera settings?

The glow at the top of the frame may be AMP glow - but that usually appears in the upper left corner.

You should be able to remove it if you take some dark frames and use this when processing in DSS - the main problem with these security cameras seems to be balancing the dark frame to the light frame as the AGC varies the gain between the object and the dark frame when there is no light at all entering the camera.

Try vob frame extractor and DSS for processing, I think that registax is more suited to planetary imaging than DSO.

Looking forward to seeing more results from you with this camera.

Clear skies

Paul

[Carl Reade]

Welcome to the forum, well done on your first pics, I would agree with Paul. The glow looks like amp glow produced by the camera. Darks will help sort it. There appears to be a lot of manual settings to play with on this camera which will just be a learning curve.

Have a go with different noise and AGC settings on your next outing and remember to take some dark frames to help with processing. Look forward to seeing more.

Cheers Carl

[rodrigol]

Hi Rodrigol

Welcome to the wonderful world of video astronomy!

If these were taken at native F10 of your CPC800 then they are very impressive - I usually use a focal reducer on my C8.

How many frames were used for each shot and what camera settings?

The glow at the top of the frame may be AMP glow - but that usually appears in the upper left corner.

You should be able to remove it if you take some dark frames and use this when processing in DSS - the main problem with these security cameras seems to be balancing the dark frame to the light frame as the AGC varies the gain between the object and the dark frame when there is no light at all entering the camera.

Try vob frame extractor and DSS for processing, I think that registax is more suited to planetary imaging than DSO.

Looking forward to seeing more results from you with this camera.

Clear skies

Paul

Many thanks for your great feedback and pointers to Vob and DSS!

The M13 & M57 images comes from AVIs that contained 10 seconds of integrated data and where taken at f10 on the CPC800. The AGC was set to MID and exposure to 1/50 and sensitivity to x1024. For these I did not select any particular frames but used the whole file in registax. The jpg I used with capture nx 2. For Saturn the exposure was set to 1/100000 and sensitivity to x128 or lower, I think. I'm not sure this is an appropriate answer your question? I do have a FR but because this was the first time I did this I did not use it. It is clear it is required to increase the field of view.

I will try the same avi files with the software you suggest as soon as possible. The art of making dark frames is also something I need to master.

Again, many thanks for your feedback!

R:)

[shirva]

Hi ..agree with Paul n Carl defo amp glow in pictures. My attempt with stacking and darks made the picture worse I had better results in single frame capture, I done a lot of work in photoshop completely redoing the background to black ,,, lot of work but photo was a million times better. ..Davy

[nytecam]

Welcome to Video Forum. Nice first pics - do you have a weblink to cam as I'm unfamiliar with it and your text [to me] is in code!

[rodrigol]

Hi Nytecam, sorry for the very late reply. The link to the camera is http://www.astrophoto.co.uk/

There is another thread discussing the camera: