First attempt at Saturn

[Aza]

Hi

These 2 images are single frames from avis I took.

From seeing the single frames here, can you tell me if the avis I took were acceptable?

Should I be able to process these to make a reasonable image, or should I have better settings on my webcam to take much better avis?

Thanks for any advice

Arran

[Parallax]

Arran

You will need to turn down the brightness (so that the planet is not 'burnt out') and turn dow the gain (so that the background is more black). Although I am not an expert here is one frame from one of my avi's.

Steve

[Sam]

They are most certainly worth processing. Even though they look blurry and hardly any detail is visible you'll be surprised at what registax will produce. Next time try reducing the gain a bit - and maybe increase the brightness setting if it gets too dim after reducing the gain.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the processed avi results in!

cheers

Sam

[dweller25]

Hello Arran,

I have just started planetary imaging myself. Compared to my avi's yours look a little overexposed, try turning the gain down - this will give a less grainy image too. If your gain was very low then turn the brightness down a little.

I would still process the avi's in Registax to see what comes out.

Best of luck.

D25.

[Aza]

Thanks for the replies.

I did process the avi's and got these stacked images. Couldn't do much with it afterwards that made it look any better though. But hey we all have to start somewhere

[themos]

Are you using a Barlow? I think you should. it will give a better image scale. Then I see that there is some red/blue fringe in the registax image. There is an option called "RGB Align" that you should explore (in wavelets tab, I think). As others have said, the capture is a bit overexposed, so experiment with taking the Gain slider down a bit. I've also found that spending more time focusing is a good investment. I used lunar craters to focus. It's a great start!

[Aza]

Hi Themos

Here is my latest attempt, using a 2x barlow

Colouring is odd but its getting better. I will use your suggestion regarding focusing, I have found it hard simply focusing on Saturn. I was looking to find a Hartmann mask to buy, but cannot. I guess its time to make one

Cheers

[Sam]

That's a good result, maybe processed a bit too much, but a good image nonetheless. The ring is nice and clear, there's the planet shadow on the back of the ring and the ring shadow on the planet - as well as some banding on the planet. I'm sure with a slightly better focus you'll bring out the Cassini Division as well.

Sam

[themos]

what an improvement! I can see the Cassini division in that one. It shouldn't be hard to fix the colour. I think one should spend as much time getting the focusing right as on all other preparations combined. If in doubt, take many captures at (slightly) different focuser positions.