Advice sought on processing Jupiter & Io Picture

[Stub Mandrel]

Like another recent poster, I have an awful feeling taht this forum is swamped by newbies like me posting another crop of Jupiter pictures every day! If so, my apologies...

I managed to get a picture of Jupiter with Io's shadow and the GRS, but Io should be visible as well as its clearly at least as big as its shadow, only brighter!

Thinking the problem may be that they have shifted too much I have used just two runs of 17 seconds (at about 5-10 fps) taken one after the other.

I have been struggling to get the GRS as clear as it looked, the spot as dark or to see io,so I turned the gamma right down and got this:

Yes, I know that's 'orrible, but you can see the shadow and GRS and where io is meant to be (up and right from the GRS between two dark clouds) I'm sure that Io is just visible as a bright spot.

This is the best I can do with the original file using registax and the Corel Photo paint:

I know there's no magic better knob, but can anyone suggest how to improve. stack more images? Stack fewer? Increase the quality threshold or reduce it? Adjust gamma before stacking, if so which way?

Any suggestions welcome - I have seen jaw-dropping images from 8" scopes of the same scene and people are apologising for the poor quality! So I'm sure my 6" can do better than this (yes - I know - practice, practice, practice!)

[inedible_hulk]

We just love Jupiter pic's here [emoji4]. I wouldn't be too disappointed with that last image. The colours look good and there's tantalising glimpses of more detail. I'm no expert, but I'd suggest you need to have longer runs. I'm doing 3 minutes at 10 fps and stacking the best 50% (using PIPP to do the sorting and weighting). Are you tracking manually? (Unfortunately I can't see your sig on this app)

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Feral Rabbit]

Thanks for the info inedible. I like Stub Mandrel have a similar image to his second one. (Did you take that last night? As I didn't even get the GRS) I was had 1500 frames @ 15 FPS.
Doesn't make me disheartened though - it just makes me want to do better.

I was using an old Logitech LifeCam 4000 so wasn't expecting professional results.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Another hour and a half sweating over a hot keyboard... I've tried lots of permutations. I have huge numbers of short videos, the best results seem to come with about 5 minutes worth. I haven't got tracking yet and it wobbles too much to do it manually so I do 17 seconds (enough for Jupiter to cross the screen) then wind it back and do another run.

This one turned out best, I used PIPP at 100% then the 'forbidden' 2x drizzle in Astrostakkert letting it choose the best frames (70% - just before the graph dropped off at the end). Linked wavelets in registax made too much of a bright ring, so used ordinary ones plus a fair bit of gamma adjustment, it also needed hefty RGB alignment. Having looked at other images I now think that of the two dark areas above and right of the GRS the right hand one is Io and the other is a cloud.

I've just put 2GB ofrom eth samesession ona stick, I haven't looked at these before as I reckon teh focus wasn't as good and for some reason the video is very noisy. But I may as well take a look!

[knobby]

Try capturing about 2 minutes of data, as much as you can. Don't know the logitec but if you can see a histogram try to fill about 3/4 across, balance the gain and shutter speed to keep the gain lowish and the shutter speed high (high gain = noise and low shutter speed doesn't freeze the moments of good seeing)

when you stack the file try to only keep the percentage of frames that are high quality...

~~~~ I love the idea of a 'magic make it better knob'~~~~~

gamma isn't usually adjusted , try to find out what is the best or default for the logitec

What capture software are you using?

[Scorpius]

Another hour and a half sweating over a hot keyboard... I've tried lots of permutations. I have huge numbers of short videos, the best results seem to come with about 5 minutes worth. I haven't got tracking yet and it wobbles too much to do it manually so I do 17 seconds (enough for Jupiter to cross the screen) then wind it back and do another run.

This one turned out best, I used PIPP at 100% then the 'forbidden' 2x drizzle in Astrostakkert letting it choose the best frames (70% - just before the graph dropped off at the end). Linked wavelets in registax made too much of a bright ring, so used ordinary ones plus a fair bit of gamma adjustment, it also needed hefty RGB alignment. Having looked at other images I now think that of the two dark areas above and right of the GRS the right hand one is Io and the other is a cloud.

I've just put 2GB ofrom eth samesession ona stick, I haven't looked at these before as I reckon teh focus wasn't as good and for some reason the video is very noisy. But I may as well take a look!

Nice image!  Played around with it a bit in PS - mostly HDR toning since the center seems overexposed compared to the outer regions. Not any better necessarily but perhaps a tad more evenly exposed. You captured some nice detail there and considering no tracking and imaging with a web cam - it's a great effort indeed!

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks, this is all very helpful.

I can't do HDR with my primitive software, but I've used a thin, soft-edged colour burn to intensify the centre, then lifted it back up with gamma.

To my surprise the much noisier first set of videos are easier to work with:

This seems to be working even better with Io as a small dark patch between the clouds.

Downside, I have 2GB of images I wrote off that now need a proper looking at!

[sidecarsally]

Try changing your FPS to 30 or 60 and shoot a 30 second video. Stack it with Autostakkert and then use Registax just for the wavelet feature to sharpen the image. My thread today shows my image of Jupiter processed from a 720p video 30 sec long using 10% of the best frames over 75% quality.

[Blazar]

impressive for the small life cam...well done, keep at it!

[Stub Mandrel]

Unfortunately my laptop only has USB 1 and that limits the lifecam to 1.7 - 2.5 FPS :-((((

Neil