Help and advice appreciated - Saturn and Moon images

[Tonynexevo925]

Hi, 

 

Feedback and advice appreciated.

 

Images below were taken saturday night between 11.30 and about 2.30am. Celestron Evolution 9.25 with Skyris 445c. Captured using iCap software (comes with the Skyris) and processed with Registax (also with Skyris).

 

Notes: 

 

Windy and some slight haziness like fine clouds.

 

Questions:

 

Dew shield on (essential as it is very prone to dew) and couldn't work out how to use the bahtinov mask without moving everything trying to put the dew shield back again!

 

Focus through EP was spot on but removal of EP and diagonal to put Skyris into prime focus meant need to significantly adjust focus - this was tricky on the laptop using liveview in iCap.

 

I think the lunar shots are poorly focused but was otherwise pleased with the detail.

 

Saturn images are pretty much as they were through the EP and the video was bouncing and blurring mainly due to the wind. Not sure why the colour is so poor though - is this because Saturn is just so low or I need to take images through EP / barlow? Same issues with focussing in liveview.

 

A lot of questions - early days and so much to learn!

 

Also any idea what attachment I need to connect the Skyris to my Baader EPs - I have the Canon EOS 100D and the adaptor (from FLO) attachs to the EPs. The Skyris has a 1.25" nosepeice so I'm wondering if there is some sort of adaptor?

 

Lastly, should I break the questions up into different topics or forum areas or is it ok to do it this way? Also what format is best for posting an image?

 

I also tried Autostakkert but it wouldn't allow me to use the avi files created in the iCap software used with the Skyris.

Regards, 

Tony

moon 3.tif

Saturn video 0016 15-06-07 02-05-37.tif

Saturn 2 video 0016 15-06-07 02-05-37.tif

Saturn 3 video 0016 15-06-07 02-05-37.tif

Saturn 4 video 0016 15-06-07 02-05-37.tif

[jimbo84]

Hello there Tony,

I have only recently got a planetary camera myself, but it looks to me like your Saturn is overexposed, causing the details to be washed out. Try a much shorter exposure time. The planet may appear fairly dim on the screen, and the video might look a bit grim, but once stacked it will look better. From what I gather, the important thing is to have a high frame rate and capture lots of frames. So far I have been capturing up to 3-4,000. Not sure myself if this is overkill, but it means you have a better chance of getting good frames for the software to choose from.

For example, here is a single frame and the final image, stacked in Autostakkert and processed in Registax.

Try capturing several videos with different settings for exposure, gain and gamma to see how they come out, I'm still experimenting myself. These are with a 5" scope, so with your 9.25" the results should easily exceed these.

When focusing I turn up the gain to maximum and adjust the exposure so it looks fairly bright - this makes it easier to focus. Then I reduce the gain and adjust the exposure ready for capture.

I had some similar problems with Autostakkert, but apparently we must use the program PIPP to pre-process the video before loading it into AS.

[kalasinman]

That's a better Saturn than I can do. You should be pleased.