A few from 31.03.2016

[Pete Presland]

The seeing was not great when I started last night at around 9:00, the GRS was just departing the scene. By 10:00 it had improved a lot. The usual set up C9.25/ASI120mm + 1.8x Barlow, 60 seconds per RGB channel.

I tried a couple of different things last night. One was the 16 bit setting, this would not let me save files as AVI's, so I saved them as SER files. A/S2 has no problem handling these files, but the end results were probably some of the poorer images of the night. How much of this was down to the see, or the frame rate being almost halved I am not completely sure.

I also tried a more balanced Gain/Gamma setting both at around 55%. I thought this lead to a slightly washed out look to the image.

In the end I had the Gain 65% Gamma 30% and the Histogram at around 70%. This seemed to be the best setting, giving a decent amount of frames with not too much noise.

 

[laudropb]

Nice set of images. Lovely detail captured.

[si@nite]

Fair amount of detail in these Pete but look rarther dark on my monitor, it could be down to gamma settings in capture, personally i would leave them at default, as adjustments can be made in final processing!

just a quick histo stretch with some sharpening in ps & rgb align R6 pete, 2nd image!

[catman161]

Nice images. Was just gonna say about the darkening around the limbs and polar regions but Simon has beaten me to it. Great demo of how the processing can pull out the detail and improve the aesthetic. I recommend the purchase of Damian Peach's astrography dvd's. I've had volume 1 for a while and just recently purchased volume 2 and the processing tips are just fantastic. 

[rodrigol]

great detail in your images. I also get pretty dark (like strong vignetting) around the planet and cannot see the planet edges. Nevertheless, the detail is stunning!

[Pete Presland]

They certainly do look a bit dark compared to the reprocess by si@nite. 

"Just a quick histo stretch with some sharpening in ps & rgb align R6 pete, 2nd image!"

I would love to hear a more indepth explanation of the techniques involved.  Especially the histogram stretch.

As for the default gamma setting is that in Firecapture? I have been using around 65 for gain, 45 for gamma and exposure to suit 70% histogram. 

My work flow is normally,  Firecapture,  stacked A/S2, combined in C/S2, and clumsily processed.

[Grotemobile]

Do u think that SER files are better than AVI  files when downloading frames.

Avi is 8bit, while SER files are 16  bit .  U get more info from the SER Player.

8bit Raw seems to give good results.  I use Sharp Cap, which I find a lot easier

to  use, than  Fire capture. Bit of a minefield which way to go  Pete.  .

Steve,

[Space Cowboy]

Don't hide Jupiter in the shadows Pete you've got some lovely detail there just waiting to see the sun.

[Pete Presland]

16 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Don't hide Jupiter in the shadows Pete you've got some lovely detail there just waiting to see the sun.

I have had another go here  https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/266966-reprocess-from-the-31st-much-better/

[Pete Presland]

17 hours ago, Grotemobile said:

Do u think that SER files are better than AVI  files when downloading frames.

Avi is 8bit, while SER files are 16  bit .  U get more info from the SER Player.

8bit Raw seems to give good results.  I use Sharp Cap, which I find a lot easier

to  use, than  Fire capture. Bit of a minefield which way to go  Pete.  .

Steve,

I am definitely going to give them another go I think, especially if I get some decent seeing conditions. I am a massive fan of Firecapture, there a lot of options with it, but that is why I like so much.

[bottletopburly]

nice images pete