Struggling to get a decent image of Jupiter

[SAW]

Hi,

I have tried numerous times now to get a decent image of Jupiter with my Mak150. There must be something I am doing wrong ?

I'm using Fire Capture and I am getting focus on Arcturus using a bahtinov mask, letting the Mak cool down for a good 2hrs yet my avi files are so grainy ? Using a 290MC and capturing in mono. I am probably going to sell the mak and send the camera back, just not happy with it.

Here is my log from Fire Capture last night with the imaged stacked in AutoStakkert, best 25% kept not sharpened. Even running it through Registax just makes it look worse.

FireCapture v2.5  Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=ZWO ASI290MC
Filter=L
Profile=Jupiter
Diameter=44.61"
Magnitude=-2.50
CMI=169.3° CMII=42.1° CMIII=269.5°  (during mid of capture)
FocalLength=1600mm
Resolution=0.37"
Filename=2018-05-19-2239_2-L.avi
Date=190518
Start=223845.282
Mid=223915.289
End=223945.296
Start(UT)=223845.282
Mid(UT)=223915.289
End(UT)=223945.296
Duration=60.014s
Date_format=ddMMyy
Time_format=HHmmss
LT=UT 
Frames captured=4275
File type=AVI
Extended AVI mode=true
Compressed AVI=false
Binning=no
ROI=600x600
ROI(Offset)=360x304
FPS (avg.)=71
Shutter=1.500ms
Gain=390 (65%)
AutoHisto=75 (off)
HighSpeed=off
WBlue=95
Gamma=50
WRed=48
USBTraffic=100
SoftwareGain=10 (off)
AutoExposure=off
Brightness=1
Histogramm(min)=0
Histogramm(max)=198
Histogramm=77%
Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a
Limit=60 Seconds
Sensor temperature=20.5 °C
 

2018-05-19-2239_2-L_g4_ap49.tif

Edited May 20, 2018 by SAW

[tooth_dr]

I’ve tried on 3 occasions with my 300mm f4.9 Newtonian and all my attempts look like that, I’ve tried both mono and osc cameras. I think it’s the low altitude and poor seeing. 

[xtreemchaos]

we havnt had the best of seeing lately mate I think it just about byding our time until it improves. heres my best from lastnight taken with 102 f11 frac, asi120mc, details been hard to catch. charl.

I'm sure the seeing will improve if we wait long enough  honist "that what I keep telling myself" . clear skys,

 

[Tommohawk]

It may just be the low altitude and poor seeing as others have said. I had an ASI290 MC before my mono ASI290MM and TBH I found the results not a million miles different to the mono - IMHO it's a good camera. Your log file looks OK though normally I have high speed set to on (with the mono) If it's not a silly question, why are you capturing in mono - is it maybe to get brighter image/higher frame rate?

[SAW]

Hi,

The Fire Capture tutorials recommend adjusting the the RGB settings to get them roughly the same on the histogram and then turn off the debater and capture raw, then do the debayer in post processing/stacking.

I have thought about changing to the mono version as my other two cameras are mono and get a manual filter wheel, give that a try.

[Tommohawk]

8 minutes ago, SAW said:

Hi,

The Fire Capture tutorials recommend adjusting the the RGB settings to get them roughly the same on the histogram and then turn off the debater and capture raw, then do the debayer in post processing/stacking.

I have thought about changing to the mono version as my other two cameras are mono and get a manual filter wheel, give that a try.

ok I never saw that. Fwiw I got pretty good results capturing in colour. Might be worth a go if you're disappointed with your existing result?

 

[Astrosharkey]

I manged this on Friday night, using an Altair GPCAM2 290mm and using LRGB technique (because I wanted to try the processing). Done with a 8' Newtonian on an EQ5 GOTO and a x2 Barlow.

[tooth_dr]

Very nice!

 

At what time would Jupiter be highest in the sky to image?

[Astrosharkey]

Should reach highest point around midnight and hang there for a couple of hours according to the App I use.

[tooth_dr]

16 minutes ago, Astrosharkey said:

Should reach highest point around midnight and hang there for a couple of hours according to the App I use.

Thanks! I was getting up at 3-3:30 thinking that would have been better ?

[Astrosharkey]

For Saturn and Mars it will be, but starting to get light

[Stub Mandrel]

I think you may be expecting too much.

This is a typical single frame at the moment, in poor seeing it can be much worse:

This is the result of stackinbg etc.:

 

[tooth_dr]

See mine look like the first picture and stacking doesn't help much ?

[Stub Mandrel]

You've got detail there, this is your image sharpened in Astra Image.

It's undersampled for a 6" scope, try using an x2 barlow.

[Ahgii]

This is what i got last night with my 8 inch SCT and DSLR in Backyard EOS. Seeing was relatively ok, i don't think this has to do with the elevation of jupiter, maybe you guys had some bad luck with seeing conditions. I will include both unstacked frame from the video and the final processed result.

[Stub Mandrel]

Try getting a HUGE amount of data!!!

Last night I did 30 1-minute runs in appalling seeing with the 150PL and my 120MC.

I stacked and sharpened each run, then combined the 30 images in Winjupos.

I sharpened the final result and managed to get a bit of detail in the Red Spot despite the appalling seeing:

[Knighty2112]

Best data I’ve got of Jupiter so far is from the 7th May. I’ve tried 3 times since then, but results weren’t any where near as good as then. 

Best data from the 7th. Seeing was very good;

 

Best from a couple of nights ago;

Edited May 27, 2018 by Knighty2112

[geoflewis]

On 20/05/2018 at 18:37, SAW said:

I have tried numerous times now to get a decent image of Jupiter with my Mak150. There must be something I am doing wrong ?

As others have said, it's mostly if not all due to seeing. The seeing from my location on the night of 6/7 May was extraordinary, so it looks like you caught some of that on 7th May, but for me most of the nights prior to and since then have been very poor indeed. I've posted my best image from 6 May elsewhere on SGL, but have included it again along with my poor 'best of the rest' since then taken 15 May to show what a difference it makes.

The same permanently mounted well collimated and cooled scope/camera combination, shooting mono RGB-RGB-RGB sequences stacked in AS3! wavelets in Registax6, derotated in WinJupos. Seeing is everything and very fickle indeed from the UK, especially with Jupiter at such a low altitude, i.e. you never know when it's going to be good. Make sure your scope is well collimated and cooled and just keep trying..., though personally I haven't been trying planetary recently due to a combination of holiday and me getting back to imaging DSOs.

Good luck, Geof

 

[Paul W Baker]

I took Jupiter and Saturn between 2-3am on morn Wed 22/5. Edge HD SCT 9.25”. ZWO ASI290MM mini with RGB filter. Sharp cap. 2min runs (600 frames per) alternating RGB filters. 3 rounds. Approx 5fps. Gain 140 for memory. Williams Bahtinov mask for focus on nearby star. Histogram 70%. 1st real time for having ironed out the bugs. Autostaker, then Registax and then Winjupos. Seeing could have been better, however beautiful clear night hear on the Sunshine Coast in Qld, Australia that night. Also, fortunately at Latitude 23S, Jupiter and Saturn were directy overhead at that time of morning.

I am no expert in planetary photography but the frame rate was ~70fps and gain 390 . I understand a high gain given you a higher frame rate but doesn’t it come at the cost of more grainy image?

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Paul W Baker

[Cosmic Geoff]

If that first image is after stacking, it's really not very good. 🙄  I have had this sort of thing where the raw data was too poor to sharpen up during stacking.  My efforts recently to image Jupiter with an 8" SCT and ASI224MC have not gone well either.  Bad seeing made the planet have a corrugated limb at times. If conditions are good, you should be able to make out some surface detail, GRS etc in the live image.  You should be able to focus on one of Jupiter's moons if seeing conditions are good.  If you can't because it is fuzzing around too much, that is not a good sign. 

-I did not realize this was an old thread!

Edited May 23, 2019 by Cosmic Geoff
2018 thread.

[Stub Mandrel]

I know this is a necro-thread, but I tried a bit of processing on @Knighty2112's 7 may data:

Colour balance, a little from magenta to green and a big wedge of red to cyan. This helped detail.

Denoised.

L-R, deconvolution, fairly gentle.

 

The otehr image has a blueish top and reddish bottom, an ADC would have helped.

 

[geoflewis]

5 hours ago, Paul W Baker said:

I am no expert in planetary photography but the frame rate was unflattering

Hi Paul,

I'm not familiar with SharpCap as I use FireCapture, but can you select a smaller region of interest (ROI), as you have a lot of black sky above and below Jupiter? The black sky adds nothing to the image, (unless you are trying to capture distant moons to the left and/or right of the planet), but it's all data that has to be downloaded, so it really slows down the capture rate. If you can set an ROI around Jupiter or Saturn, then you should see a significant increase in the fps. If SharpCap doesn't allow setting an ROI then I would encourage you to try FireCapture, which is what many of the top planetary imagers (Damian Peach, Christopher Go, Anthony Wesley, Avani Soares, etc.) use. It is free software, so definitely worth taking a look at it. (http://www.firecapture.de/)

Also you can improve the Jupiter moon image by processing that seperately to align the RGB channels and then accurately placing it back over the main image, typically approximately where the green channel moon image is located.

That said, I think they are both a pretty good images and I envy your Qld, Aus location with the planets running high in the sky. Keep them coming, there's a lot of interesting developments in the GRS right now, so definitely worth capturing images to monitor that.

Good luck, Geof

[Anthonyexmouth]

this is mybest effort of jupiter with a little mak 90 and an asi290mc

 

[Jarvo]

On 20/05/2018 at 18:37, SAW said:

Hi,

I have tried numerous times now to get a decent image of Jupiter with my Mak150. There must be something I am doing wrong ?

I'm using Fire Capture and I am getting focus on Arcturus using a bahtinov mask, letting the Mak cool down for a good 2hrs yet my avi files are so grainy ? Using a 290MC and capturing in mono. I am probably going to sell the mak and send the camera back, just not happy with it.

Here is my log from Fire Capture last night with the imaged stacked in AutoStakkert, best 25% kept not sharpened. Even running it through Registax just makes it look worse.

FireCapture v2.5  Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=ZWO ASI290MC
Filter=L
Profile=Jupiter
Diameter=44.61"
Magnitude=-2.50
CMI=169.3° CMII=42.1° CMIII=269.5°  (during mid of capture)
FocalLength=1600mm
Resolution=0.37"
Filename=2018-05-19-2239_2-L.avi
Date=190518
Start=223845.282
Mid=223915.289
End=223945.296
Start(UT)=223845.282
Mid(UT)=223915.289
End(UT)=223945.296
Duration=60.014s
Date_format=ddMMyy
Time_format=HHmmss
LT=UT 
Frames captured=4275
File type=AVI
Extended AVI mode=true
Compressed AVI=false
Binning=no
ROI=600x600
ROI(Offset)=360x304
FPS (avg.)=71
Shutter=1.500ms
Gain=390 (65%)
AutoHisto=75 (off)
HighSpeed=off
WBlue=95
Gamma=50
WRed=48
USBTraffic=100
SoftwareGain=10 (off)
AutoExposure=off
Brightness=1
Histogramm(min)=0
Histogramm(max)=198
Histogramm=77%
Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a
Limit=60 Seconds
Sensor temperature=20.5 °C
 

2018-05-19-2239_2-L_g4_ap49.tif 419.83 kB · 149 downloads

Hi SAW. Think we may have the same Mak   I’ve put mine away for now as the planets are too low down but I used to get some similar results. 

Apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs but that image looks like the “before” stacked image before you tweak the wavelets in Registax. 

I’d process in registax only, use about 80% of the frames then adjust the top 2 wavelets the most and the remainder by only small tweaks. Don’t overprocess

As for barlows I’ve tried em all (x2 apo, x2.5 powermate, x5 powermate) .

The only one that gave me the best results was the x2 apo. Even the 2.5 drowned out the detail. 

Altitude is going to be a huge factor. Like I said I packed my Mak away and bought a refractor. Maybe not sell it because it will come into its own in a couple of years when Jupiter and Mars return (Saturn’s going to take years for us int North).

Cheers

Jarvo

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

23 hours ago, geoflewis said:

If SharpCap doesn't allow setting an ROI

It does, it can make things a LOT faster