What is better than registax?

[willcastle]

Okay I have been out of the planet imaging game for a while (7+ years!!) but I want to get back to it. 

7ish years ago, the free standard was sharpcap and registax for stacking. 

What should I be using now?

is there any reason to not keep using these? I liked the simplicity of sharpcap back then. 

I have heard mentions of PIPP and AS2 for processing? But I don’t know what they are

i also don’t know what de-rotation processing is?

i have so much to learn (and relearn)

[vlaiv]

You should switch to AS!2/AS!3 for stacking purposes instead of Registax, it's better tool for this purpose.

Registax is still used by majority of imagers for wavelet sharpening (there is also Astra Image - it is commercial software but has demo version available) and some processing (RGB align / white balance and such).

Pipp is used as pre processing tool - it allows you to calibrate your recordings (flat / dark calibration) - convert between formats, select good frames, do basic alignment and such.

De-rotation is procedure used to adjust longer video capture of planets that rotate too fast - namely Jupiter. If your video is too long and you leave it as is and stack it - you will get motion blur due to rotation of the planet. De-rotation makes sure that does not happen.

It is worth doing if your video is particularly long for given planet - in case of Jupiter if you record for longer than 5-6 minutes. It also depends on your sampling resolution (pixel scale, or arcsec/px). When working on higher resolution (larger aperture) you are more likely to see the effect, or rather it will take less time for it to happen.

Btw, due to way AS!2/3 works - it can take care of small rotation issues and will not produce motion blur if you "overstep" video duration by some degree. In principle if you limit your total imaging time to 5 minutes, you won't need de-rotation in most cases (this means total shooting time, and not total video time. If you do LRGB with mono camera - you need to be done shooting all filters in that time period - if not, you will need to de-rotate).

[willcastle]

Amazing! Thanks so much. I hope you don't mind but I am going to follow you and ask you further questions as they arise. 

Which software would you usually use to carry out de-rotation? (just for future reference)

And did you have any thoughts on sharpcap?

It has been such a long time since I got the scope out and imaged. I assume you do planetary imaging to be this knowledgeable ? What do you use and what results are you getting?

[vlaiv]

6 minutes ago, willcastle said:

Amazing! Thanks so much. I hope you don't mind but I am going to follow you and ask you further questions as they arise. 

Which software would you usually use to carry out de-rotation? (just for future reference)

And did you have any thoughts on sharpcap?

It has been such a long time since I got the scope out and imaged. I assume you do planetary imaging to be this knowledgeable ? What do you use and what results are you getting?

I don't do much planetary imaging lately, but I do understand principles of it and will be happy to answer any questions that are within my reach.

With regards to SharpCap - I used to use both SharpCap and FireCapture when I started, but have used SharpCap only for quite some time now. I don't use it much since I've not done nuch planetary or EEVA lately, but will do in coming months since I have now small a dedicated lunar/planetary scope that I'll be messing around with imaging.

Don't have much in terms of good images, maybe just couple to show of, like these:

All above were taken with 130mm Skywatcher F/7 (900mm) newtonian scope on Eq2 mount.

Couple years ago, I gave my RC 8" scope a go for planetary, but due to largish central obstruction it's not really well suited for that:

 

[willcastle]

12 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I don't do much planetary imaging lately, but I do understand principles of it and will be happy to answer any questions that are within my reach.

With regards to SharpCap - I used to use both SharpCap and FireCapture when I started, but have used SharpCap only for quite some time now. I don't use it much since I've not done nuch planetary or EEVA lately, but will do in coming months since I have now small a dedicated lunar/planetary scope that I'll be messing around with imaging.

Don't have much in terms of good images, maybe just couple to show of, like these:

All above were taken with 130mm Skywatcher F/7 (900mm) newtonian scope on Eq2 mount.

Couple years ago, I gave my RC 8" scope a go for planetary, but due to largish central obstruction it's not really well suited for that:

 

They are stunning! Far better than anything I have ever achieved. And those top two with a fairly small scope too!

But wow thanks. You are my new favourite person on this forum :') 

When I get back out there I will ask for your help! What imaging camera do you use? I used to use the SPC900NC (which I still have), but I am thinking of upgrading to a ZWO ASI 224MC. It sounds more tricky to capture LRGB in such a short time period and I have seen some amazing results from people just using the 224MC. Plus it will cost me more to get a filter wheel and set of LRGB filters....

[vlaiv]

18 minutes ago, willcastle said:

They are stunning! Far better than anything I have ever achieved. And those top two with a fairly small scope too!

But wow thanks. You are my new favourite person on this forum :') 

When I get back out there I will ask for your help! What imaging camera do you use? I used to use the SPC900NC (which I still have), but I am thinking of upgrading to a ZWO ASI 224MC. It sounds more tricky to capture LRGB in such a short time period and I have seen some amazing results from people just using the 224MC. Plus it will cost me more to get a filter wheel and set of LRGB filters....

Yes, by all means upgrade to ASI224 if you can - that is very good planetary camera. Make sure your laptop can support it - has USB 3.0 port and your hard drive is fast enough.

I also favor OSC type imaging for planets - due to time involved with switching filters and refocusing - I see no benefit in using LRGB approach.

When I first started in planetary imaging, I also used modified web camera, but issue with such devices is that they compress video - which is bad. You want raw video. When I switched to my first planetary camera - QHY5LIIc - there was massive difference in quality of results. For example, this is Jupiter with modified web camera:

Same scope as above - 130mm SW F/7. Image is just too soft due to compression artifacts.

Second Jupiter above was taken with ASI178mcc (cooled version) - which I got for mix of things, some planetary imaging, some EEVA and a bit of regular imaging - hence cooled version. You don't need cooling for planetary imaging, so don't worry about that.

Edited January 19, 2020 by vlaiv
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