Venus 7 May 2020

[Star101]

I usually image DSO's But the darkness is vanishing and Venus is so bright I thought I would give Venus a shot.

I did not use the Barlow...I know I should have. Also, my setup will stay on Venus all the while...Great when observing. Not so good when imaging as the image stays put. There is no dithering. So, the image hits the same pixels all the time...again, not so good. One can see the pixels here.

This was 6000 shots. Taken using FIT's files...I should have used some other file as Autostakkert would not see the files. Hence, processing in PixInsight manually using Comet to stack.

Not an award seeker. Just fun.

ZWO ASI290OSC on C11 scope on Mesu 200 mount.

Thanks for looking

Dave

 

 

 

[orion25]

Nice shot, Dave. Looks similar to shots I've gotten of the crescent. I worry less about trying to get any detail and just "focus" on getting a good phase, lol. I've used a Meade zoom eyepiece and a 2X barlow with my Nikon camera at prime focus for some interesting shots. I even got a little detail using a variable polarizing filter (nothing spectacular, though) and video image stacking. For me, Venus is most fun just observing through the telescope., and it's all about fun!

 

Regards,

Reggie  

[Star101]

29 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Nice shot, Dave. Looks similar to shots I've gotten of the crescent. I worry less about trying to get any detail and just "focus" on getting a good phase, lol. I've used a Meade zoom eyepiece and a 2X barlow with my Nikon camera at prime focus for some interesting shots. I even got a little detail using a variable polarizing filter (nothing spectacular, though) and video image stacking. For me, Venus is most fun just observing through the telescope., and it's all about fun!

 

Regards,

Reggie  

I agree. I spent a lot of time adjusting to the right focus. In the end, fortunatley, I have a Celestron Auto fuser...so sent it one way until Venus had two obvious edges...took a reading. then moved the oposite way past focus until Venus again had two edged...Took the reading...Rewound to half way between the two lol. Close enough for a first try

Do you know what setting should be used for Sharpcap and ZWO ASI 290 Pro OSC to record Video instead of FITs files?

 

Dave

Edited May 10, 2020 by Star101

[Tommohawk]

13 hours ago, Star101 said:

Do you know what setting should be used for Sharpcap and ZWO ASI 290 Pro OSC to record Video instead of FITs files?

Nice shot! I've only used SharpCap for DSOs, but you just need to select the right file format in the drop down where it offers output file format. In this example its set as AVI - you  could choose that or SER. Better than FITS for planetary.

Re focusing it is a challenge for sure.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Tommohawk

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely captured.

[orion25]

23 hours ago, Star101 said:

I agree. I spent a lot of time adjusting to the right focus. In the end, fortunatley, I have a Celestron Auto fuser...so sent it one way until Venus had two obvious edges...took a reading. then moved the oposite way past focus until Venus again had two edged...Took the reading...Rewound to half way between the two lol. Close enough for a first try

Do you know what setting should be used for Sharpcap and ZWO ASI 290 Pro OSC to record Video instead of FITs files?

 

Dave

I don't know, but I just saw Tommohawk's post and hope that his information will help you

[Star101]

2 hours ago, orion25 said:

I don't know, but I just saw Tommohawk's post and hope that his information will help you

Thank, yes. I was busy this evening but Wednesday is looking good to try. I will try to use barlow too.

[Tommohawk]

Regarding settings in detail, I suggest the following. Use AVI or SER, but remember windows doesnt have a native SER viewer which can make it tricky to evaluate your files. There is an excellent one available free from Chris Garry, author of PIPP.

Take care with Sharpcap - it has an auto function which can change the file format back to FITS if you adjust (lengthen) the exposure time.

Re gain and exposure time, there are a few things to balance: 

Call up the histo and aim for about 70%.

You want the fastest exposure you can to "freeze" the seeing and beat turbulence.

More frames = better final image

Bear in mind your download speed may limit your FPS - use USB3 if you have it and use region of interest if available. Not sure how this works on SC, I use Firecapture.

The shorter the exposure, the more gain you will need and more gain = more noise. This doesnt matter too much if you have a bazillion images though.

For planets like Jupiter if you image for many minutes you will need to take rotation into account ( Derotate with WinJupos if youre brave)

For lunar, theres no point in rushing your imaging runs because there is no rotation. So don't neccesarily reduce the ROI or worry too much about maximum FPS. That said, you may still want to aim for short exposure times to "freeze" the image.

Sorry if some/all of that was obvious!

I had an ASI290 OSC before the mono and TBH I'm not convinced the mono is any better for most targets, so your C11 and 290MC seems a great combo - should be great for Mars!

[Star101]

21 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

Regarding settings in detail, I suggest the following. Use AVI or SER, but remember windows doesnt have a native SER viewer which can make it tricky to evaluate your files. There is an excellent one available free from Chris Garry, author of PIPP.

 

 

Thank you for your comprehensive list.

I do have USB3 and i7 Gen 4, with SSD, so quite fast.

I was using SC but I will download and try Firecapture when I attempt again this evening, if I can.

That's great info. Thanks.

 

Dave.