Io transit animation

[Yawning Angel]

This is about the most ambitious capture I've attempted. A short animation of Jupiter's moon Io crossing the planet, along with it shadow. Captured in the early hours of Friday the 13th August, over 2:30 hrs / 150 minutes

The animation is 11 frame long, comprising:

• Red: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - red total66000 frames (16500 stacked)
• Green: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - green total 66000 frames (16500 stacked)
• Blue: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - blue total 66000 frames (16500 stacked)
• IR: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - IR total 66000 frames (16500 stacked)

Total 
264,000 frames captured, 66000 stacked (minus about 20 from a weird artefact in one SER file)

Gear:

• Telescope: Celestron C8: 203.2mm aperture, 2032mm focal length + x2.5 barlow (5080mm) / Celestron motor focuser
• Altair Hypercam 174m
• ZWO 5 position filter wheel
• ZWO rgb filters
• Astronomik ProPlanet 642 BP IR-Pass filter
• iOptron CEM60 mount

Software:
SharpCap 4 pro / AS!3 / WinJupos / Photoshop

I used the new sequencer in SharpCap 4 pro to automate the capture, once I'd manually settled on my settings. A very handy new feature!

Processing:

• Each 4gb file was stacked and sharpened in AS!3 (Normally I'd use Registax, but AS!3 seemed to be doing a pretty good job, and it does batch processing!). The created 44 tif files ready for WinJupos.
• Firstly each file was measured in WinJupos and a measurement files saved, then each quartet of RGB and IR where derotated into a single tif
• The 11 tifs where loaded as layers in PS, and slightly cleaned up for colour misalignment on Io
• Created a Photoshop frame animation and exported as a gif

I think if I tried it again, I'd go colour cam  (qhy5iii-462) / ADC. The processing would be simpler, and I would have a higher frame rate in the final animation although less fidelity. 

anyway, here's a still from earlier in the evening:

And not forgetting the ringed one, who sadly doesn't get his own post and must tag along with big brother...sorry Saturn!

[si@nite]

A very nice transit animation!

[Yawning Angel]

11 hours ago, si@nite said:

A very nice transit animation!

Thank you!

[Craney]

Great piece of work.

Not only the clarity of the result... you managed to get Io in there as well, my C8 stacks so far have yet to reveal the little volcanic moon...

but also the fact you shot in mono.   That is a serious amount of faffing with the files.  I had intermittent cloud and RGB would have driven me nuts with frustration.

I need to check out Winjupos  if I want to raise my game.   Any good tutorials on it ?  or is it intuitive ??

 

Sean.

[Yawning Angel]

Thanks Sean!

The mono was a faf! Keeping everything correctly associated in processing was the hardest part - ended up with subfolders per frame. 
 

Winjupos is amazing, but as with may science tool, it’s is a bit ‘unique’. I started with this tutorial:

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/astrophoto-tips/use-winjupos-derotate-planetary-images/