Jupiter help if possible?

[Mr niall]

Hi all

I posted a couple of weeks ago with some Jupiter issues. Vlaiv kindly gave me some pointers which did improve things but I feel like I have hit a wall a bit. I've been out about... 10 or 11 nights and have processed about two dozen runs but I dont seem to be seeing any improvement in my pictures; they are still grainy, a bit smushy, and lacking detail and contrast.

I'm not too sure what to do to improve things.

Equipment is;

Skymax 127 on AZGTi

No Barlow (so shot at f12.5)

Svbony SV305 Pro (settings attached).

10,000 frames 5ms, best 10% stacked

Focussing is.. tricky. I'm getting better views through the eyepiece than the camera to be honest. I'm using Jupiter's moons to focus. But everything is clean and smudge free. The scope is getting at least 45mins to cool down - usually longer.

I'm capturing using Sharpcap and then using AS3! for stacking and Registax for Wavelets. I've attached one from yesterday evening for reference. In reality this is probably slightly poorer than average but my computer only has about 30gb of storage so I cant really keep my previous runs (in fact I only have enough memory for about 20 mins of work before my poor PC packs in!)

One thing I did notice is that the "quality" graph looks a bit worrying in AS3. As I said above this is probably a bit worse than average but not miles off. I suppose when I watch youtube videos I'm seeing people with an image on the screen that looks alot like Jupiter whereas mine usually looks like a smushy ball!

Any help appreciated!

 

19_46_59.CameraSettings.txt 19_44_18_lapl5_ap78.as3 19_44_18_lapl5_ap78_conv.tif

[01012f]

I'd be overjoyed with that 👍😀

[StuartT]

I think you're doing fine!

Better than my first attempt and I have a wider aperture scope than you do!

The main problem is the low elevation Jupiter is at from the UK just now (so too much atmosphere). Next year will be better

[Nik271]

The quality graph you have is typical of poor seeing conditions. I think your image is fine for below average seeing. It is very rare that you get good seeing at the current altitute of Jupiter.

Also focusing is much harder when seeing is poor. It may be easier to focus first on a brigh star near the zenith, e.g Deneb at around  7 or 8pm in the evening and then aim for Jupiter. The small Maks have very little mirror flop (at least mine does not have any that I can notice), so your focus should stay good after that.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Nik271

[newbie alert]

Looks good to me, are you comparing yours to someone else in a far off location without a jetstream and Jupiter is much higher up ... you need to compare apples with apples

You can improve location if you're shooting above rooftops.

[Chrb1985]

I had the same issue with graininess.. And i can quit say why it happened. But it does sometimes.. I think it might be something with the align points. Or at least somethings going wrong in the autostakkert part of processing. I used to have skymax 180. Nice scope, but in my opinion, too little aperture for planetary photography..

[Owmuchonomy]

Jupiter is a bit low in altitude in the UK at the moment and this will affect the ability to gain good images especially without an ADC.  What is the pixel size of your camera?

[Mr niall]

Thanks for the comments all, reassuring it probably is at least partly seeing and not just total ineptitude!

 

[Mr niall]

14 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

Jupiter is a bit low in altitude in the UK at the moment and this will affect the ability to gain good images especially without an ADC.  What is the pixel size of your camera?

Hey - it’s a Svbony SV305pro - it’s a Sony IMX290 with 2.9um pixels.

I’m shooting at F12.5 which feels about right given the 5x rule.

have tried with a 2x Barlow but felt like a total waste of time!

[vlaiv]

15 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

Jupiter is a bit low in altitude in the UK at the moment and this will affect the ability to gain good images especially without an ADC.  What is the pixel size of your camera?

It is IMX290 based camera - so 2.9µm pixel size.  Ideal F/ratio of 11.4 - very close to F/12 on that Maksutov.

@Mr niall

I would just check gain settings for that camera. Not sure what is regular range of gain values - but you want higher gain to lower read noise.

Attached settings also show that you used white balance and gamma settings? It is best if you leave all of those on default values - you'll fix color in post processing.

Maybe also uncheck sharpen option in AS!3.

 

[Mr niall]

54 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

It is IMX290 based camera - so 2.9µm pixel size.  Ideal F/ratio of 11.4 - very close to F/12 on that Maksutov.

@Mr niall

I would just check gain settings for that camera. Not sure what is regular range of gain values - but you want higher gain to lower read noise.

Attached settings also show that you used white balance and gamma settings? It is best if you leave all of those on default values - you'll fix color in post processing.

Maybe also uncheck sharpen option in AS!3.

 

Thanks Vlaiv - I didn’t knowingly use white balance or gamma, I will check those.

And yes - actually now I think about it I think I read someone else saying about the sharpen option.

many thanks again.