I kept my eye on Jupiter half the night (Saturn the other half). Such beauty in the sky but....

[Mark2022]

Help!

So, I have a Meade LX10 8 inch and, by way of Clearline Technology in the States, I managed to obtain a new circuit board and now the RA and Dec are working superbly well. However, lining up the planets on an SVBony 305 (small chip) is one heck of a job in itself. I'd been using a DSLR to try and capture but the size of the chip, as you know, has the planets tiny little specks. I've had the SVBony for nearly a year and never got round to using it because I use Macs and have/had no Windows machine. However, I recently bought a Mele Quieter 3 for the purposes of eventually getting NINA and Sharpcap etc up and running with an EQ5 mount I have. Anyhow, yesterday, I managed to find "AstroDMX" which the SV305 is plug & Play with so, last night was an exceptionally clear night and I took the MacBook, Meade and camera out for a roll. 

Here's the issue: With the DSLR, I assumed I could never get a sharply focused planet because it was so small on the sensor and difficult to judge. I now also have a bahtinov mask and used that (not very successfully as it turned out) with the SVBony and I thought "Great. I'll get Nice sharp results". Taking the video(s), it looked like I was right BUT, in then trying to use the wavelets and other processing in Siril, I just couldn't get anything better than what you see here.

So my question is: What has one got to do to get an in focus Jupiter?

I'm waiting on a mouse to be delivered before I can set up the Mele. Should arrive tomorrow. Is it just that Siril isn't good for planets (even though they will stack them and have introduced a planet 'suite' of sorts? Does it need Pipp, Autostakkert and Registax to achieve the sharpness I'm looking for or is it I'm just not sufficiently well focused to begin with while capturing?

[dark knight]

Maybe the seeing was not great, warm air currents and turbulance in the atmosphere can play havoc. Of course I'm just guessing and I'm sure some more knowledgeable folks will be along soon with great advice.

[Franklin]

Looks slightly out of focus to me, Io is a bit blobby! A tip is to focus on the moons rather than Jupiter itself. 

[Elp]

Autostakkert/Registax is what you need to use. I suspect the constant drift and recentering will also cause an issue when stacking, from my experience too much movement of the planet will cause stacking errors.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Elp

[Simon128D]

I see very little wrong here. You might be a smidge out of focus but the blurry look is all about poor seeing and transparancy conditons but mostly the seeing. 

Using the moons to focus on is a good tip. I do this and increase the gain and exposure so Jupiter is well blown out but the moons look like stars and when they seem nice and round then I bring my levels back down and Jupiter looks sharp but if seeing is poor this can also feel like an impossible task. 

[Mark2022]

Just for the record, I received no notifications of any of your replies. I just happened to see the topic pop up as last commented on.

Yes, according to Simon (Si@nite), the seeing was poor BUT he still managed to get superb photos of Jupiter and Saturn. If this is all about focus then I have some challenges ahead because I worked on it hard (altho with no electronic focuser, just hand and the LX10 has bad backlash in its focuser).

I did ramp the gain up though and try to get the moons like little 'diamonds'. Here's a shot I managed to capture (still not fine detail though Ala Si@nite). No idea which moon but I think, Io. I caught the transit too.

 

Astrosurface:Aff Jupiter 3.tiff

[Mandy D]

@Mark2022 Did you have the 'Follow topic' switch turned on for this thread? It appears to the left of the screen with 'Submit Reply' on the right when you type a reply. You will also receive a notification, like hopefully you have for my reply, when someone addresses you as I have done.

[Elp]

To achieve focus, I use a longish exposure like 0.5-1s so the planet is a bright dot, then try to get the smallest dot as possible with the sharpest edge. Once done dial back the exposure so you can see surface details without clipping the black and white values on the histogram. If you've ever done solar (with filtering) it's the same process.

[Mark2022]

5 hours ago, Mandy D said:

@Mark2022 Did you have the 'Follow topic' switch turned on for this thread? It appears to the left of the screen with 'Submit Reply' on the right when you type a reply. You will also receive a notification, like hopefully you have for my reply, when someone addresses you as I have done.

Ah!  Thanks Mandy. No  I didn't have "Follow topic" clicked. I'll try and remember that. Thanks. You wouldn't happen to also know how to add photos into the text box, would you? While I have in the past, I have no idea how I did it and when I wish to do it, it just adds as an attachment file.

[Mark2022]

Never done solar ELP but that sounds like a plan. Cheers. I never saw a histogram on AstroDMX but perhaps I just wasn't looking.

[AstroMuni]

On 21/08/2023 at 21:21, Mark2022 said:

Is it just that Siril isn't good for planets (even though they will stack them and have introduced a planet 'suite' of sorts?

Which version of Siril are you using and what registration algorithm did you use during stacking?

[Froeng]

Well, the video might not be 100% in focus, but I’m loving the music! 😎

[knobby]

Planetary results are very dependant on seeing conditions, focus and collimation are also very important.

Something I'm going to try next time is to do several runs and just touch the focus in a tad between each run ... hopefully one will be in focus 🙂

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Pretty damn good @Mark2022

I would be well happy with that. As the saying goes: “Practice makes perfect!”

[Mark2022]

6 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Which version of Siril are you using and what registration algorithm did you use during stacking?

I just downloaded it this month so it's the latest. However,  it's not Siril since I've attempted Pipp,  Autostakkert and Registax (and also Astrosurface) and basically, I'm simply out of focus.

[Mark2022]

6 hours ago, Froeng said:

Well, the video might not be 100% in focus, but I’m loving the music! 😎

I've got the back of your hand imprinted on my jaw! 😂 If nothing else, I have good taste in music!

[Mark2022]

6 hours ago, knobby said:

Planetary results are very dependant on seeing conditions, focus and collimation are also very important.

Something I'm going to try next time is to do several runs and just touch the focus in a tad between each run ... hopefully one will be in focus 🙂

 

Oddly, due to the LX10's quite bad backlash on the focuser, I did do several runs and touched the focuser a tad between each. I obviously touched a tad the wrong way! Collimation is fine but I guess I'll have to recheck.

[Mark2022]

5 hours ago, RT65CB-SWL said:

Pretty damn good @Mark2022

I would be well happy with that. As the saying goes: “Practice makes perfect!”

You're being far too kind there RTD2  (are you a droid?). However, you're right. If it was perfect first time, there'd be no challenge. No challenge = No feeling of accomplishment. 😀

[AstroMuni]

14 hours ago, Mark2022 said:

I just downloaded it this month so it's the latest. However,  it's not Siril since I've attempted Pipp,  Autostakkert and Registax (and also Astrosurface) and basically, I'm simply out of focus.

Do you attempt to focus on the planet itself or do you focus on stars and then switch to the planet. I personally find the latter easier.

[Mark2022]

37 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

Do you attempt to focus on the planet itself or do you focus on stars and then switch to the planet. I personally find the latter easier.

This was my first outing and I had no set plan as to a procedure. I was just  'snapping away' in essence. I used a bahtinov on stars at the beginning and then swung over to Saturn where I ended up focusing on it. Further, I didn't realise you had to take exposures using a bahtinov otherwise those spikes aren't readily apparent. So,  at the end of the day, I focused on the planets (and Jupiter's moons) but just by eyeballing them.

[Mark2022]

While I'm here, if you watched the video, you may have noticed a couple of spots which are from the optical train. Here's a capture... 

I  checked my 1.25 inch UV/IR cut filter screwed to the nosepiece (there is no filter over the sensor itself) and it was clean so these spots are on the sensor itself. Has anyone experience  of cleaning a sensor? If so, how is it done?

[AstroMuni]

1 hour ago, Mark2022 said:

I  checked my 1.25 inch UV/IR cut filter screwed to the nosepiece (there is no filter over the sensor itself) and it was clean so these spots are on the sensor itself. Has anyone experience  of cleaning a sensor?

You will always end up with a couple of dust motes so best approach is take flats which are used during the processing part to remove the dust motes.

BTW, you can use this tool to figure out how far the dust is from your sensor https://astronomy.tools/calculators/dust_reflection_calculator

Edited August 25, 2023 by AstroMuni