Jupiter 06 Januar C11 with new ioptron HAE43 and Astronomik RGB filters

[Chrb1985]

First Jupiter of 2024 and first light for the new Ioptron HAE 43 mount and the new Astronmik LRGB filters.

Its been a real struggle to get the pier done and the Mount installed properly but now i feel the tracking is ok and it works ok. Im not super impressed with the Mount. It does not slew on the two highest speeds, this might be due to the cold weather one day we had -35 celcius up here. Anyway, im ranting. Here is the image capture info from Firecapture, Autostakkert 4, Registax 6 and Photoshop.

 

Firecapture:

Planet Jupiter settings 10-100ms

Histogram at about 80%

Exposure 8.000ms

45sec each filter

 

Autostakkert: 

Drizzle 1.5x

Stacking frames: 29% best frames

Normalization: 70%

AP: I think i used about 90 alignment points

Brightnes size AP: 30

 

Registax:

I use Christopher Go's settings as a starting point. I dont use gaussian. I use the default setting and i only use slider 2 and 3. I deactivate the rest.

Intensity (the first option thats above the slides): 1

Slider 2: 20

Slider 3: 70

 

Photoshop

I use the combine channels option first, autocolor, Despeckle, Nic collection for sharpening, Topaz DeNoise for denoising, adjust levels for hue, dark/brightness, and then auto tone, auto contrast and auto color again.

 

The weather and seeing was the best i have every seen but after a few failed tries at RGB sequences i managed to get one sequence and i keept going but about mid sequence the seeing went from 8-9 to about 4-5 i would say. I have never been so devastated in my life. So alle the RGB sequences was not even worth prosessing. Just the first one. So i got one picture but if i hade been 1hour earlier i would have gotten 5 sequences to derotate.. im litteraly heart broken over this.. but as you all know, thats the life of an amature astronomer in a nutshell.

Hope you guys like it and please critique it.

Edited January 8 by Chrb1985

[Planetary Observer]

Nice

[Chrb1985]

A little update here. And thanks again to geoflewis for the good advice on Registax processing.

[geoflewis]

Thanks for pointing me towards this post as I'd missed it, sorry. Very nicely done, though I prefer your original version as V2 looks over sharpened to me, with the highlights blown out.

[Kon]

First image is better although the bad seeing hasn't helped with finer details. Has the second one had Topaz as it looks really artificial and with a lot of weird artifacts. Avoid Topaz even ALPO is strongly against it.

Edited January 9 by Kon

[Chrb1985]

9 hours ago, Kon said:

First image is better although the bad seeing hasn't helped with finer details. Has the second one had Topaz as it looks really artificial and with a lot of weird artifacts. Avoid Topaz even ALPO is strongly against it.

I actually used topaz on both versions. Just more on the second one. I guess maby the first is best. I gave a pretty detailed description of what i did in the process. The big changes from v1 to v2 is image resize in photoshop just typed in: 70. And i did one more sharpening with nik collection and one more denoise with topaz. I also du auto contrast, auto tone and auto color again and i also think i did dust and scratches at: 1. (The lowest possible setting)

So alpo is against topaz? But ChrisGo uses topaz? 

Also the seeing was the best i have ever seen since i started in 2019. But sadly mid first RGB capture it started to go bad, and it went bad quick.. so thats a real bummer.. maby Ill give the process another go later today. Maby just try to resize v1? Any other tips and tricks for me? Its much appreciated!

[Chrb1985]

9 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks for pointing me towards this post as I'd missed it, sorry. Very nicely done, though I prefer your original version as V2 looks over sharpened to me, with the highlights blown out.

Thanks i will give this much consideration and i will give it one more try. Can you please give me som more pointers to? Maby you want to have a crack at the raw material? I can upload it? Its just 1set of RGB. 3 files.

Off topic her but i tried to look at some cameras yesterday and i think the 224mc looks good, and the one you have also looks nice it has 2.9px right? And the 294mc also looks tempting. What is your thoughts one this 3 cameras?

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Chrb1985 said:

Thanks i will give this much consideration and i will give it one more try. Can you please give me som more pointers to? Maby you want to have a crack at the raw material? I can upload it? Its just 1set of RGB. 3 files.

Off topic her but i tried to look at some cameras yesterday and i think the 224mc looks good, and the one you have also looks nice it has 2.9px right? And the 294mc also looks tempting. What is your thoughts one this 3 cameras?

I'd be happy to take a look at processing the raw data if you want to share the files.

With regards to cameras, yes my ASI462MC has 2.9mn pixels the same as my 290MM. I have no experience of the other 2 cameras that you mentioned, so can't offer an opinion, but it seems that the 224MC is quite old and discontinued and from what I can tell the 294MC is a cooled deep sky camera not intended for planetary imaging.

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Chrb1985 said:

So alpo is against topaz? But ChrisGo uses topaz? 

Chris Go uses the old non AI version of Topaz, but from what I understand only for noise reduction, not sharpening. He is also 100% against using the Topaz AI versions. Take a look at the 55m to 65m section of this video tutoral that he did last year. 

He emphasises over and over again that the most important step is to get the wavelets settings correct, not using other sharpen tools like Nik collection, Topaz, etc. Yes, he does use sharpen tools for final tweaks, but not for the initial processing. If you can't get a good result with wavelets then no amout of later sharpening will yield a good image.

Edited January 10 by geoflewis

[Chrb1985]

21 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Chris Go uses the old non AI version of Topaz, but from what I understand only for noise reduction, not sharpening. He is also 100% against using the Topaz AI versions. Take a look at the 55m to 65m section of this video tutoral that he did last year. 

He emphasises over and over again that the most important step is to get the wavelets settings correct, not using other sharpen tools like Nik collection, Topaz, etc. Yes, he does use sharpen tools for final tweaks, but not for the initial processing. If you can't get a good result with wavelets then no amout of later sharpening will yield a good image.

Hi Geof!

So i have uploaded the files now and here is the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ulp8jzi7fVxnts2UzMvi_imHYZPAIqDG

I watched the interview yesterday but i guess it was too late because not much stuck to my brain. Ill research ut today.

I guess i will wait with the camera and do really good research before i jump to anything. Chris Go made som egood points but im not totally conices. But he did talk about a new sensor, i think it was Sony. I will watch it again and i will do some serious research. But if im not mistaking, at least a few of the ZWO camera uses the Sony imx sensor, is this the sensor he is beaging and praises so much about? If so, isnt that the sensor that is found in zwo 174mm? I have owned 2 of those cameras, and they are good but i really really like the 299mm. But all the talk of the magic sensor with so incredibly low noise is tempting  i guess accruuslly he said that if the planet is above 50 degrees (or was it 70?) And with just average seeing it makes no difference from mono to color as long as you use as ADC. If this is right then mono for me is a total waste (Norway conditions are NEVER good) and this contradics what he said in a previous interview quit a few years back. Before i bought my first Mino setup i watched that particular interview and i made up my mind when Chris said: if you live in northern countrys like Europe etc. then mono is the way to go.

Okay im ranting now, sorry. i will upload all of the R, G and B sequncese to that shared folder before the day is over so you can check them, i did not even try to process the rest, i just did the first R, G, and B.Rifht now those are uploaded.

I also included a picture of the new pier setup. Made alle from scratch. Cut all the metal, welded it, drilled holes, threaded then myself, made the level adjustment bolts in each meg, all the work on the Eagle 4 (more RAM, 1TB SSD disk and im in the process of ordering a new i7 mother board for it because it is really to slow to process anything si finding focus is more or less impossible right now), i did all the cable work myself, cutting and soldering every thing to right length. What do you think? What my regrets are: wish i bought a round steel pipe instead of square and just welded on 3 legs instead of 4, it might just be my lack of knowledge, i dont know but it seems that when im levelig it up i need to MM precise to get it "sturdy". This might be due to alot of snow and ice and the fact that i but wooden board under the adjustment bolts but when it is all leveld up, it is not "rock Sollid" so i have to manualt push and "shake" it a bit while doing the final adjustments to make it "sit" sturdy. I did not imagine this could be a problem with a construction of this size and weight. And i never every have owned a tripod that has not been 100% rock Sollid sturdy.. i read that in this type of construction 3 legs is best beacuse the weight will be evenly distributed in alle legs, if one more is introduced, its a Risk of one leg not carrying the weight and not really touching the ground, caausing instability. Please shed some light and your thoughts, i really dont want to make another one. But i have not seen any other Liers with 4lwgs so many it is something to this..

Ok, i went of on a rant again. 😎 

 

Have a nice day!

[geoflewis]

@Chrb1985 I downloaded and reviewed all the SER files that provided and in my opinion most are unusable. They all seem very out of focus, perhaps because the seeing was terrible. I processed the first three images which were the R-G-B showing the GRS, but these were also very low quality, so the result I got isn't good. This is as far as I felt was appropriate to push the data, but I can see why your were trying your hardest with Topaz and other sharpening tools.

I'm not sure whether the above helps or not, but I'd encourage you to try to obtain sharp focus before capturing and if the seeing is really bad, then I would wait for better conditions. Good luck.

 

[Chrb1985]

6 hours ago, geoflewis said:

@Chrb1985 I downloaded and reviewed all the SER files that provided and in my opinion most are unusable. They all seem very out of focus, perhaps because the seeing was terrible. I processed the first three images which were the R-G-B showing the GRS, but these were also very low quality, so the result I got isn't good. This is as far as I felt was appropriate to push the data, but I can see why your were trying your hardest with Topaz and other sharpening tools.

I'm not sure whether the above helps or not, but I'd encourage you to try to obtain sharp focus before capturing and if the seeing is really bad, then I would wait for better conditions. Good luck.

 

Well okay. I really aprec6your time buddy! You and alot of other guys in here are really friendly and helpfull:) so thanks again for your time! How is the weather in the uk these days?

[geoflewis]

1 minute ago, Chrb1985 said:

Well okay. I really aprec6your time buddy! You and alot of other guys in here are really friendly and helpfull:) so thanks again for your time! How is the weather in the uk these days?

You’re very welcome. Keep trying and asking questions, there are several excellent planetary imagers here that will help you.

The weather in my part of the UK has been cold and clear the past few nights, but with poor seeing due to the overhead jetstream.  We’ve had a lot of cloud cover much of the past few months and even when we’ve had clear skies, the seeing this apparition has been mostly very poor.

[orion25]

Hi, my friend. I like the look of the first image (minus the crop lines); it has a more natural look. As to cameras, I LOVE my ASI 224mc. I use it as my exclusive planetary camera with my 180 and 127mm Maks. You can get one for really cheap given its age, and it is still top-notch. Here is one of my better images taken with it, using Firecapture and processed in Registax 6:

 

Some vital statistics:

Sensor: 1/3” CMOS IMX224/IMX225
Resolution: 1.2Mega Pixels 1304X976
Pixel Size: 3.75µm
Sensor Size: 4.8mm*3.6mm
Diagonal: 6.09mm
Exposure Range: 32µs-1000s
ROI: Supported
ST4 Guider Port: Yes
Focus Distance to Sensor: 12.5mm
Shutter Type: Rolling Shutter
Protect window: AR coated window
Operating System Compatibility: Mac, Windows, Linux
Interface: USB3.0/USB2.0
Bit rate: 12bit output(12bit ADC)

Regards,

Reggie

Edited January 11 by orion25
added image

[Chrb1985]

On 11/01/2024 at 22:21, geoflewis said:

You’re very welcome. Keep trying and asking questions, there are several excellent planetary imagers here that will help you.

The weather in my part of the UK has been cold and clear the past few nights, but with poor seeing due to the overhead jetstream.  We’ve had a lot of cloud cover much of the past few months and even when we’ve had clear skies, the seeing this apparition has been mostly very poor.

Hi again buddy. Just wanted to let you know that i got my hands on a c14:( i will receive it tomorrow:) Ill send you some pictures then i also made a post in equipment. There is some pictures there. So you think my Neq6pro or the hae 43 will handle it?

[geoflewis]

53 minutes ago, Chrb1985 said:

Hi again buddy. Just wanted to let you know that i got my hands on a c14:( i will receive it tomorrow:) Ill send you some pictures then i also made a post in equipment. There is some pictures there. So you think my Neq6pro or the hae 43 will handle it?

C14 is a great scope, but it is seriously heavy. I replied on the eqipment thread, but in summary I think you're pushing it with either of those mounts.