First image of Jupiter

[Athena]

Hello everyone

I’ve been trying to get my head around image processing using Registax. Last night I imaged 5000 subs of Jupiter using LRGB filters (5000 of each). I'm still attempting to sort out my LRGB image, my first attempt showed Jupiter to be a rather horrid and unnatural colour

I must admit to being totally amazed by what one can do with stacking. For example, please see the two attached images. One is a single frame and the other is 5000 stacked and processed using Registax and Photoshop CS2.

Please have a look at the processed version and give me your honest thoughts. Constructive criticism is vital to this steep learning curve...

This image actually constitutes my luminance frame, I'm not sure but I think that I have over processed using the Wavelet section.

Many Thanks

Nikki

jupiter-L-625hsec0010.bmp

[Keithp]

Athena, they look very good to me, you have captured more detail than I could. Here are my efforts.

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-planetary/82193-got-me-second-gas-giant-morning.html

I'm hoping to get broken cloud tonight and trying again in the morning with a set of filters, see if I can pick up more colour.

Regards

Keithp

[brianb]

my first attempt showed Jupiter to be a rather horrid and unnatural colour

Been there, done that.

This is not really my field of expertise (I'm plagued with unsteady seeing) but I believe the "secret" to getting natural looking RGB images is to leave the gamma / contrast / brightness alone when processing the "subs" in Registax and only start to fiddle these after combining to make the colour image. Also the exposure time / gain / gamma settings on the camera shouldn't be touched between R G & B filters, this usually means that the blue will look somewhat dark compared with the others.

BTW I don't know what camera you're using, but the maximum total exposure you can use on Jupiter without getting smearing due to the rapid rotation is 2-3 minutes. I struggle to get 3 sets of 500 frames in that time.

[MeerkatinBKK]

That's a cracker for your first image! Lots of lovely detail.

Nick

[Milamber]

Brian is correct - leave the levels alone until you have the final processed image in front of you. Most processing packages allow adjusting of different colour channels - when you have the complete image to look at then those colour controls become a lot easier to use effectively.

Looks like a great start to me.

Arthur

[brianb]

As it happens I did some imaging of Jupiter in the dawn twilight this morning & have now got round to processing the results. I did try with a barlow but the unsteady seeing has really clobbered these, the images taken at prime focus were better.

Four imaging runs were made, using Astronomik type II RGB colour seperation set and the 742nm infra red pass filter. Each run was 500 frames, all within one minute of 0216 UT today (2009 July 05). Transparency fair, seeing poor. Celestron CPC1100, Imaging Source DMK41 camera, processed in Registax (AVI) & Astro Art (colour synthesis).

Anyhow I followed my own advice (above) and produced two different "final" images:

Both these images use the infra red filtered image as "red" and the blue filtered image as "blue". The top image conventionally uses the green filtered image as "green", the bottom one uses the red filtered image as "green" and is therefore a false colour image. Decide which you prefer....

I did not need to apply any colour level or saturation adjustment at all in order to get the images shown above.