Jupiter 13.10.2009 w. barlow. Help needed

[johankj]

So, still learning to use neximage and reigstax.

I stuck in a barlow, which frames Jupiter nicely, but it does not add any detail at all? Is my focus off perhaps?

All images are heavily processed to bring out the details...

Images are w. & wo. barlow. All w. sw127mak...

[arad85]

How many frames did you stack and what processing in registax did you do? Also, what Barlow do you have?

I must admit, when I'm processing Jup, the barlow does tend to lose detail as it's very low in the sky and I'm pushing the system beyond what it is capable of when I'm looking over the mush of air that sits ontop of the houses I have to look over.

[dark knight]

Nothing wrong with the top image, maybe just adjust the brightness down a little. Try capturing at 5 frames/second. 2nd and 4th images look over exposed to me and the 3rd is out of focus. Jupiter can be a difficult target due to it's brightness and it's position in the sky at the moment (quite low down so more atmosphere to image through). Your definitely on the right track though, don't be put off and take heart in what you have achieved thus far, the tracking looks good and your starting to get some good results. The processing of images is another very steep learning curve and can be quite complicated and is the area that gives me most difficulty.

Carl

[johankj]

Forgot to mention the following facts:

Sequences were captured 10 fps:

This is raw frame without barlow:

From first post:

1. is about 250 frames out of 300. 150% resized.

3. is a raw frame with barlow.

2. and 4. is processed from about 500 out of 600 in registax.

I've played around with the settings in registax, don't really know what I'm doing. It's only when I push the wavelets pretty far that I get any detail.

I use a meade 126 shorty barlow.

[arad85]

I'd go with focus problems for 3 so if you're out of focus, you're going to get stacked frames out of focus. Keep adjusting the focus a little bit. I have less than 1/4 turn of my focus knob from out of focus one way, through focus and then back out of focus. You have to judge these things.

Also play with the settings. I normally have gamma low, gain low and brightness what it need sto be to get contrast in the image. It really helps to have capturing software that will give you a histogram out of the back - that way, you can see when you're adjusting the black level too high or saturating the image......

[johankj]

Thanks arad85 and dark knight, I will work on getting the image in focus (which is really difficult!). When you guys point it out, focus looks dodgy in no. 3...

Thanks for other advice, I will try them aswell. Maybe tonight, weather is supposed to hold untill 20:00

[Clayton]

What shutter speed did you use? and are you limited to 30sec worth of avi?

I think focus is your problem, but it could be seeing. I find it easier to focus with the planet a little under exposed (unless I am using one of the moons) and don't rush this process as it will degrade and come back into focus in a random fashion. You are looking to have the system in focus for those moments when the seeing improves. A high framerate(not too high so as to cause compression artifacts (is system independant, so experiment)) and fast shutter speed whilst maintaining a fullish histogram are also helpful.

Your initial results show a lot of promise.

[Kokatha man]

.....plenty of good feedback above J.....as A said, focus is one of the paramount and extremely sensitive aspects of imaging (like seeing, and also collimation - though with a mak you can forget about that last factor!)

I have a home-built electric drive operating on the fine focusser knob of my crayford 10:1 - and even with the electric motor on ultra-slow speed driving the fine-focus knob, there is only a very small critical "area" where focus is either "in" or "out".....

Number 3 does look to me as if the alignment process in Registax has failed as it appears to be 2 images over-lapping.....that said, focus is even more difficult when using a barlow, especially when seeing is poor and you are trying to image at this greater scale!

That said, that first image is a pretty darn reasonable effort!