another first effort Mars

[red dwalf]

please be gentle with me, took me ages to get these two shots,

Philips 900 webcam and 2x barlow, got alittle polar ice cap activity though i think

[Kokatha man]

Nothing at all wrong with that image as a first-up from a 6" scope rd:icon_salut:

Some more scale by increasing the distance between the barlow and the webcam's sensor by using some extension tubing (or a 3X etc barlow instead) will help if the seeing is good (and before Mars motors too far away from us!)

You've imaged what some of us call "the boring side" of Mars (down in South Oz where I am it is what we see at present - if we get a break in the clouds, that is!) so there'll naturally be a bit less definition to see in any image.....p'raps a little on the reddish side: I tell people using colour cams to remember to "Save image" split into seperate RGB channels fits files after final wavelets application in that stage of Registax, before taking them into AstraImage for individual channel enhancement.....assists with colour outcomes as well as image definition in most situations.....

Again, well done!

[Doc]

Great attempt Rob, as you say ice cap clearly visible. Well done that man.

[red dwalf]

I tell people using colour cams to remember to "Save image" split into seperate RGB channels fits files after final wavelets application in that stage of Registax, before taking them into AstraImage for individual channel enhancement.....assists with colour outcomes as well as image definition in most situations.....

Again, well done!

please tell me more about the above process and the bit about extending the distance from the barlow to the eyepiece,

i`m willing to learn but am struggling on my own efforts

many thanks

Rob

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice stuff for a first attempt (my first Mars with a 35mm SLR was quite dismal). Getting up to F/30 or above using a 3x barlow is a good tip btw. F/30 always gave me my best shots.

[Glider]

I tinkered with your AVI in Registax and saved separate RGB fits files and then played in PS.

The red was very strong, green was there, but there was practically no blue.

Mars3aRGB.tif

[Pete Presland]

well done! better than anything i have been able to get. i will be more than happy to get that end result

[Kokatha man]

I tell people using colour cams to remember to "Save image" split into seperate RGB channels fits files after final wavelets application in that stage of Registax, before taking them into AstraImage for individual channel enhancement.....assists with colour outcomes as well as image definition in most situations.....

Again, well done!

please tell me more about the above process and the bit about extending the distance from the barlow to the eyepiece,

i`m willing to learn but am struggling on my own efforts

many thanks

Rob

Hi Rob, Glider seems to have done a split on your image but in all honesty it isn't as good as yours (no offence G, I'm sure it's trying to use an image off of this webpage that is the problem!)

Essentially Rob, in Reggie 5 (I hope you're using R5, the latest update.....wherein yours truly (ahem!) assisted Cor Berrevoets to iron out the colour cam bugs.....) when you are at the final wavelets application section (which is where you go to just after you have finished "Stack") you apply the final wavelets you wish and click the "Save" button up near the top (slightly to the left of centre.)

When the save window opens you have the option of naming the file, and below that the type of file you wish to save it as.....tiff, bmp etc. One of these options is "Fits RGB seperate" which if you activate with this option selected saves your image as 3 seperate Red, Green and Blue fits files for processing individually in (say) AstraImage before then doing a "RGB combine" of the 3 channels as they are saved after each is processed in AstraImage (once you have processed each channel reopen AI and click on the "Process" button and go to "RGB combine".....)

Alternatively (or in conjunction with deconvolution in AI, but this takes a fine balnce if you do both) when you are in that final wavelet section of R5 mentioned previously, click on the "Functions" panel(they are on the upper RHS of screen) on the tab labelled "Wavelet filter".....

By adjusting the "Initial" and "Step" values in the boxes that appear at the bottom of the window which opens when you activate the "wavelet filter" button you will see you image detail enhancing as you do so....."Initial" is more gentle than "Step" and don't go so far as to introduce grainy-ness....!

[Kokatha man]

ps: extension tubes are merely that.....a tube that lengthens the distance between the barlow and your camera.....people buy ready-made units or fashion them out of tubing etc.....if you go to the TeleVue website you will find graphs that show how much an image is enlarged by increasing the distance between barlow and camera sensor surface.....look at the barlow graph, not the powermate graph.....this graph is for Televue barlows but is roughly analagous for all decent barlows....!

When they say "rear end of barlow" or somesuch they literally mean the back edge of the complete unit/barlow.....where you stick your ep or camera into it, this back lip which is furthest from the scopes objective.....

Extension tubes are superior to using 2 barlows together as you are not introducing any extra lenses/glass into the optical train to diminish the light throughput etc.....