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First shots at Saturn

Peter Reader

By Peter Reader
in The Astro Lounge

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Peter Reader

Peter Reader

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

I'd just like to post my efforts from last night on imaging saturn with the Toucam Pro II. After many attempts and over 45 minutes getting the image on the chip of the camera I was finally able to lower the brightness and gain and track the Planet manually. :D

With 800 frames:

CCDCap0000.jpg

With 300 frames:

CCDCap0001.jpg

I'm pleased with my first tries but the images are not as sharp as other people have achieved...

Any tips guys?

Thanks

Pete

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brianb

brianb

Posted
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Better than my first effort!

Any tips guys?

Are you using a UV/IR blocking filter? That and/or use of the RGB alignment tool in Registax would reduce or remove the colour gradient, which would make the image much sharper.

Your focus seems pretty good; so the best advice I can give is shoot more frames & stack less.

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brianb

brianb

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More frames and stack less??? How is that possible :D?

How many frames would you recommend I take for a decent image?

And also the RGB filter looks complicated, can you give basic directions for use?

When I was shooting Saturn the other night I was making AVIs with 4000 frames, selecting the best 500 and stacking them.

You need to stack more frames to reduce the noise. But including "bad" frames makes the image less sharp; especially when the seeing is wobbly you need to reject most of the frames that you've shot so that you only keep a small percentage which are reasonably sharp.

The RGB alignment tool in Registax is dead simple. Just click on the "estimate" button - the "auto" setting usually works very well indeed.

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Peter Reader

Peter Reader

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They've certainly lived up to my expectations of the camera! Can't wait to get a really long video of Saturn now to try and get a less hazy image!

Although this is with the stock Barlow that came with the scope so might not be a bad idea to upgrade...?

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brianb

brianb

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What is it and where can I get one?

The chip in the camera is sensitive to UV (which registers in the blue channel) and IR (which registers in the red). Atmospheric dispersion, or chromatic aberration in cheap refractors and/or barlows, means these will be displaced and/or out of focus, so blocking them helps.

The sponsor of this site sells them (but you may be able to get cheaper), look in "Filters/Imaging & Photography/UV & IR Filters".

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Brett

Brett

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I tried Saturn for the first time the other night using my recently acquired neximage camera and had pretty much the same result. I didn't realize so many frames were needed, I only took 600 frames myself which might explain my resulting pic.

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Brinders

Brinders

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I (and others) are finding Saturn a difficult subject this apparition. I use a Neximage and got better results the year before last, with plenty of colour and banding being obvious that time around. I know others are also disappointed this year. Those with larger scopes and or more expensive cameras (such as the DMK) seem to be getting better results, but even they are a little bland compared to previous years.

As Brian says, an IR block filter may help. I always have one attached to my Neximage. It's an Atik IR block filter that I bought from Modern Astronomy:-

http://modernastronomy.com/filtersOther.htm

Brinders

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Brinders

Brinders

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So does that block UV and IR?

For the Atik, only IR, I believe. Looking at Firstlightoptics site, I see the Baader is described as an IR/UV cut filter, so I assume that works for both.

The best explanation for using an IR blocking filter on a CCD (which is very sensitive to the red end of the spectrum) may be found here:-

ROBIN'S ASTRONOMY PAGE IR_FAQ

Brinders

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