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Embarrassing Jupiters webcam clinic

Space Cowboy

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  • 2 weeks later...
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malc-c

malc-c

Posted
Posted

Been recovering from a nasty chest infection, but still couldn't keep me from popping out and capturing some more video of Jupiter.

Didn't push my luck and only spent half an hour outside (perk of having an observatory :icon_scratch: ) and seeing wasn't fantastic with a lot of humidity in the air (the Moon had lit up a disk of thin mist around it) but..... I'm chuffed with the results

Sharpcap settings 


[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]
Resolution=640x480
Frame Rate (fps)=10.00
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure=-6
Brightness=66
Contrast=39
Saturation=27
Gamma=12
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=38

Resulting stack of 1300 frames.

Scope : 200P

Celestron NexImage web cam + stacked barlows (2 x 2x ) - F20 approx

post-23388-133877716189_thumb.png

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tich

tich

Posted
Posted

I managed to get Jupiter & its moons last night with my webcam & 2 x barlow so I'm pretty well chuffed.

Capture13_01_201222_07_52.png

Capture13_01_201222_05_04.png

I would be interested in some tutorials in some imaging too as I only use registax to tweak them a little.

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Russe

Russe

Posted
Posted

What I've done for the moons was: full brightness and high gain settings. Then I clicked a 300 frame video at 5 or 10 fps right after I had taped jupiter before.

Then I tried using GIMP for the second time in my life (after about 15 odd years).

The idea in GIMP is, after processing everything in Registax - make a new pic first, totally black (helps), then open as layer your jupiter picture (this u can derotate and flip according to your gusto, I do a bit of brightness/contrast/sharpness back and forth), then open as layer your moon picture (that one will need sharpening, contrasting etc.). Now you have a big bright blotch in that picture, right? Don't worry about it - take a note of it's position [unsure how to align to pics] because u will need to move the proper jupiter pic in the right position. Now open the layer dialogue window (I couldn't find it for ages - it's under windows/dockable dialogues/layers).

Right click on the moon layer and click on "add layer mask" - a little box opens - choose "black full transparency". Now you see the jupiter picture, choose "brush" from the tools menu (make sure that the layer mask is high lighted - the little black box behind the moon thumb in the layer dialogue window) and start "painting on this jupiter picture in the area, where the moons are supposed to be - and voila, they magically appear.

Then you need to apply the layer mask (right click on it) and flatten the image and save.

Finished.

I guess, I should make a video but I don't know how...

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Rapallokid

Rapallokid

Posted
Posted

Here is my latest contribution, s;low progress but can claim to having added 10 messiers recently !! View only ;0)

The telescope is a nexstar6 se not best for imaging i know.

i am using a phillips webcam without a barlow.

any advise would be appreciated.

thanks

Capture 17_01_2012 22_33_51.bmp

Capture 17_01_2012 22_33_51b.bmp

Capture 17_01_2012 22_36_21.bmp

Capture 17_01_2012 22_37_15.bmp

Capture 17_01_2012 22_43_35.bmp

Capture 17_01_2012 22_44_33.bmp

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Russe

Russe

Posted
Posted

I think there is an issue with focusing. How do u ensure that u focused correctly? The seeing conditions weren't very nice though.

A 6" SCT should very much be able to produce better pics.

The other thing I wondered is - how stable is your mount and how much does Jupiter move over the screen while u tape it?

As well - important are gain and brightness settings. Shutter speeds can make a difference as well.

My last batch of pics had quite a few like yours - thin high clouds buggered up my vision.

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Russe

Russe

Posted
Posted

What I do initially is yank up gain & brightness to see the moons. Then I move my focuser millimetres in both directions until I have a clear pic of the moons. Then I change towards my joop settings and start clicking.

With Barlow I have GREAT difficulties and almost never get a proper pic. But my windy Alt AZ mount will not permit great stability. Any little wind will move the pic around wildly!!

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malc-c

malc-c

Posted
Posted
Here is my latest contribution, s;low progress but can claim to having added 10 messiers recently !! View only ;0)

The telescope is a nexstar6 se not best for imaging i know.

i am using a phillips webcam without a barlow.

any advise would be appreciated.

thanks

It's a bit hard to comment without knowing what settings you used in what application. If you are using Sharpcap, look in the capture folder and copy and paste the contents of the text file with the same name as the video.

To me it looks like the gain, brightness and exposure needs increasing

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Rapallokid

Rapallokid

Posted
Posted

Hi Thanksfor the replies.

I am not very experienced as you can see, I center the image in a 9mm thn switch over to the webcam. in terms of the focusing the scope is excellent but with the cam it is really hard. i asked previously and was advised to jump up the gain and brightness to aid focus then reduce them. Yhe image was jumping all over the place as i could not get a steady image.

Can i ask one other thing, when the image is stacked in registax should all of the frames come from one shot or should multiple shots be used.

I used sharpcap to take the image, I also cant recall if i had the filter in.

A lot of basic errors, but hey thats how you learn.

any further comments appreciated.

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malc-c

malc-c

Posted
Posted
[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-6

Brightness=64

Contrast=32

Saturation=0

Gamma=21

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=255

Gain=12

I think this is the problem. Ideally you need to get the gain up between 30 and 50.

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billhinge

billhinge

Posted
Posted
I've noticed after the Philips SPC800 revolution of the last few weeks there are a lot of newbie webcam imagers around. Many are asking questions on different threads. I'm not God's gift to the web imaging world but if anyone has got a question or problem with their Jupiter images however strange it may look...weird colour or odd shape....don't be shy...just post it up on here and myself or I'm sure other learned SGL folk will try and help. :)

Stuart.

Hi

Hope you don't mind me posting here, I did this with a Lumix GH2 using the 25p video mode and stacked in Lynkeos on a mac. This was using a C11 and the optical zoom which uses the central 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Do you think the issue with this processed image is poor focusing or the seeing conditions (lot of water vapour in the air - I was using a heated dew shield). I haven't collimated the C11 yet, is that something I should do?

It's my first attempt which is quite heavily processed, although I'm not convinced I did the best job with it

thanks

Steve

Do you think t

post-22594-13387772048_thumb.jpg

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Russe

Russe

Posted
Posted

I don't mean getting moons as well!!!

You focus first with high brightness and gain settings on the moons. Hereby Jupiter is a white bright disk, where u can't discern any of it's features.

Then you change your settings and the moons disappear from view and you can see jupiters clouds.

Brightness ~30-40, gain ~10-15, shutter speed 1/25 or 1/33, at 5 or 10 fps.

Then shoot Jupiter.

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Reidupede

Reidupede

Posted
Posted

As an absolute beginner I am reading all this with enthusiasm, but where is the wretched moon just when I need to learn ; ) Jupiter is just a hopeless case for me at present. Just a very white blob going by. Jupiter is really my target, but getting to grips with the webcam is the first problem and then understanding Registax and how it works. My first effort with Jupiter and Registax was a flop but I didn't have enough frames now that I read these posts and didn't set the webcam properly.

Thank you all for taking the trouble with us newbies. It is so helpful.

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