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Anonymous
Unregistered
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-- I edited the images and my original post, I think I finally got a clue what I need to do --
Thanks for all your suggestions! hopefully this looks better than what I originally posted.
I'm literally working on it as I write this.
I think I was going too far with the steps in PhotoImpression, making the midtones and highlights too dark.
Still am perplexed why the stacked image looks so differently than the raws
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markf
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/13/04
Posts: 1935
Loc: Houston, TX
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Robert,
The first rule I've been told with Jupiter, is take short clips. Only a hundred to two hundred frames. The giant spins so fast that if you go more the a minute or so, the details will start to blur.
I still need to build my fine focuser, and these dang cloud won't go away!
Mark
Edited by markf (01/04/05 08:41 AM)
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oliver_p
member
Reged: 12/27/04
Posts: 93
Loc: Germany, NRW
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Hi Robert,
I try to stay within a 120sec timeframe for Jupiter captures for mediocre seeing conditions and within a 90sec window for really good seeing conditions to avoid rotation blur. Shooting with a ToUcam in raw-mode gives best results but the 5fps limit for color raw-mode is a real showstopper - only 450frames in 90s is not much, so I usually shoot in optimized non-raw mode with 10fps. I'm looking forward to try some real RGB-captures with a b/w cam but for now I had no opportunity to image Jupiter this season due to clouds  For Jupiter it's essential to leave the brighness-slider in the absolute middle (value 63 for numeric controls with WcCtrl) and control image brighness with gain and shutter speed only, otherwise the "onion-ring effect" is very likely to happen. Gamma should be zero to capture the faint and subtle highlight details in Jupiter's clouds. My processing is similar to yours, reducing contrast in Registax after stacking to about 80 seems essential.
Cheers & Clear skies, Oliver
-------------------- http://www.astro-imaging.de/astro
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Bird
Carpal Tunnel
   
Reged: 08/07/03
Posts: 2621
Loc: Canberra, Australia
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My methods change all the time as I try and find different ways of improving, but here's what I am currently doing on Jupiter:
I grab about 300-400 frames in each of R,G,B with a camera working at 15fps and storing uncompressed data. It takes a couple of seconds for the colourwheel to rotate and refocus at each change, so the whole sequence is usually done in about 90 seconds or less.
Next I load the whole thing into registax and locate the change points. I usually lose about 10 frames either side of a filter change from vibration, etc.
Each colour set is processed with 1.8x resampling (mitchell) and I end up stacking about 250-300 frames from each set.
The wavelets usually end up set to about 20 on all layers.
Then I save the final image as a TIFF, load it into Astra Image and run a few passes of LR deconvolution.
Repeat this for each of the 3 colours and I end up with three final images in Astra Image that are then recombined to get a colour image followed by a final unsharp mask.
You can see a screenshot at the end of this in my "January Images" thread.
regards, Bird
-------------------- Deep Sky Optics 13.1" f/5.5 newtonian,
PGR Dragonfly Express, PGR Dragonfly 2
RedHat Linux + Coriander
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Hi guys,
Like I wrote above I'm only taking 2 minute or so AVI's.
RGB seems out of the question for my camera (color) right now.
I set brightness to 50% and image at 5 frames/sec with the 3x barlow. Gain is set to around 10-15.
I guess I should say I'm strictly looking for processing methods (not capture) suggestions with images taken with the ToUcam or other color webcam.
I just can't figure out why the initial stack image looks so remotely different from the raw frames.
When I image I set gain and exposure setting so I can see the detail (pop in out with the seeing) and so the planet is not too bright. The shape on the raws is exactly as in the image below.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I reposted this image above in the initial post space.
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Dwight
scholastic sledgehammer
   
Reged: 04/06/04
Posts: 928
Loc: Silicon Valley, CA
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Quote:
The first rule I've been told with Jupiter, is take short clips. Only a hundred to two hundred frames. The giant spins so fast that if you go more the a minute or so, the details will start to blur.
Should similar restrictions be used when imaging Saturn?
-------------------- NexStar 11 GPS
ToUcam Pro II 840K
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Bird
Carpal Tunnel
   
Reged: 08/07/03
Posts: 2621
Loc: Canberra, Australia
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Dwight, Saturn has about the same rotation period as Jupiter - 10 hours - but it's smaller for us and there is not as much detail on the disk.
So, it probably doesnt matter. You can take nice long runs and get a good result as long as you arent trying to bring out faint oval storms on the disk. In that case the same rules as Jupiter will apply.
regards, Bird
-------------------- Deep Sky Optics 13.1" f/5.5 newtonian,
PGR Dragonfly Express, PGR Dragonfly 2
RedHat Linux + Coriander
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Though I've been told by an astronomer that 2-3 minutes should be fine on Jupiter, which is why I now take 2 and 1/2 minute AVI's of Jupiter to pull in some extra frames.
Good question Dwight, I've often wondered that about Saturn as well. I think storms on Saturn would get washed out if the AVI's are too long but I'm not sure it would affect detail in the rings (?).
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gazerjim
Postmaster
   
Reged: 02/12/04
Posts: 7728
Loc: About where I thought I was......
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I deleted my previous post here when it dawned on me that it was off topic.

The amazing thing about Jupiter is the amount of detail that can show up on the screen during capture when things are just right. Under really good conditions, if you are capturing at 5 fps with an 8-10" scope, the number of frames grabbed in 2 to 3 min. will produce fine results.
-------------------- Jim Fisher
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Henry J. Tillman
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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So I'll ask again, which processing (not capture) techniques are you guys using on Jupiter, for those who are capturing with a color webcam?
In particular, I'd especially like to hear which wavelet layers you are adjusting and how much processing you are doing on each layer, as well as how you handle the contrast/brightness with the stacked image after you process them in RegiStax. I like how some of my raw frames look, and I want the final image to represent that more.
I'm findng it's a whole different ballgame compared with Saturn.
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