Telescope Reviews: Jupiter, 8 Mar 2013, using NexImage 5

Thanks all!

Tel, thanks for the tips! I think actually the most likely causes are, in no particular order:
* The video I took was 30 seconds long--perhaps long enough for rotational effects since Jupiter spins so fast? Is this too long to capture, especially at such high magnification?
* The Barlow was used, meaning I was effectively magnifying about 600x. Granted, I did reduce the image down to 2/3 its size (so the image posted is at about a digitally-altered 400x, which is the actual magnification limit...but there could be other artifacting).
* As you say, I need to experiment more with frame rate.

I can explain where the red came from, though. I actually did not do enough individual color-gain tweaking on the camera, and the video still looked a little green. So, I removed some green from the image after processing in Registax...and I probably went a little too far in altering the color balance. I think I also may have added a bit of red, too, which probably did it.

My one complaint against Photoshop (which is entirely due to my naivete in using it) is that it looks much different on black background in photoshop than it does once I bring it somewhere online (which usually doesn't have a black background...lol) I need to remember to make it brighter!

Thanks for the edits, much appreciated!

I have a few other videos, both Barlowed and non-Barlowed, from last night to try to process too, I just eyeballed the one I thought might give the best results, but the others sit waiting for processing as time permits!

By the way, for anyone who is using a NexImage 5, the most useful way by far to initially acquire is:
* Center object in 25 mm EP, then center object again in an EP as close to 7 mm as you can get. In iCap, crank up the gain (since the focus will not be right), put in the NexImage 5, and go to max resolution; look for the fuzzy splotch of light...that is the unfocused version. Now, start focusing...it will require several twists of the knob to get it in focus, since the focus is quite a bit different than for any EP. The biggest key to remember -- crank up that gain, since out-of-focus the image is darker than in-focus....I had the gain up to about 60-ish to initially acquire but reduced to about 10-ish for the video once I got it focused. Once you start to get it focused, you can reduce resolution (for faster frame rate) and turn down gain. That will help with fine-tuning focus.

I need to get a few good Saturn shots -- I'm very confident now that the Cassini division should appear clearly using this camera...I know I saw it visually about a month ago, but was unsure if the camera would pick it up. So far, I'm impressed!

Now, time to turn on some Holst and do some more image processing...