8 replies to this topic

[dcaponeii]

I shot 15 captures in the early morning of the 10th and kept 9 of them for derotation.  The final result is not really very good I'm afraid.  Not sure what's going on in the southern regions.  I thought it might be dust but looking at Mike's images a few moments ago from the following morning leads me to discard that speculation.  This leave only the conclusion that my planetary imaging effort for that morning we're less than ideal!!

 

[Pete Gorczynski]

Doesn't look bad to me. Unless you live in Barbados conditions are rarely ideal!

 

[Sacred Heart]

I shot 15 captures in the early morning of the 10th and kept 9 of them for derotation.  The final result is not really very good I'm afraid.  Not sure what's going on in the southern regions.  I thought it might be dust but looking at Mike's images a few moments ago from the following morning leads me to discard that speculation.  This leave only the conclusion that my planetary imaging effort for that morning we're less than ideal!!

 

2024-11-10-1010_3-U-L-Mars_AS_P25_lapl6_ap36_Drizzle15_py93_dr9_WS_P.png

Where I live, middle TN, I might see 5 -10 "ideal" nights a year, 3 - 5 of them I'm not at home or doing something else.  I also view imaging, as a whole, like gardening. Some years are better than others in gardening, some nights are better than others for imaging. Not every night is an imaging night. If you wait for that perfect night, you will miss out on some good opportunities. No matter how bad a night is, you can try again, that's what makes every night special for imaging and every year special for gardening.

 

By the way, i like your less than ideal image,  I'll take that image any night.

 

Just me,  Joe

 

PS   If the night is not that good for imaging, try using an eyepiece.   Right now, either I will do planetary imaging first then throw an eyepiece in or eyepiece first then imaging.  I enjoy my eyepieces.

[dcaponeii]

Where I live, middle TN, I might see 5 -10 "ideal" nights a year, 3 - 5 of them I'm not at home or doing something else.  I also view imaging, as a whole, like gardening. Some years are better than others in gardening, some nights are better than others for imaging. Not every night is an imaging night. If you wait for that perfect night, you will miss out on some good opportunities. No matter how bad a night is, you can try again, that's what makes every night special for imaging and every year special for gardening.

 

By the way, i like your less than ideal image,  I'll take that image any night.

 

Just me,  Joe

 

PS   If the night is not that good for imaging, try using an eyepiece.   Right now, either I will do planetary imaging first then throw an eyepiece in or eyepiece first then imaging.  I enjoy my eyepieces.

Hmmm.  Eyepiece??  Oh wait!, I think I remember seeing something called an eyepiece in some boxes on a shelf in my shop somewhere.  The boxes are so dusty I'm not quite sure what the writing says here.  Needless to say I'm not much of an eyepeice user.  Swapping in an eyepiece just means I have to once again collimate the scope for imaging.  Hardly worth the effort in my opinion given that visual is seeing limited and lucky imaging much less so.
 

[Sacred Heart]

There is a collimation for viewing and imaging??  I thought you do it once and you're done. For either viewing or imaging.

 

Learn something new everyday.

 

Thanks,  Joe

[dcaponeii]

There is a collimation for viewing and imaging??  I thought you do it once and you're done. For either viewing or imaging.

 

Learn something new everyday.

 

Thanks,  Joe

If you're trying to really get these high-resolution images you're collimating after a long slew!!  From Jupiter to Mars is enough to require collimation.  If I slew more than 30 degrees or so (especially if you cross the meridian) then first thing I do is launch Metaguide on a star within 0.5 degree and the collimation is tweaked.  I use a second camera mounted on a 135mm SLR lens as my finder so increasing gamma, GAIN and exposure gives me visibility on the preview window of stars down to 4th magnitude without too much trouble so there's always something close by to collimate with.  On the odd chance there isn't then I'll use Con's moon flare technique to make sure I'm at least close enough.  But nothing beats getting that little red dot inside the psf with Metaguide, especially if the seeing is a little iffy.  Cor's background enhancement tool I mentioned above has a tendency to reveal the Airy disk surrounding the moons but there's a control to suppress that in the tool.
 

[Sacred Heart]

If you're trying to really get these high-resolution images you're collimating after a long slew!!  From Jupiter to Mars is enough to require collimation.  If I slew more than 30 degrees or so (especially if you cross the meridian) then first thing I do is launch Metaguide on a star within 0.5 degree and the collimation is tweaked.  I use a second camera mounted on a 135mm SLR lens as my finder so increasing gamma, GAIN and exposure gives me visibility on the preview window of stars down to 4th magnitude without too much trouble so there's always something close by to collimate with.  On the odd chance there isn't then I'll use Con's moon flare technique to make sure I'm at least close enough.  But nothing beats getting that little red dot inside the psf with Metaguide, especially if the seeing is a little iffy.  Cor's background enhancement tool I mentioned above has a tendency to reveal the Airy disk surrounding the moons but there's a control to suppress that in the tool.
 

Did not realize that.   That's a lot of work / steps to go through, but if that is what it takes for a great picture,  you are dedicated.

 

Joe

 

Joe

[Kiwi Paul]

Don, your Mars image has very good detail in central parts but the outer third all around the disk looks fuzzy. Could this be to derotation in WinJuPos. I've seen this happen in my own images after WinJuPos.

Cheers Paul

[dcaponeii]

Don, your Mars image has very good detail in central parts but the outer third all around the disk looks fuzzy. Could this be to derotation in WinJuPos. I've seen this happen in my own images after WinJuPos.

Cheers Paul

I was wondering that too.  I've been having pretty good luck with WJ of late but you can almost see concentric circles in that haze.