7 replies to this topic

[vomit]

Wow...the skies were clear tonight.  Humidity notwithstanding, I saw more detail on Jupiter than anytime before.  The pic is OK....I had one that was processed better (but again) I lost it.

Scope: Meade LX-90 LNT 8".  Meade LPI; settings: Gain 100, offset 50;.0226 for shutter length; Auto Contrast 21, Shadow enhance 80. Processing done in Registax.  Hope you enjoy!

[vomit]

Greetings.  I wanted to bump this picture back up to the top and ask for some help.  Would someone who has experience processing images take a shot at redoing my "raw" image?
I think I had a good focus, but I am a little "iffy" on Registax.  If someone would like to take this task on, you can email me direct at tberthaume@yahoo.com.  Please put something like, "Jupiter Pic" on the title line, so I don't delete it.  Thanks.

[Philip Pugh]

Registax won't help as you need to take a series of images, not a single one. Your image looks quite good anyway.

Yesterday, Io and Europa were very close and I could resolve them visually but photographically, they appeared as a single bright moon:

http://s197.photobuc...nsY09SepD04.jpg

[Tony]

I agree with notes, if you are using an LPI camera, let it do the stacking for you. I usually take about 250 images and set the tolerance to keep only teh best 20% of teh images. That way 80% of the blurred ones get tossed and don't degrade my image. I alos take frames that on the screen look underexposed or darker than your final image. I have the sharpening filter set to hard. Then when you process them, I use .tif files in photoshop, you can increase the contrast with curves slightly, and use color balance to bring out the contrast between bands. seems to help. see attached taken with my LX90 8" and a telextender.

[vomit]

I agree with notes, if you are using an LPI camera, let it do the stacking for you. I usually take about 250 images and set the tolerance to keep only teh best 20% of teh images. That way 80% of the blurred ones get tossed and don't degrade my image. I alos take frames that on the screen look underexposed or darker than your final image. I have the sharpening filter set to hard. Then when you process them, I use .tif files in photoshop, you can increase the contrast with curves slightly, and use color balance to bring out the contrast between bands. seems to help. see attached taken with my LX90 8" and a telextender.

By taking so many images, aren't you getting "smear" from Jupiter's rapidly spinning clouds, etc.?  [especially if you set envisage to throw away the bad frames and the seeing is "iffy] What exactly is a telextender??  And should I get one?  I Have a 2x barlow lens, is that the same?  Your pic looked 10x better than anything I ever got.

[firemouth]

Televue makes Powermates which are multiple lens Barlows that work very well for imaging. You can get a 3x's and a 5x's that will bring more detail to your shots.
Google Televue Powermate.

[Tony]

I use a 2x barlow when seeing is poor or marginal. Higher magnification under poor conditions is not productive. On good nights, I use a 3x tele-extender or barlow made by Meade, but i the image is jumping around on the screen, I back off to less magnification. In the time frames I am shooting, smear from teh rotation of Juptier appears not to be a problem. Most of the improvmenet in results is found in very careful focusing which is not quick or easy, and setting the exposure to minimum to get detail and then activating the contrast filters or sharpening filters to enhance subtle details.

My LPI is one of the original ones and is "old technology" in a sense against the newer offerings from Orion for their two solar system imagers that claim to have very fast exposure capabilities, and small pixels for hgih resolution. I've not tried them yet, but have seen some good images of planets.

I've wanted to try my DSI Pro II on the moon in black and white and see what it might record.

cheers

[firemouth]

Tony! Would love to see Moon shots with the DSI II Pro!
Please do take them and share!
Also LMK how you felt about the software.
Thanks