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Posts Made By: Stephen Fugardi

September 11, 2009 05:08 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter Reprocessed with Improved Method

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
While waiting for another clear night, I reprocessed my old 9/1 Jupiter data. This time using ninox resampling of 3/2 before loading into Registax5. Feature offsets were measured by aligning red images taken 40min apart. For my setup that night, Jupiter's rotation was 2.6px/min right, 0.2px/min down. RGB stacked images were offset before being combined in Images Plus. Lum was stripped out and blended with the original R data before being recombined with the RGB a second time. After final sharpening, the image was resized back to the original 480x480 size. These extra steps definitely improve final image quality.

Regards,
Steve

September 18, 2009 04:54 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter 9/17/09

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Taken last night in 3/5 seeing and transparency shortly after transit. My first imaging session with reading glasses which helped my eyes focus easier, but did not resolve the seeing conditions better. I should have reduced the tube extension a little since my red channel only achieved 80% of the histogram at full gain. Next time out, I adjust the image size until the red hits approx 90%.

Regards,
Steve

November 3, 2009 05:18 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 11/3/09

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Taken this morning at 3:25am with my C11, 2.5x powermate, DMK21, RGB filters. 90sec avis, 60fps R,G & 30fps B. Best 800 frames stacked with Registax. Seeing was 3/5 under hazy full moon. Polar cap & Syrtis Major easily visible. My first Mars of the season, DIA=8.0"

Regards,
Steve

November 7, 2009 02:45 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 11/7/09 f43 RGB

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Woke up to a cold morning with decent seeing. I double stacked my 2.5+1.8x barlows to yield approx f43. 2min R,G, 3min B avis captured, best 800 RGB stacked frames combined. DIA=8.3"

Regards,
Steve


November 10, 2009 10:13 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars f25 11/9/09 RGB 2x Resize

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
After achieving my best collimation earlier in the evening, I woke up to 3/5 seeing & 4/5 transparency. I took the following DMK f25 data:
R: 60fps, 1/60s, 850gain, 2'
G: 60fps, 1/60s, 950gain, 2'
B: 30fps, 1/30s, 1023gain, 3'
Pre-aligned in ninox, best 800 frames stacked in Reg5 at 2.0 resample. RGB + L (Red again) combined in Images Plus.

Elysium Mons is visible in middle of image. Collimating to the star focus vs defocused rings makes a big difference.

Regards,
Steve

November 18, 2009 10:01 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars f30 11/18/09 RsGB

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
First light for my new 3x barlow gave a nice image size but the degrading 3/5 seeing made focusing very difficult. 3min avis of 30fps R, 7.5fps B, G synthesized from combining R,B. Best 1000frames stacked. Olympus Mons is somewhere in the middle, but buried in the background noise. Nothing worse than waking up at 3am and finding the seeing worse than predicted...

Regards,
Steve

December 6, 2009 03:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars f32 LRGB 12/4/09

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Friday morning I was lucky to have a short opening between passing clouds with 3/5 seeing and transparency to collect 1 avi run with my C11. I pulled the camera out of the 3x barlow until the B channel gave a 75% histogram at 15fps/max gain. This was approx 1/2" which yielded around f32. Here's the DMK21 capture info, all taken at 75% histograms:
L 90s 60fps G=861
R 90s 60fps G=1004
G 120s 30fps G=941
B 160s (20s cut short from clouds) 15fps, G=1023

I preprocessed with ninox, stacked in Registax, and oombined RGB in Images Plus. The RGB Lum was extracted and then recombined with the actual collected L data. The extracted L shows more contrast, but the actual L seemed to have less noise. LrRGB images recombined & final deconvolutions and reduced B,G brightnesses applied.

Regards,
Steve

January 25, 2010 12:37 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars f30 1/23/10, 4/5 Seeing

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
My best Mars of the season taken in very good seeing. C11 3x Barlow DMK21 LRGB, best 1000frames per channel Registax stacked using my flat field created earlier from the sun.
L=1/154s 60fps 1min 90% gain
R=1/77s 60fps 1min 90% gain
G=1/60s 60fps 1min 95% gain
B=1/30s 30fps 2min 95% gain

Olympus Mons easily visible ahead of the clouds. After starting at f25, the image was so bright, I had to capture Red at 1/120s! Went to f30 and kept all histograms at 75%. Blue channel detail at 30fps & 95% gain was excellent. Anyone know how to subtract the flatfield, then preprocess in ninox?

Regards,
Steve

March 10, 2010 04:17 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 3/9/10

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Taken this evening in 2/5 seeing, 3/5 transparency at f30. 800frames RGB stacked from 2'R, 2'G, 3'B avis resized 150%. After observing at 312x & 572x, I was surprised at the excellent view even with below average conditions. After waiting over a month for a marginal sky, that may be my last glimpse at Mars for awhile. Heading back out for a try at Saturn,

Regards,
Steve

March 10, 2010 11:47 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn 3/10/09

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Taken in 2/5 seeing/transparency at 50deg altitude just before transit. Maintaining good focus was brutal under these conditions. Best 800frames RGB stacked from 3'R, 3'G, 4'B. I'd say you need at least 3/5 seeing to get a decent Saturn.

Regards,
Steve

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