Re: Jupiter & Saturn, optimistic imaging
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:09 am
I’ve finally reviewed all the 30-sec quick captures from Dec 20 and find most have too much turbulence even for PIPP. One is good, so here it is. This image is the result of 30 seconds SER 16-bit RAW video at a single fast 5 milliseconds per frame exposure, captured via SharpCap, processed in PIPP for 30 best frames of about 250, stacked in Autostakkert, sharpened with Registax 6 wavelets. As it was not fully dark, 16:46 local time, the background sky offers some blue hue to the background. I could process this out of the image, but I like the blue hue background, as it contrasts nicely with the yellowish hues of these planets at this low 18-deg elevation above the horizon. The turbulent atmosphere at this low elevation angle was tamed a bit with a Baader contrast booster filter, which accentuates the blue hues. The ZWO camera was at prime focus with Baader MPCC to my 14.5" f4.3 Zambuto mirror Starmaster Dob, skycommander goto and tracking. I used cell phone apps before the sun set to align my Starmaster to Polaris and Altair, using calculated elevation and azimuth for the specific position of these alignment stars at the time of the alignment process. This worked better than I thought. Once it was dark enough to view the planets, voila, there they were within a half degree of center, requiring only a minor adjustment to center the pair.