Planetray Live Stacking advice

[Oberon510]

Hi,

I did a Jupiter GRS transit last night (see https://astrob.in/hmwrgs/0/ ) and am looking for some advice to crisp up the image. Last night wasn't the best viewing night so I understand there is only so much that can be done to mitigate bad atmospherics.

I used the Gaussian Auto Sharpen and Auto Brightness buttons but will try manual Sharpen next time as it looks a little to stark and the noise is higher than I think it should be. My questions are - do you have any extra advice on getting the sharpening honed better, is there an option to pop up a zoomed in window so sharpening adjustments can be easier to see and is there a way to remove/reduce that kind of veil around the planets border?

Thanks Robin, it is a great addition to SC.

Thanks,
Ken

[admin]

Hi Ken,

The manual approach that I used before adding 'Auto Sharpen' was to start with the Level 1 and work down from there - turn up each sharpening level until the image looks bad, then turn it down a bit so it no longer looks bad. You can then add a bit of 'Fine' sharpening if you want. My opinion is that a video can be made with more noise than a still image if that brings out detail (the noise is moving around, so less noticeable). Beware of too much of the higher level sharpening - they can give you an over contrasty look between the belts and bands, although that can be tamed with the gamma adjustment a bit.

You can of course use the main zoom at the right of the toolbar to adjust the view while tinkering with the sharpening. This can also be adjusted by placing the mouse over the image, holding <CTRL> and rolling the mouse wheel up/down.

The outer border can be suppressed to some extent using the 'de-ring' control at the bottom (update SharpCap if you haven't got this). Too much de-ring will make moons dissappear though, so be careful!

cheers,

Robin

[Oberon510]

Thanks Robin - good info to try out when the weather comes clear again in a week or so

Not sure how the seeing is in the UK but here in California it is very challenging before and after an atmospheric river - like pointing your telescope at the planetary reflections in a pond.

Ken

[admin]

Hi Ken,

yes, we have had a few nights where clear skies also brought the jet stream overhead and associated dreadful seeing. One of the nice things with the live planetary stacking is that it continuously updates the image based on recent conditions, so if things do improve over time then you will see the change and perhaps be able to capture some videos for later traditional processing too.


cheers,

Robin