Imaging Jupiter

[robert w]

Hi,
I am new to the hobby of planetary imaging. I been trying to image Jupiter for the past couple of weeks and have been having trouble getting a good quality images. My setup consists of: Celestron 6SE, Advance VX mount, 2x barlow and a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera. I read articles on the forum where people say to set the gain at 70, align the colors and achieve a histogram of 80% by adjusting the exposure. It seems pretty straightforward, but my results are not very good. I would be grateful if anyone could provide some tips to guide me on my way. Attached are a couple of my latest images and my camera settings.

[turfpit]

Robert

If you have just started planetary imaging, I would say that is a pretty good result. Looking at your capture settings, the values for gain and exposure look to be very much as I would expect. Planetary results are subject to how much atmospheric turbulence is present at the time of capture.

Some things to try:

• capture with SER format, it is the preferred format for planetary/lunar

• use RAW8 (RGB24 gives 3x larger files)

• don't worry about colour balance as this can be sorted with Registax

Left image is the result from Autostakkert, right image after colour balance (and sharpening) applied using Registax.

colour-balance.JPG (17.31 KiB) Viewed 4573 times

using:

Registax-1.JPG (170.36 KiB) Viewed 4573 times

This was using a ZWO ASI120MC USB2 camera with a Celestron C8, the settings being very similar to yours.

Jupiter-ASI120MC.JPG (53.39 KiB) Viewed 4573 times

You could have a read of viewtopic.php?t=1156. I only had a mono camera at the time I wrote this.

Good luck.

Dave

[robert w]

I will try your suggestions the next time out - hopefully tonight. I remember a couple of nights there was a small breeze blowing and that probably cause my focusing and lack of detail issue. Did you ever have any issues with debayering? I remember having trouble debayering a RAW8 Jupiter file (couldn't get color to come out) and that is why I used the RGB format. Will try using RAW8 the next time will let you know the results.

Thanks again for your help.

[turfpit]

Robert

I find that winds > 10mph will badly affect the image with my equipment, especially with the dew shield fitted.

I have never had a debayering problem with either of my colour cameras (ZWO ASI120MC or Altair 183C). I tend to use the defaults that Sharpcap offers. I am of the mind to capture the data as it arrives and fix during post processing. The main one to watch is 'Debayer Preview' is set to 'On'. The camera can be reset to defaults as follows - hold down the Control key while connecting the camera. In Autostakkert, I have the 'Colou'r menu option set to 'Auto Detect'.

On my capture laptop, I have an installation of Autostakkert!3 and Registax6. If I am experimenting with settings then I will capture say 100 frames and processs these at the scope - 100 frames will be fast. This is better than going inside with an hour of captures and finding out that some setting was wrong and the night was wasted.

Below is a capture settings file - this one was for Saturn, hence the higher gain. The main settings are in bold, the rest are defaults.

Dave

[ZWO ASI120MC]
Debayer Preview=On
Pan=480
Tilt=360
Output Format=SER file (*.ser)
Binning=1
Capture Area=320x240
Colour Space=RAW8
Temperature=20
Discard Split Frames=Off
High Speed Mode=On
Turbo USB=70
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=90
Exposure=0.015518
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=97
White Bal (R)=47
Brightness=1
Gamma=50
Auto Exp Max Gain=62
Auto Exp Max Exp=30
Auto Exp Max Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TimeStamp=2017-07-16T21:39:51.5564346Z

[robert w]

Hi Turfpit,
I was imaging Jupiter with RAW8 format last night and noticed I couldn't debayer the image in Registak. I was able to debayer the SER file in AutoStakkert by using the Auto Detect option and then saved the image as a TIF file. I then opened Registak with the TIF file but, the image is still in black and white. List below were camera settings - the debayer preview is turned on and the output format is SER. I purchased my camera like 4 years ago ZWO removed the Gamma settings at that time maybe they introduced some other problems, but don't know. Attached is the file.

Just going crazy on why it's happening.

[ZWO ASI120MC-S]
FrameType=Light
Debayer Preview=On
Pan=320
Tilt=240
Output Format=SER file (*.ser)
Binning=1
Capture Area=640x480
Colour Space=RAW8
Temperature=2.7
High Speed Mode=Off
Overclock=0
Turbo USB=100
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=70
Exposure=21.7510ms
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=93
White Bal (R)=63
Brightness=0

[turfpit]

Robert

Capture settings are what I would use.

What Bayer pattern did AS3 report? Should be GRBG.

AS-bayer-pattern.JPG (16.96 KiB) Viewed 4498 times

The gamma entry did get removed by ZWO - this would not cause loss of colour.

If you load the TIFF file output from Autostakkert into Windows Photos, what does it look like?

Is it possible for you to put the SER file somewhere on the internet for me to download and process?

Dave

[robert w]

Hi,
I created a dropbox acc0umt and uploaded the ser file. Can you please provide me with your email address, and I will provide you with access to the file.

Thanks again for your help.

[turfpit]

Robert

Private message with email address sent to you.

Dave

[robert w]

Hi Dave,
Thanks. I will add your email to the file.

Bob

[robert w]

Just sent you the link via private message. Let me know if you if you can get the file. I'm very new to Dropbox app.

Bob