Planetary Imaging Start to Finish: My 2021 Workflow
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- A look at the types of cameras you can use, how to image the planets, and how to process the data in PIPP, Autostakkert, Registax, and Topaz DeNoise AI. I've even made a couple of sample video files available which you can download below. One is the raw video from my ASI 385 camera, and the other is a cropped-down version that was created using PIPP. Check out the time links below to jump to specific sections in the video as well as links to the software, cameras, and more.
Time Links:
00:48 Planetary imaging vs deep-sky imaging.
03:05 Cameras and gear needed
08:35 My setup
11:19 An imaging capturing session
15:08 Cropping down video data in PIPP
18:33 Stacking video frames in AutoStakkert
25:46 Sharpening the stacked image in Registax
30:06 Removing image noise in Topaz DeNoise AI
32:13 Final edits/image annotation in Pixelmator
34:52 Making the final loop of Jupiter and closing thoughts
Download the Data:
Sample raw data (13GB file): jupiter-imagery.s3.amazonaws....
Cropped down version (3 GB file): jupiter-imagery.s3.amazonaws....
Software:
PIPP: sites.google.com/site/astropipp/
Autostakkert: www.autostakkert.com/
Registax: www.astronomie.be/registax/
Topaz Denoise: www.topazlabs.com/denoise-ai
Cameras/filters:
Baader UV/IR Cut Filter: amzn.to/3fQ2Ghg
Baader IR Pass Filter: amzn.to/3g9daZF
ASI 385MC camera: amzn.to/3lRdLTs
Canon SL3: amzn.to/3AuJaiy (an updated version of my Canon SL2)
(I earn a commission from any purchases made through Amazon Affiliate links)
Music: epidemicsound.com - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Steve: This is possibly the clearest "how-to" video on the internet, on step-by-step planetary imaging and data reduction. Your written notes make it much easier to follow your workflow.
Thanks!
Totally agree! Just starting with my new Edge and thought it was very daunting after doing DSO's but you've cleared up so many question marks!
This is exactly what I've been looking for. Concise, info packed and no bullsht talk about your grandma or your dog.
What abut his grandma and dog? They are important, too.
After going down many rabbit holes for getting started with astrophotography, this has been the best video at explaining in simple steps what I am going to need to do. thank you for keeping it simple and easy to understand ! Well done !!!
Glad it helped!
@@EarthtoSpaceScience I too am using a Mac and I tried yesterday for the first time to capture the moon and I did but it saved all the shots in pdf files instead of AVI file, how do I get it to save automatically in AVI files? I'm just trying to do a basic capture to start learning.
Great video. I did the planetary processing many times but I didn't know how to delete bad frames in AS!. Always something new to learn - Awesome. :) Thank you! cs
Glad it helped!
I keep coming back to this video again and again. The most informative one I’ve found for planetary imaging. Thank you!
Thanks!
Really great video! Answered so many questions I had. Thanks for taking the time to make it. Cheers!
So much helpful info presented in an easily digestible manner. Loved it. Thank you! 😀👍
Ever year I come back to this video. A classic planetary imaging video. Thanks Steve
Thank you so much for putting in the time/work to make this video, I learned so much! Really great and clear info that’s useful and to the point. I just recently got my first telescope (celestron evolution 9.25) and I’m so happy with it, but I’ve got a lot to learn and a long way to go especially with astrophotography. We appreciate you!
Not bad for a first telescope! :)
Wonderful!!! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and workflows with fellow enthusiasts! Just starting to more seriously explore planetary imaging and your video is spot on what I’ve been seeking! Thank you!
Glad it helped!
I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of this video! Thank you!
This was the most helpful video I seen regarding planetary astrophotography .... thank you so much for taking the time to produce it for us beginners
excellent!!, clear and first time I get such a neat presentation!
Thanks so much! This is one of the most comprehensive video's on planetary photography and I was able to follow the process all the way through from capture to processing with ASI 462 and 10" SW Dob.
Awesome! Glad it helped.
Very helpful and inspired me to work on the Planets!
I've got the same telescope with a ZWO 1462 camera. Your workflow outline was a huge help for why some nights of capture have been better than others. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
This was extremely well presented, thank you.
Tremendously helpful and possibly the best TH-cam resource for planetary photography. Thank you
Thanks!
Excellent tutorial! Thanks for posting, really appreciated
Great video. I have been looking for a good work flow and I believe you have provide a great work flow as well as a great video explanation.
Thank you for this great video, I am just getting started, this is helping me a lot, well done indeed ! !
This was fantastic eh!! How thinks that red spot was the neatest touch!! We love you Steve!!
Thankyou so much. As i have the same scope and mount all the better. Very clear to follow. Seasons wishes.
Great video on the topic!
Absoloutely the best tutorial on TH-cam
Thanks!
Very clear and detailed. It looks very time consuming.
What an amazing video!!
Excellent! Thanks a million!
Love this video
Great info here, thank you 👍🏻
Excellent tutorial
Thanks so much
Thanks so much! That was helpful!
Excellent video thanks 😊
Thank you for this video
Thk you very much for sharing i will try it it was a bit fast but could go back to get everything thk you
Fantastic video, thank you!
Very informative
great content, thx a lot!
Thank you - an excellent tutorial. I have all the software that you used, although prior to watching your video I struggled to make sense of the Registax wavelets. I will have a crack at Jupiter using my ZWO ASI178MC on my 4" Celestron (& possibly 10" Dobson), and if it's any good will post the details.
excellent ! merci beaucoup !
Thanks Steve. It was a brilliant post-processing video for any new bee in Astrophotography. Please can you share what what is the maximum size that you can print the final processed image?
Excellent video, Steve. I was especially interested in your image train setup at 8:35. Is it possible to list each of the components (adapters and all) in your imaging train? Perhaps add to the description? I've captured DSOs for a couple years now and starting out on planetary imaging. I suppose this detail would be very useful for folks like me. Anyways, thank you very much of taking the time to put together this tutorial !
I’ll try to do that here in the next couple of days. It varies some depending on what I have on there at the time.
Thanks a lot for this vidéo 👏 👍👏 👍👏 👍
Steve, thank you for this great tutorial. I'm learning both Deep Sky Objects and Planetary Imaging at the same time which is probably insane but why do one okay when I can do both poorly at the same time🤪? I look forward to watching more of your videos and hopefully can take what you have shared to make some decent images I can be proud to say I took and processed. Clear skies! Narrie (The Nar Side)
This is a truly excellent resource for people who, like me, are just starting out in the world of planetary photography. I have the same mount and scope and have just purchased a ASI224 camera. The image capture software runs without problems on my 2016 MacBook Pro, but I'm a bit reluctant to start setting up a Windows environment to run the other software. Is there anything that will run directly on the MacOS that could do the same job?
Guys named Steve are great at this. Unless your the same Steve as my guy.
Then your just the best!!!
Great video, and that's a beautiful image there!
My first attempts at astrophotography have been planetary imaging with a 5" MCT and APS-C mirrorless. My best image so far looks like it's shot with a broken toy camera in comparison 😄
I'm on the coast between the mountains and what I see on the preview is a lot more wobbly and fuzzy so I've been wondering whether a larger SCT would even help get more detail where I am, for such small targets. I'm not sure if good seeing is even a thing here, so a planetary cam with higher framerate is probably a requirement either way.
Some very helpful pointers on the software and processing here - thanks!
I started with a DSLR with an APS-C sensor as well. Those usually don’t do quite as well unless the video can be saved in some type of raw format because the compression algorithms introduce artifacts and stuff. But, seeing can be the biggest issue. Also, since you have an MCT, it can be hard to get the scope in thermal equilibrium. Heat plumes coming off the scope while it is cooling will cause similar wobbling in the image. You can either let your scope sit for an hour before using it (if you are taking it from a warm house to a cool outdoors) or prevent it from cooling by wrapping in some insulation. You can’t fix good seeing obviously, but need to try to image when there is a ridge of high pressure aloft which means winds aloft are very light and seeing is usually better. That rarely happens across most of the US during the colder half of the year but is often the case during the summer on those hazy days. During the winter, when a surface high pressure is centered over you and the sky is crystal clear, you usually have the jet steam directly overhead which wrecks planetary views. Only real way to get good planetary images is to try a lot and hopefully you will get some days where the air is nice and steady.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience
Yea the MCT definitely needs a little time to cool down I've noticed, but I think my main obstacle is the turbulent air here on the mountainous coast. I'm lusting for the C8EHD a bit, but I'm guessing anything with that high magnification would be similar in that regard, so I may opt for something more widefield instead.
Thanks for all that, great info :)
Thanks so much for this video. Great to see another 8" SCT taking amazing pictures like this. I've got an ancient LX200 Classic 8" and a 2x barlow, but cannot seem to get images anywhere near as good as these. And you did it over your roof! How much of a difference does the UV/IR cut filter make in your Jupiter image? I am not using one with my asi290mc, maybe that could make a difference?
Also, it seems like images through the 2x Barlow aren't as good as straight through. Any ideas there?
The UV/IR cut filter does make a big difference since the IR sensitivity of the cameras is high and the IR is usually out of focus relative to the other colors. Plus it screws up the color balance. Of course I really only get good seeing consistently during July and August and maybe during June and September. My Jupiter images always look like mush if I try to image during the winter since the atmosphere is way turbulent aloft during the colder months of the year.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thanks, order placed! I know 19* is terrible for Jupiter, just trying to work out the kinks and get a good flow going for when Saturn/Jupiter/Mars returns. Meanwhile, just on a lark I tried for Uranus and managed to barely pick up 5 moons. I'm thinking of doing a short animation if I can last that long. 😆
This video is INCREDIBLE! Can't thank you enough for walking through the entire process in a way that is easy to follow and understand. Getting ready to order the 385 and the flip mirror! What eyepiece holder do you have on the baader?
Thanks! At the moment I have the baader focusing eyepiece holder for the eyepiece side. The camera side is the baader click lock. You could use a focusing eyepiece holder on the camera side too which would give a little finer control on focusing but I’ve recently picked up the celestron motorized focuser which I like using a lot since the mount shakes when focusing by hand but not at all with the motorized one.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience i printed a unit to attach my ZWO EAF to this older lx200 8" widefield. torn on camera though. Staying with ZWO, what you recommend for my 8" 1260 f6.4 barlow with a 2 or 3x that would also work with a C11 with a 2x barlow?
I think the 385 I have would work well with both, using a 3x barlow in the 8” and 2x in the 11. That would put you around f/20 in both so should work reasonably. However, I believe some of their new cameras that came out this year have lower read noise and perform better and are similar price but I haven’t looked into them much yet.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience I ended up order the 662mc and love it so far, though ive only used it at 1260mm native. I also ordered the 2.5x powermate, t ring adapter and a couple eyepiece holders. ANother question... How does the flip mirror attach to the scope itself?
You have to pick your baader adapters. You can get a 1.25” or 2” nosepiece with T2 threads to attach to the diagonal or get an adapter that allows you to attach right to the SCT threads. They have a bunch of options.
Great step by step video, quick question in your opinion since you got an evolution, I'm purchasing an Evo 9.25 do you think the 9.25 be able to handle the zwo, focusing motor, guide and any other attachments in terms of weight?
I think so since it has the beefier tripod. Getting the electronic focuser will help a ton.
Very good video; Thanks! How do you get good focus with the Edge HD? i have an 8" Edge and i find the focuser very rough and coarse; i was thinking of either adding a Feather touch or going with EAF
Yeah, it is tough. I just had it out again for the first time this year last week and forgot how coarse the focuser is. Lots of back and forth to get there. I would like to either add a feather touch or an electronic focuser to help with my planetary photography.
Subscribed because the video was so helpful. Many of the others leave out the details of the imaging train setup. Thank you. I noticed you do not use a ADC with your colour camera, or did I miss it? Where would you put it in your imaging train?
I have an ADC but don’t usually bother with it for quick sessions and because I usually try to image with the planets as close to the meridian as possible so they are higher up. I live in Oklahoma so the planets are of course higher in the sky than for folks farther north. I’m not 100% sure what the best location is for it, but sometimes I’ll have it in front of the powermate and sometimes behind it.l depending on how I have things set up the previous time and what is fastest if I use it. Often when I image it is just for 15 mins before work in the early morning and I don’t want to mess with the added complexity.
Thanks for this walkthrough! How do you get the Windows software like Autostakkert or Registax run on your Mac? Currently I use CrossOver, but I'm open for other solutions.
I’m also using crossover on my iMac, but I have a windows VM on my MacBook Pro and so just run them on windows on my MacBook. On a previous Mac I ran them using winebottler but couldn’t get them to work on the newer versions of macOS so just used crossover.
Steve, this is BY FAR the most complete, clearest video on planetary imaging. I have the same scope as you and cannot wait to give this all a go. Sorry if you already answered this question, but do you have a focal reducer on your scope? Thanks!
Thanks! No, I don’t have a focal reducer. You don’t want to use it for planetary since you want to boost focal length and focal ratio, and not reduce it, but for deep sky imaging it is very helpful since you want the focal ratio as short as you can get.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Perfect!
Hello Steve, thanks for this great video. Would you please share the distance between the camera (sensor) with the Powermate and the telescope visual?. I have not been able to reach focus with the Powermate inserted. Thank you!
I honestly haven’t tried to reach the optimal focal distance. I just have the powermate threaded right onto the camera which moves the camera a lot closer to the powermate lenses. You can buy a televue t-ring adapter for the powermate which allows you to thread it directly onto a camera that has t threads. That moves the camera at least a couple of inches closer to the lenses in the powermate versus just inserting it into the powermate as it normally is. The focus range on an SCT is huge so reaching focus is rarely an issue but you do introduce optical problems if you are far from optimal focal length. Obviously with a refractor or other telescopes your range of focus is way more limited so small changes in the camera position can be pretty critical for reaching focus.
Hi, great video. May I know did you use ST4 auto guider in the setting? Otherwise did you use auto guiding for the planetary imaging? Thanks.
No I didn’t and I didn’t use any auto guiding since you don’t need it for planetary imaging. I’ve even imaged with a manual alt-az Mount, even a couple of times with a photo tripod with a pan head. Since the exposure times are so incredibly short you don’t need tracking. It makes life a lot easier to have reasonably good tracking though so you can use a smaller field of view when imaging and this get a higher frame rate and a smaller file size to process.
Thank you Steve, your video is most helpful. I am just getting setup for moon and planetary imaging. I would ask your thoughts on the Barlow magnifications. You use a X2.5 powermate, I was looking at a X2 or possibly X3 Televue. My 127MAK Skywatcher has a focal of 1500mm, would I be pushing it to far going with a X3 Barlow?
So it is really more about f ratio and pixel size on the camera. Your mak is already f/15 so going with a 3x barlow would push you to like f/45 which probably wouldn’t give good results. Probably don’t want to go past f/30, but it depends on the pixel size. Bigger pixels and you can go higher f ratio, smaller pixels you have to stay lower. But your end image size can end up being the same in terms of pixel width.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thank you for that advice. My camera is a ZWO ASI462MC with 2.9pixels so I;ll stay with x2 Barlow.
Great video, thank you! When Imaging planets, is it possible to take the video with a DSLR normal video mode and put that to the stacking program? Does the format have to be AVI?
You can totally do that. I did that when starting out. The avi format will allow you to produce a somewhat better image since there is no compression. But you can use a regular mp4 or whatever as well. There could be some compression artifacts that get introduced, but I have had pretty good results and it does allow you to capture a wider field of view which can be good for trying to get the moons or other background stars or whatever.
Your video is great, gives me hints for better results. Have you not tried gimp to sharpen as it costs nothing, seen Topaz but costs money
I’ve used gimp in the past but not in a long time. I’m sure it is way better now than it was years ago.
I bought a ZWO ASI678 recently and I was trying on Jupiter this evening with my Celestron 8" mounted on Celestron advanced AVX. I used an Orion anti skyglow filter instead of UV/IR filter as you recommended; not sure that's reason for this, but the image has mostly green color on the Jupiter's bands. I don't see RED/BLUE, however, in Registax's RGB balance It shows all 3 colors. Do you this it's because of the anti-skyglow filter? BTW, I've got colors when I didn't use the filter.
The filter will screw up the color balance but you can usually adjust that in post processing.
This video is awesome, thanks for detailed explanation. Do you have any video of link to install all software needed? i am having some issues in installing all those in MAC.
I’ve been meaning to make one but haven’t. With the latest versions of MacOS it is easier to just install windows in parallels or VMware fusion, and then install the windows versions of those software in the windows VM. Crossover for Mac works for autostakkert and Registax generally, but I haven’t gotten it to work with PIPP but will need to try that again. I have it on my list to make a video on installing the software on a Mac using crossover or winebottler but need to get all the latest versions of everything (MacOS, crossover, etc) to see what is what.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thank you, let me try with Windows OS.
What do you think about adding an auto-focuser and an ADC? I have a heck of a time focusing with the knob on my C-11...
I’ve added a Celestron motorized focuser. It helps a ton. I have an ADC but rarely use it. It helps some but I also live in Oklahoma so the planets are usually high enough when crossing the meridian to where it doesn’t make a huge difference most of the time. Main issue is that it is a pain to get setup because my evolution mount isn’t stable enough to withstand all the adjustments. It vibrates a ton when trying to adjust it so it makes it hard to tell what you are doing.
Hi, would love to do the process like this as my gear is very similar, 1st question, how do you use PIPP on your mac? do you use any program which simulate WINDOWS environment? many thanks, Gabor
So, on my older Mac that had and older macOS version, I could run it using winebottler. However, that won’t work on the newer versions. I can run Autostakkert and Registax using crossover, but I also have a full windows install on my iMac and MacBook Pro using VMware fusion which works great. I’ve used that on macs to run windows for work software I needed for probably close to 15 years now. Obviously you have to buy a copy of windows 10 or whatever to do that which is a bummer.
Dear Steve. Thank you for a superb outline. However, PIPP seems no longer available for download. So I wonder what you would recommend now.
You might be able to get it from here: astrowhat.com/resources/planetary-imaging-preprocessor-pipp.38/
Steve, Can't we stack the images in Registax itself? Is Autostakkert better in someway? After the final image from the stacking SW, one could work in PS? What is your experience and what do you recommend?
Yes, you can stack in Registax and some other programs as well. I personally like autostakkert better, and I get better results but that could in part be because I’m more familiar with it. You can also do a lot of processing in PS, I just don’t have a full version of that software.
I have a question, What gets you a better quality final picture, Your initial capture of Jupiter with TIFF Files ( thousands TIFF Pictures) or an AVI File.
I’ve only stacked tiff images when I needed a large field do view from my dslr or something like that and wanted full frame images instead of cropped in video. It is possible your days planetary images would be better stacking lots of tiffs, I’m not sure. But it is more of a hassle so I don’t usually bother.
Steve would it be possible to look at your Jupiter Scheme in Registax for small aperture scopes, I have a Mak 90 and took some images last night and trying to process it.. Thanks.
I’ll have to see if I can dig up some data from a smaller scope and see what settings I used. But, it totally depends on the focal length you image at since ultimately it depends on the size of the planet in the image in terms of what settings you can use. Plus, they will vary with seeing so it is always a trial and error game. I have probably a dozen sets of settings I’ve used that serve as starting points but I always end up tweaking them each time anyway since each set of data is a little different.
Thanks Steve. Do you have a similar workflow for DSOs?
Not yet, one day. I’m still not great at that processing and have tried affinity photo l, pix insight, etc. steep learning curves on the deep sky processing to get to where you feel like you know what you are doing and have a repeatable process.
Hi Steve, nice video! Does your Mac have intel or m1 cpu? Can Winjupos works on your Mac through wineskin?
Intel, and yes I’ve set up winjupos on it, using winebottler. I’ve heard people have gotten stuff to work on the M series chips but that is going through an extra layer of emulation so not sure how the performance is.
🌷🌷🌷🌷
I'm fairly new to this and am having line up & focus issues with finding targets in my 224. I never saw a flip finder. What is the brand of flip finder and eyepiece you are using? Thanx
I use a baader flip mirror. There may be other brands as well. Usually when imaging I just use a baader or Celestron zoom lens. If I’m mainly observing the planets visually I will use my televue eyepieces since they are a little sharper but I have to swap eyepieces since they are all fixed focal length. The zoom eyepieces are nice for quick looks.
Nice video, i have a question, how many minute or sec is necessary for better results? Thanks.
Unless you use software like WinJuPos to derotate your images, you don’t want to go over about 90 seconds on Jupiter or the fast rotation rate of that planet will cause problems. You can go a couple of minutes on other planets.
Hope you still check comments. I'm using PIPP 2.5.9 and have the color check box set to auto. I'm using a ASI 585 mc OSC camera and the images are always "grey"? If I force to color; it shows color but all Channels have the same value; so still grey? Any ideas? And the AIR controller.
I’ve had that happen in the past but don’t remember why exactly. Have to just keep trying different settings in PIPP related to the color settings. The proper settings may vary with camera and the type of video you record (avi, etc)
Excellent! Do you have the same video but for processing deep space objects?
Not at this time. I’m still learning how to do a better job with deep sky objects.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience But in the future, is there any hope for this?
@@user-jk1lw7mr7l Yes, I will show videos on processing deep sky images at some point. I just don't want to do one until I feel I can produce good results. It took me a few years to get reasonably good at planetary imaging, so maybe later this year or next year I'll feel comfortable doing some videos on workflows.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Fine! I am subscribing to your channel and will be looking forward to, like many others, I'm sure.
This is a great tutorial! However, I'm stuck at the Autostakkert processing stage. When I run it, everything runs with green checkmarks but the output TIFs don't have my planet in them. They are just black files. I am imaging Saturn. It doesn't take up the entire frame. There's a lot of black space around it. Does that matter?
Update: I turned off normalize and turned of RGB align and it worked this time. Not sure what's going. I'm a total beginner to that point that I haven't even figured out how to properly align my scope yet so who knows...
Quick question... how are you running all the apps on your mac please? Your desktop looks like a mac set up and not PC. Just wondered as PIPP/Registax etc are PC native. Many thanks on the great tutorial, super helpful!
Yes, I’m running on a Mac. I use three different setups depending on which computer. I have used Crossover for mac on one (costs money) which works pretty good. I’ve also used winebottler which is free and can work good if you can figure out the right settings for your computer. I also have used windows VM software to run the software in a windows VM on the Mac. You can set it up such that the apps appear as native Mac apps and it hides the windows background and all of that or use it as a regular windows setup. I use VMware fusion but parallels does the same thing.
Is it possible (with better computing equipment) to do the wavelet analysis on the individual frames, and shouldn't that help?
Using winjupos to derotate the frames would help more than anything probably.
Steve, I had my first evening out with my new 8se and ASI224 camera and my results were OK, but, I noticed you captured 4617 frames in the 90 seconds you collected data. In my first attempts I only specified a 1000 frame run and my final image was OK, but, lacking the greater detail of your final picture. Would you guess that I could improve the final output with capturing MORE frames? My camera was running at about 150 FPS which is good and my next session I will up the frame count to a similar 4K + total frames. Also, I shot without a UV/IR cut filter last night, (ordered - be here Wednesday), and from what you stated, the use of that filter should improve the clarity of the video I shoot.... I actually played this video, pausing, to process my video captures at the same time so as to not "forget" all the good instructions you presented here. Your instructions were great and I just need more time outside with my gear. Thank you for a clear and concise "how to" video for capturing great planet shots.... Any other tips will be greatly appreciated.... Hank
More frames may or may not be better. Seeing varies a lot though and sometimes the images just aren’t going to be good because the atmosphere isn’t very stable. A big issue is also thermal stability of the telescope. If the telescope is warm and still cooling down, heat currents coming off the telescope can also distort the image. Getting the telescope in perfect focus can also be a pain with an SCT sometimes, especially if the view isn’t real stable. Most commonly it is the seeing though which varies a lot from day to day and hour to hour. After you have tried to image many times you realize how much conditions vary. A lot of times the clearest nights are not the most stable. I actually had one of my best views of Jupiter ever through a persistent thin cloud layer.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thank you for your reply. My frame rate was ~120-150 FPS which made exposure time ~ 8ms, I understand that using a bit slower frame rate ~90-100 and a corresponding exposure a little longer ~20-30 ms will allow more light = less gain to help lower the noise. Anyway, my results were pretty D good for my first time out. Your video was a big help in getting me started, now for the BEST teacher - EXPERIENCE ;-).....Thanks again.. Hank
I am still re-watching this video to catch the items I may have missed. If you don't mind another question please? You set your capture resolution to 1024 x 768 from the native 1936 x 1096, the cameras max. My ASI224 camera's max resolution is 1340 x 976. Would also reducing my resolution to say 800 x 600 or 640 x 480 help with the final picture quality? In my understanding a reduction of resolution from the cameras maximum still uses all the sensors pixels but multiple pixels see the same information that is seen with the full resolution setting?? I am wanting to understand why a reduction of resolution "may" be helpful. I really appreciate your experience and information shared to help other have greater success with their captures.... Much thanks... Hank
So with those when you lower resolution you are just cropping in on the sensor, not using the whole sensor and binning the pixels. As such, the lower you make the resolution the faster the frame rate you can get since there is less data to transfer. It also makes the final file size smaller.
I have serious motes. [They are NOT on the sensor or on my Barlow.] Using a C9.25 SCT.
I know..."clean your corrector". But no time right now.
Any way to remove these in processing?? thnx.
btw: Same work flow but I plan to add Topaz and Pixelmator. Nice!
It is really hard to remove them. My Pixelmator app has a healing brush that sometimes will work on things like that by it is pretty hit and miss.
I have a Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount and a William Optics Z81. And a 10" Goto Flextube. I want to image the planets. Have a Neximage 5 webcam (Zwo 120 mini) and a Canon 5D II and Canon 7D and a Canon M50. Should I get a 9,25 inch or an 8 inch SCT to get the best results or an imaging Dob or a dedicated astro camera ??
For imaging the planets, there is kind of a learning curve since you have to get better at the actual process of imaging, and then there is a lot to learn on the processing side. I would start out by buying a t mount adapter for your canon cameras, and a tmount to 1.25" adapter so you can attach it to your existing telescopes along with a televue 2.5x powermate since you will probably use that in any setup anyway. The give it a whirl with your refractor and 10" dob. You also need to get a UV/IR cut filter for planetary imaging. You will need that with any camera setup generally. it will help sharpen your images since cameras are usually sensitive outside the visible range and particularly with the refractor, those wavelengths won't be in focus with visible light. Then you can try out the image capturing and processing. It is easier to capture with a dslr or related camera since you don't have to worry about your computer, but you have to make sure you don't overexpose it, so capture the video using the fastest frame rate and lowest ISO you can get away with. Probably you will need to experiment to figure out what settings work best for each camera. What looks good on video playback won't process the best, it needs to be "a little too dim" on the video playback to be just right for processing. The M50 might work really well actually since at least for 4k video recording I believe that camera does 1 to 1 pixel recording. I think it just crops down to that number of pixels. The issue with DSLR video recording is that you want to avoid it using multiple sensor pixels to produce one final pixel in the video since that is reducing resolution in your final product. If you get a new telescope, the 9.25 SCT will out perform the 8" on planets, but it is a lot larger so setup is a bit harder. Astro cameras are really cheap compared to DSLR or mirror less cameras, so you can always pick up a ZWO 224MC which is a good starter planetary imaging camera and try that out with a laptop. But, starting with one of your existing Canon's I think would be a good way to go as well since you don't have to worry about juggling a laptop with your telescope setup when first starting out with imaging. I'll still sometimes use my Canon SL2 for imaging, especially if i am trying to get a wider field of view say with a planet near the moon or when we had the jupiter and saturn conjunction.
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Thank you so much for this great video. I try to run Registax 6 through wineskin_winery on Mac m1 . it is extremely slow to run the RGB align and wavelet. After 24 hours. it still scan through small areas across the 10mb tif photo. Is there any setting I didn't set correctly? Any solutions?
I tried on Non M1 Mac. It is faster. looks like in M1 MAC, it can only use 1 CPU. I noticed in your video, it used 4 , same as non m1 Mac
Ok, interesting. I was wondering how it would work on an m1 Mac. I’ve seen people install windows using parallels on the m1 macs and then install autostakkert and Registax and have better success that way. I’ve been reluctant to buy an m1 laptop because of how this software would work.
What is distance between telescope flange and camera sensor? It is 133mm without Barlow. Does Barlow change this distance?
Thanks
Also how do you setup or run the guidescope because the evo 9.25 doesn't have an autoguide port how do you setup that, and could I used the ASIair plus with this setup : evo 9.25, zwo color camera for photo, zwo mono for guidescope?
I’ve never tried using one of the ASIairs but it is something I’ve wanted to setup eventually. So I’m not sure exactly what the best practice is for that setup with an evolution. I know people have done it however.
What about your back focus? Do you have to worry about that when doing planetary imaging?
Yes, you need to keep that around what the SCT is optimized for so you don’t end up losing aperture and that kind of thing. An SCT will reach focus with any kind of configuration since the range of focus is so large but if your sensor is too far back you do end up losing aperture which will result in loss of image quality since you lose both resolution from the loss of aperture and contrast as the central obstruction then becomes a greater percentage of the remaining aperture.
Поворачивать юпитер можно и в регистакс. Тут нет деротации. Можно ещё деротировать и сложить.
In the first 8 minutes, the way you treat the uv-ir filter is not nice...in 1 minute you pass it thru your hands, smash it against the diagonal and then get your hand on its surface. Lucky if you still get any light through. The rest of the video is great and very instructive
I noticed you are not using an ADC to correct for Atmosphere with your planet setup... any reason why ? Great Video BTW, VERY informative and helpful.
I actually took that part out of the video to simplify things a bit. I have an ADC, but that adds another step and I tend to find it a PITA to get setup properly since the evolution mount isn’t stable enough to prevent things from jiggling around a ton when adjusting the ADC. So, you have to wait a bit after each little adjustment for things to settle down and it can take a while to get dialed in. I love using the mount, especially for visual, but doing things like adjusting an ADC at high magnification are challenging on it. I also don’t find that it adds much benefit when the planets are above about 35 degrees, and next to no benefit if they are above 45 or so. In that range, just aligning the red and blue channels in processing gets you about the same result with less effort. It does make a huge difference though when the planets are down below 30 degrees in elevation. You simply can’t correct all of the dispersion away in software when they are that low. Whenever I get a mount that is more stable I’ll probably use it more often.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Makes perfect sense... on another note... Where did you come across the Tele Vue SCT adapter connecting everything? I just got a Baader Clicklock with a 1.25" reducer which I suspect will accomplish the same task :)
Televue t-ring adapter found here: www.highpointscientific.com/tele-vue-t-ring-adapter-for-1-25-quot-powermate-ptr-1250
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Actually I meant the piece that is connected directly to the SCT...
I don’t remember where I got it but that is a televue SCT to 2” adapter. I use it mainly for my televue 2” diagonal and 31mm Nagler which provides an awesome view in the 8” edge. Spectacular.
Also, any advice on how to process images acquired using a monochrome camera using LRGB filters? I know.. I can google that.. which is what I'm doing now...
If imaging Jupiter you usually want to keep each color capture to 30 seconds given the fast rotation rate. Then process and combine those.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thanks! Which program would do the combining of the separate channels? Do you do that in Photoshop?
Yes, Photoshop or any other image editing software that lets you do that kind of thing.
Hello, this video is also available for Asi120Mc-S ? Thanks 🙂
Same process for any camera, but Registax/sharpening/etc settings vary with every camera, barlow/extender you use, seeing conditions, etc. it always varies some.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Ok, thanks you for the quick reply !
Can we get one for deep sky?
One day, I’m just much worse at processing deep sky so not going to make one yet.
How many minutes of imaging do you recommend for each subframe of the animation?
Depends on the planet. With a color camera I’ll usually not go more than 90-120 seconds on Jupiter because of the rapid rotation. You can go longer on other planets. You have to balance your frame rate with capture time. If you are getting way over 100 frames per second you don’t need to go as long compared to when you might be only getting 30-60fps (say when imaging a larger area to get more moons in the image, etc).
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thank you
I have ASI interface as well but it record the files in .ser I can't find yet a procedure to change in .AVI any suggestions? Thank you
You can process everything the same using files in .ser. I do that sometimes as well. I’m not sure if one offers any meaningful advantage over the other.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Ok, thank you. Maybe I have more urgent problems like... all USB 2 ports uah! Thanks.
Could one take pictures of planets as though they were deep space objects, in order to see the stars behind them, even if the planets did not look as large as in planetary imaging? I have watched several dozen videos on how to image planets, but no stars. Folks always take a video of the planet and then run it through PIPP.
You can’t expose the stars and planets well in the same image. If you adjust the exposure to show the stars, then the planet will be completely blown out since it is so much brighter. So, to do that, you have to take two sets of data, one for the planet and one for the stars, and then overlay them with the planet masked out in the star field image so the properly exposed planet image is visible. You can also just use one image and process it twice and up the exposure on one to show the stars, but usually you end up with a lot of extra noise to try and remove if you do that. But, that works well for showing the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
@@EarthtoSpaceScience Thanks.
Can I have some help, please. I recently bought ZWO ASI120MMS USB3.0 and everything just looks like a blur or single colour. I pointed it at the moon, at night, and the it was very bright. I plugged it into a USB A on a Microsoft surface 7
So it sounds like you need to reduce your exposure or gain settings to image the moon. You may not be at focus either. Usually you can reach focus without using a reducer to barlow lens with those cameras but it can be hard to find focus. If you swap out an eyepiece with the camera, the camera won’t be anywhere near focus if the eyepiece was at focus, and it can be hard to figure out where to go, so picking a bright object like the moon is the way to go. But, if your gain or exposure setting is too high you will never be able to focus because the sensor will be over saturated with light so it won’t look much different in or out of focus. So, I would try pointing at the moon and then adjusting the gain down until it is dimmer, then trying to adjust focus on your telescope until things look good. Then you can adjust your gain settings again. Keep in mind that you will need to adjust your exposure and gain settings for each object since if you have everything dialed in for the moon, you won’t be able to see anything else, except maybe Jupiter, without cranking your gain settings back up. It just takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best for different objects with a given camera and telescope combination. But, once you figure it out for a couple of objects you will have a good idea where to start with other ones too. Keep in mind that if you add a barlow lens or reducer lens, it will result in vastly different camera settings and focus positions, so you have to kind of figure things out again. After a while it becomes no big deal to swap things around but it takes a bit to get the hang of how to set things to work right with different combinations. There is no standard combinations of settings that will work since it will always depend on the focal length, f ratio, aperture, camera specifications, etc you are dealing with at any given time.
So Jupiter rotated that much in just two 90 second captures?
Yep, a full rotation only takes 9 hours.
this is very cool but as someone just starting out in astrophotography it is very overwhelming. I wish it wasn't so complicated to a good picture of a planet.
Hey Stephen, thank you for producing this video on Planetary Imaging. I appreciate the work you did very much. I am new to astrophotography and I am very excited to get started, For me, down here in Astor, Florida, two of my favorite planets, Jupiter and Saturn have mostly gone away until next season so it's the Moon and Deep Sky Objects this time of year. Of course I do have Venus but to me it just looks like a very big and bright star and I have no idea even where to begin to image that planet. Anyway, I learned a lot from your video and I hope you have some stuff on imaging DSO's because that's where my interests lie at the moment. Thanks again!
Sincerely, Rich Williams
Astor, Florida 32102 USA!
Yep, I’m looking forward to imaging Jupiter and Saturn again during late summer and fall.
I can't get any focus using knob on teleskop, don't see stars or planet, only black screen. What's wrong am I doing? Using ZWO ASI 120 MC.
It can be hard to figure out where your focus is since it will be dramatically different than with an eyepiece. If you have an eyepiece in that is in focus and then swap out and put the camera in, likely it is so far out of focus you can’t see anything. Set the gain up much higher and maybe use a longer exposure and try to go through the full focus range. Depending on the setup you might need to pull the camera out a little from the focuser to get a bit more focus range.