Mediocre Jupiter in Color

 

 

 

Taken 12:25 am, 8/8.   This is 60 seconds (1,325 out of 5764 frames) through the C11, QHY 462C, TV 2x barlow, UV/IR filter, and I think the ADC.  96 fps.  Firecapture couldn't properly recognize the camera so I had to cough up $15 and use SharpCap.  

Though it's a disappointing result, it's like the best Jupiter data of the evening.   I'm quite puzzled at the low quality of the result as the video has frames that show about this much detail.  So initially, I was really excited but even after trying all kinds of different parameters, percentages, alignment points, this is it.

I feel like I'm getting better detail in Saturn and Mars which are smaller and and, in theory, more difficult to pull detail from.  I was reading about "coherence" in regards to frame rates, noise, and seeing.  At a certain point, it's meaningless and potentially damaging to go for more and more frame rates.   It depends on the histogram.  I was looking at some of my faster (200 fps) captures and though the video looks fine, individual frames can look extremely noisy -- even the "good" frames.   At the advice of online posts (always a risk even if there's a group consensus), I try for a 70% histogram in terms of exposure and gain.   But I'm wondering if that should be higher (90%?) when shooting at extremely fast fps?

In any event, this image doesn't seem to prove anything yet since it was shot at a "traditional" 96 fps which many seem to say is around a good speed (100 fps).

Oh, yeah, I was able to use "RGB Balance" in Registax prior to exporting it.  With this QHY 462C camera, I've been spending like 30 minutes getting the color close in Gimp -- which, as I think about it, probably has something like RGB Balance.  👀

 I guess I could go back and try different alignment points...   😡

 

(LATER:  I was watching a youtube video with Christopher Go while he was recording Jupiter footage. He runs his histogram at 90-98% in Firecapture.   Plus he's running around 90-100 fps.   He mentioned he does 4 sets of RGB in good seeing, 6 sets in decent seeing, and 9 sets in average seeing.   I assume he doesn't shoot when it's crappy like here in Northern Arizona. 😜

 

But on a somewhat serious note, my images might be noisy because by shooting with a 60-70% histogram, I might be cumulatively just adding noise to my stacked images.  Hopefully, this extra signal in future data will translate into cleaner raw images.)