Jupiter with Moon 12:46 am on 7/30

 

Best 1317 frames from 12,930 frames.  Same setup (C11, 2x TV barlow, IR 685nm filter).  Stacked in Autostakkert and Wavelets in Registax.  Captured at 141 FPS.

The clip was approx. 90 seconds and one the consquences of going so long is that the east and west edges have some smudgy distortion.   Definitely could be worked on by using WinJupos.

Mars on 7/30

2,186 frames out of 36,440 frames taken approx. 3:27 am local time on 7/30.   Same setup as previous posts with the Baader 685nm cut-off filter.   Stacked in Autostakkert and Wavelets in Registax 6.   Yeah, that artifacting around the edges, I know.

(Later:   This image is showing the "chokepoint" between Syrtis Major (on the left side) and Terra Sabaea to the right.  The round lighter area above the chokepoint is Hellas Planitia.  And the big light area below is Arabia Terra.  Maybe sometime in the 2030's, we'll have people there?)

Same session.   Total frames around 41,600.  But with Green (visual) filter.  3:54 am on 7/30.  I tried stacking in Autostakkert but came up with a much "blurrier" image.   Picked about 200 alignment points in Registax and did light wavelets processsing.  It looks out of focus, but I took great pains to to dial in focus.   The video coming down through the green filter was pretty awful with lots of shaking; and I never got a "crisp" focus no matter how long I tried.   It could be the cheap "Optcorp" brand green filter.   Mars is shrinking so quickly that I don't know if I'll have more time to get a better result with better filters.

(Later: Though not conclusive by any means, I held up the green filter to my eye and scanned around the room.   I can see plenty of red and blue objects so I suspect the green filter is very "wide" and this may contribute to a lack of focus.)

Slightly better B&W Jupiter

Same night and same equipment from previous post.  But this is only 15% of the 16,099 frames taken at around 12:51 am on 7/31.   I've noticed that planets are better after they've past their zenith for about 2 hours.   So, basically maybe I should only shoot when they are in the 12:30 to 2:00 am POSITION (not time).

(Later:  Just wanted to include a note about processing in Autostakkert...   I initially tried to place my own alignment points (about 210) but I ended up with a .tif file where I got artifacts when I sharpened.  For the image above, I let Autostakkert pick 1188 alignment points and had a better result.  So I think in general, it's fine (or possibly advisable) to have 1000+ alignment points.)

Mediocre B&W Jupiter in Typical Lousy Flagstaff Seeing

Stack of approx. 7000 out of 14000 frames taken through the C11 with Baader 685nm IR passthrough filter.   The camera is a QHY290 mono and I used a TV 2x barlow.  Yes, it looks better when it's this small.   I used Autostakkert 3 and Registax to stack and process.   (Data was taken on the night of 7/30-31.)

This is pretty much what you get in Flagstaff.  Even when the seeing is "good" and the planet doesn't move much, you still can't resolve the kind of fine detail that you could in Florida.  

I need to dig deeper into Autostakkert because when I tried to just pick the top 5 percent of the images to stack, the result in terms of detail wasn't any better.  The only difference is that I ended up with a much noisier master .tiff file.

The noise issue reminded me that I could have shot a dark and captured with cleaner data.  The unknown issue is how much (if any) that will reduce my FPS.

I was perusing other folks's Jupiter images around the country and for a lot of folks this stacked and slightly processed image is merely a single "okay" frame they would be capturing in regions where atmospheric seeing is much better.

Reflectix Insulation on SCT ???

So I've been reading about the problems with internal heat currents in SCT's.  I've experienced these problems since I started doing astronomy a long time ago; and I thought I'd investigate the advantages of keeping the tube warm enough so there isn't a large temperature differential in the tube walls vs the air in the tube.   The current "standard" is to wrap a layer of Reflectix Insulation around the tube.

This is a shot of the 11" SCT in the early morning light showing the Reflectix.  Throughout the night, I noticed that video taken of the lunar surface was less "wavy".    It was subtle but noticeable.   This should increase the accuracy of the stacking down the road.  My next question in terms of the Reflectix is whether I should double-up on the layers.   There was a somewhat contentious thread on CN about this stuff and a few people seemed to indicate that a second layer was definitely helpful.  In theory this should also help with DSO imaging. 

However, as the waviness was somewhat mitigated, I noticed that there was still this high-frequency shuddering of the image.   I'm not sure what this is.   I assumed it was atmospheric, but it might be in the system.   The AP900 mount on the pier will vibrate for 2-3 seconds if you bang the pier or mount.   And I've ofted wondered if there is a harmonic frequency that will basically constantly happen in the background.   I've thought about cutting a wooden disc and fitting it in the pier bottom, then filling the pier with expanding foam.   In theory, this should eliminate any obvious "ringing" harmonics -- or at least make them extremely high frequency and therefore immaterial.  Also, I was thinking of getting some sorbothane feet:  https://www.amazon.com/Isolate-Sorbothane-Vibration-Isolation-Circular/dp/B019O6HF6C

The challenges never end.  :/

Making More Headway with Planetary Imaging?

Got a huge backlog of data to process now.  :)

10:43 pm Bright Light

Just saw a bright bolide to the south at 22:43.  Could see some color (red and blue) in the "rock".   Benefits of having your window open in the winter.