Jupiter and three moons 10 Nov 2012 23:04 - now three versions...

[The Thing]

Jupiter with Callisto, Io and Ganymede (L to R).

LX90 8", 2x Ed Barlow, Baader Neodymnium filter, SPC900NC, U-IR filter, SharpCap, Guided by PHD, Guidescope, QHY5 on HEQ5

The AVI isn't great as the mount kept jumping periodically, turned out I hadn't tightened the end float on the RA worm thrust bearings enough.

Two versions, both 50% of 1500 frames. Manual align points added to the moons. AVI Stack correctly assigned reference/align points to the moons, Autostakert spotted none and Registax two. Both All three sharpened with the same wavelets settings in Registax and RGB aligned, no other processing. The colour balance is different, there seems to be a bit more detail in the Registax version. I prefer the Registax AVIStack version myself, but Autostakert is bloomin' quick!

Registax version:


Autostakkert! version:


AVI Stack version:


Sharpcap Settings:
[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=640x480
Frame Rate (fps)=25.00
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure=-6
Brightness=64
Contrast=31
Saturation=24
Gamma=0
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=59

[MarkS]

Not bad results at all considering the conditions.  I didn't even give it a try that night because the stars were all badly twinkling.

Yes, AutoStakert is incredibly fast and it has a reliable quality estimator that works very well - it correctly sorts the frames by quality which is something I could never get Registax to do properly on dim planets such as Jupiter & Saturn.  I used to find that some really sharp frames were relegated as bad quality by Registax and vice versa.  Maybe I was just doing something wrong

[The Thing]

Thanks Mark.

I just use Registax on defaults after I have set the align points. There doesn't seem much you can change in the current version.

[Fay]

very good Duncan. did you do separate avi for moons?

[The Thing]

Thanks Fay. No, all one shot. I don't have any problem picking up the Galilean moons with the webcam and my scope even at f20.

[MarkS]

Once your imaging scale is large enough, there is no problem at all in seeing the moons in the same exposure as jupiter itself.  After all, they are all illuminated with the same strength of light!  It's only at small scales that the moons are too small to be seen and need a boost of exposure to be visible.