Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[bruha]

Hi, can I ask... is it first image saturated...?

 

[DennisN]

Hi, can I ask... is it first image saturated...?

Both images are edited, quite quickly and probably somewhat differently .
I didn't use saturation as such. If I remember correctly I increased contrast, decreased brightness and manually edited the color levels for the red, green and blue channel (RGB).

I don't know if this is a good way to do it, but the reason is that I can bring out more details by changing contrast and brightness, but afterwards the color/hue gets changed a bit. And that's why I tried to compensate by changing the RGB levels afterwards.

 

[bruha]

Hi and thank you for answer.
I understand, can I still ask how you choose individual levels for R, G, B ?

Thank you and lot of succes with editing ...

 

[DennisN]

Hi and thank you for answer.
I understand, can I still ask how you choose individual levels for R, G, B ?

Hi, it depends on which software you are using.

For instance,

In Photoshop:
Menu: Image -> Adjustments -> Levels and in the dialog select Channel (Red, Green or Blue)

In XnView:
Menu: Image -> Adjust Brightness/Constract/Gamma/Balance, and in the dialog you can adjust the colour balance individually for Red, Green and Blue

...and here is a video where Forrest Tanaka does the adjustment in the software DeepSkyStacker (which I use for star photos):

The entire video by Tanaka is excellent, by the way.

He has got a bunch of good videos about astrophotography, and his channel is here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ForrestTanaka/videos

Thank you and lot of succes with editing ...

Thanks, and you too!

 

[DennisN]

FYI @davenn , @Andy Resnick , @bruha , @chemisttree etc. :

Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention that I have found an alternative to RegiStax.
Since I've had some issues with it (for some reason it freezes sometimes when it is stacking), I looked for an alternative to it, and some people suggested a software called AutoStakkert (which some preferred instead of RegiStax). I haven't tried the software yet, but it's free and here's the download page: http://www.autostakkert.com/wp/download/

 

[davenn]

suggested a software called AutoStakkert

yup it's a good one, been around for some time. I may have mentioned it long ago in my pinned solar thread.

But don't use either of those 2 for stacking deep space stuff !
just for sun, moon and planets Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi and thanks

 

[chemisttree]

Saturn through my scope this night:
- it was also the very first time I observed the planet with rings, it was awesome...

View attachment 264663

This looks very low in the sky. Was Saturn close to the horizon (~15-25 degrees)?

 

[DennisN]

This looks very low in the sky. Was Saturn close to the horizon (~15-25 degrees)?

Yes, about 14 degrees. I had to check with Stellarium, because I'm not used to estimating degrees in the sky...

 

[DennisN]

I just did a new stack of Saturn, using a longer movie (stacking about 350 images).
And since I suspected the color "weirdness" in my first stacked photo was due to chromatic abberation, I looked for some ways to help with that. I found this guide (for Photoshop) which used gaussian blur etc.:

http://fixthephoto.com/chromatic-aberration-photoshop.html

where I did only the first three steps (1-3) on the photo produced after stacking.

I think the new photo got much better:

First photo (stack: 228 photos):

New photo (stack: 349 photos & chromatic abberation fix on final photo):
(maybe it's a bit too bright, though? I don't know...)

Edit: Yes, I compared with the Cassini photos, and Saturn is not as bright as in my photo above...
...back to Photoshop I go...

Edit 2: We have reasonably clear skies here now, and if it continues I may try to take new photos/films of Jupiter and Saturn, hopefully better... yep, this hobby is addictive...

 

[Andy Resnick]

FYI @davenn , @Andy Resnick , @bruha , @chemisttree etc. :

Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention that I have found an alternative to RegiStax.
Since I've had some issues with it (for some reason it freezes sometimes when it is stacking), I looked for an alternative to it, and some people suggested a software called AutoStakkert (which some preferred instead of RegiStax). I haven't tried the software yet, but it's free and here's the download page: http://www.autostakkert.com/wp/download/

Thanks for the link! I use Lynkeos (also free) for planetary stacking b/c mac:

https://lynkeos.sourceforge.io/

Here's single shots of Saturn (@ 400%) and Jupiter (100%, composted from 2 single shots) I took on 6_20_20:

I claim I can see the ring's shadow.

Those small dots are the 4 Galilean moons.

 

[chemisttree]

Yes, about 14 degrees. I had to check with Stellarium, because I'm not used to estimating degrees in the sky...

I had a feeling. How high does Saturn get at your latitude? It might help to wait until its higher up. I suspect it is mostly atmospheric chromatism that low in the sky.
Atmospheric chromatism.

Hold a hand out at arms length aligned little finger horizontal with the horizon. Like you’re taking a selfie. That width is about 10 degrees. Don’t forget to include your thumb!

Clear skies!

 

[DennisN]

I had a feeling. How high does Saturn get at your latitude? It might help to wait until its higher up.

At this time it sadly only reaches about 14°13'52.9''...

I suspect it is mostly atmospheric chromatism that low in the sky.
Atmospheric chromatism.

Thanks for the info, and thanks for the link. The corrector looks very interesting!

Hold a hand out at arms length aligned little finger horizontal with the horizon. Like you’re taking a selfie. That width is about 10 degrees. Don’t forget to include your thumb!

Thanks for the info!

Clear skies!

You too. The sky got very cloudy yesterday, so my plans were postponed. But tonight it looks better, so hopefully the planets will appear in a few hours.

 

[DennisN]

FYI @davenn , @Andy Resnick , @bruha , @chemisttree etc. :

I wanted to mention that I found another VERY useful software, PIPP (Planetary Imaging PreProcessor). It basically crops/select the best frames of the original photos/movies, which then can be further processed in the stacking program of your choice. For me, it greatly reduced the processing time of stacking.

It's free to download here: http://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/downloads

I've tried it for Windows, and it works great. It seems it can be run on Linux and Mac too with some extra software.

I found it when I was looking for reasons for why RegiStax was going out of memory when using the drizzling option, and I found a discussion on a forum where the developer of RegiStax was replying:

Hi,
As the author of RegiStax I can tell that no updates will ever be released. The program was developed to process images up to 3000x2000 pixels, anything larger than that will not fit in memory. For the purpose of the applications (large volume image processing, often 1000s or 10000s of frames stacked) this was above the common format in those days. I am not sure how large (for large volume images, shot at high speed of more than 25 fps) images nowadays are. You can always pre-process your AVI using PIPP (freeware).
regards

Cor

 

[chemisttree]

The Moon tonight at ~9:00 pm CST, ~25 minutes after sunset. 80 mm Carton f15 achromat objective in a home made 4” PVC pipe telescope (GSO focuser, no way I’m making that!) taken afocally with a 15mm plossl using the iPhone camera with the Orion phone mount. It’s a bit blurry in part because of a gauzy sky tonight. ~80X

 

[chemisttree]

A day later... Still have gauzy skies.

 

[DennisN]

A day later... Still have gauzy skies.

If you keep it up, you could make a changing moon phase animation...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Jupiter and Saturn @ 105mm, DX frame:

At a more reasonable exposure, I can make out 3 of Jupiter's moons but not Saturn's rings.

 

[chemisttree]

Jupiter and Saturn @ 105mm, DX frame:

View attachment 265267
At a more reasonable exposure, I can make out 3 of Jupiter's moons but not Saturn's rings.

It almost looks like Jupiter has rings in this image! The moons are in just the right location. Is this lens a zoom or a prime?

 

[Andy Resnick]

It almost looks like Jupiter has rings in this image! The moons are in just the right location. Is this lens a zoom or a prime?

It's a prime lens- Nikon 105/1.4. Here are 400% blowups of each planet taken at (IIRC) f/2, 1 s exposure, ISO 64:

 

[bruha]

Hi, I attach my first (at least partly) succes of Saturn image made with Bresser eyepiece camera-one original and two little processed by Gimp (it should be zoomed).

Have nice day and lot of succes

 

[bruha]

Hi still one Saturn Gimp proc. image -probably better

 

[DennisN]

Hi, I attach my first (at least partly) succes of Saturn image

Nice! The rings are clearly visible.

 

[chemisttree]

Hi still one Saturn Gimp proc. image -probably better

That’s great. Was this a 25 mm eyepiece?

 

[chemisttree]

6-25-2020; 9:10 CST
Much better skies tonight and much higher up. Transparency ~4.

 

[chemisttree]

Detail near the interesting bits...

There is a beautiful little crater near the lower right quadrant’s terminator called Picollomini. In its center is a pile of fractured uplift. Actually a mountain of it.
Below, a close-up through a C-6 with a 2X barlowed 25mm plossl. iPhone pic. taken 20 minutes ago (~10:25 CST) that is not quite as nice but it shows the uplift in more detail.

You can just make out the collapsed northwestern wall, fully illuminated in the early morning light. At some point after the crater’s formation, this wall collapsed leaving an irregular edge to the crater and a tumble of fractured rock at its base.

 

[davenn]

a little bit of deep space

LMC, Large Magellanic Cloud
A southern sky object and one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. It has many objects within it.
The largest being the Tarantula Nebula, a supernova remnant

I took the image with a Canon 6D and a 75 - 200mm zoom at 200mm and f2.8. 24 x 30 sec lights
and 9 darks all stacked in Sequator. Processed in Lightroom

 

[davenn]

The LMC's mate, the SMC, yup Small Magellanic Cloud. The other bright satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
Imaging info is the same as for the LMC

The bright object in the lower right of centre is 47 Tuc (Tucana) globular cluster.
It belongs to the Milky Way and is part of the halo of globular clusters that surround the core of the Milky Way.Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi and thanks.
I used USB HD camera bresser inserted to scope shaft instead of eyepiece.https://www.dalekohledy-puskohledy....g-s69NdTj3AJysw7CspDXuLiOxcIxgSsaAsAPEALw_wcB

 

[Andy Resnick]

Detail near the interesting bits...
<snip>
You can just make out the collapsed northwestern wall, fully illuminated in the early morning light. At some point after the crater’s formation, this wall collapsed leaving an irregular edge to the crater and a tumble of fractured rock at its base.

That *is* a cool region- here's a detailed view of the image I took last night:

 

[davenn]

Hi and thanks.
I used USB HD camera bresser inserted to scope shaft instead of eyepiece.https://www.dalekohledy-puskohledy....g-s69NdTj3AJysw7CspDXuLiOxcIxgSsaAsAPEALw_wcB

looks good

 

[chemisttree]

That *is* a cool region- here's a detailed view of the image I took last night:

That’s fantastic. I hope you can catch it again tonight and follow the dawn along the Rupes Altai. It’s raining here tonight and my cloud filter is still lost in the mail, so I’ll miss the show this month.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Horsehead and Flame nebulae, 3h observing time:

 

[bruha]

Hello, it looks really fantastic..
can I ask what is your "gear" equipment?

 

[chemisttree]

What’s it like using that Bresser USB HD camera?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hello, it looks really fantastic..
can I ask what is your "gear" equipment?

I assume you are asking me :) My gear is simple- this image was constructed with a 400mm f/2.8 lens and full-frame camera (both Nikon) mounted on a Losmandy GM-8, no autoguider.

 

[bruha]

Hi and thank you for information. .

 

[bruha]

Hello this is bresser HD USB cam. link for chemistree
https://www.dalekohledy-puskohledy...g-s69NdTj3AJysw7CspDXuLiOxcIxgSsaAsAPEALw_wcB

 

[Drakkith]

Horsehead and Flame nebulae, 3h observing time

Very nice! Here's my narrowband image of the same target. I had a ton of problems with this shoot, and my results were not nearly as good as I was hoping.

 

[chemisttree]

Very nice! Here's my narrowband image of the same target. I had a ton of problems with this shoot, and my results were not nearly as good as I was hoping.

This shot taken with an SCT?

 

[Drakkith]

This shot taken with an SCT?

It was taken with a William Optics GT-81 APO.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Veil Nebula, in Cygnus, 4 hours viewing time- whole field of view and some zooms:

This nebula is tricky (for me) because it just barely fits in the field of view at 400mm; precise flat field correction is critical across the entire image. It's easier to see the nebula when I remove the stars from the image and stretch out the leftover bit:

 

[DennisN]

Here's my narrowband image of the same target. I had a ton of problems with this shoot, and my results were not nearly as good as I was hoping.

But it's a very nice photo anyway, I'd say. Nice shades of red.

 

[Drakkith]

I consider this to be my best image. Hope I haven't posted it in this thread already:

Carina Nebula in SII, HA, and OIII narrowband.

 

[DennisN]

I consider this to be my best image.

Very nice!

 

[DennisN]

Jupiter, 24 June 2020, with 2 bands visible.
Camera settings: ISO 200, 1/10 s exposure.

59 stacked photos processed with PIPP, AutoStakkert and finally Adobe Lightroom (where I could remove a lot of the aberration, and also increase contrast and decrease exposure, if I remember correctly).

The planet was just a yellow blob with atmospheric aberration in the telescope , but the postprocessing brought out at least some detail.

 

[chemisttree]

Jupiter, 24 June 2020, with 2 bands visible.
Camera settings: ISO 200, 1/10 s exposure.

59 stacked photos processed with PIPP, AutoStakkert and finally Adobe Lightroom (where I could remove a lot of the aberration, and also increase contrast and decrease exposure, if I remember correctly).

The planet was just a yellow blob with atmospheric aberration in the telescope , but the postprocessing brought out at least some detail.

View attachment 265661

This afocally with your 70mm inexpensive scope and the plossl it came with? And your camera phone/video? That’s impressive!

 

[DennisN]

This afocally with your 70mm inexpensive scope and the plossl it came with? And your camera phone/video? That’s impressive!

Thanks! Yes, a $35 scope and a $132 phone. And a lot of patience...
Now that you asked I don't remember which eyepiece I used.
I have a couple of other cheap eyepieces I bought from China (brand Datyson), and I remember I tried with those too (using a 0.965" to 1.25" eyepiece adapter). But I don't remember which eyepiece I ended up using when I took the photos. I have to start taking notes . And I am considering getting new equipment at the moment too.

If I used one of these eyepieces, it may have been the 10 mm, third from the left in this photo:

 

[bruha]

Hi,
I send 3 moon images by phone camera (Huawei Y 6) with phone eyepiece adapter , sharpened with GIMP. Anyway your postprocessed Jupiter looks nice .. (up to now I reached worse results with Jupiter..

 

[chemisttree]

Hi,
I send 3 moon images by phone camera (Huawei Y 6) with phone eyepiece adapter , sharpened with GIMP. Anyway your postprocessed Jupiter looks nice .. (up to now I reached worse results with Jupiter..

This is a great start! Did you use the 25mm eyepiece? You need a fairly large exit pupil to get best results.

Can you use a timer to take the picture to reduce vibration when you touch the phone to take a pic? I have mine on a 3-second delay so that when I touch the screen to take the picture, the vibrations dampen down before the shutter fires.

I also center the eyepiece over the camera objective by looking through the eyepiece backwards after mounting the camera to the eyepiece. I find the Moon by looking at the diagonal until it is illuminated and then drop the eyepiece/camera assembly into the diagonal. This usually guarantees that the camera is centered over the eyepiece and only minor scope repositioning is required to compose the shot. That color you are getting is due to the camera not being positioned directly over the eyepiece.

The contrast is amazing in your shots! This means you will be taking fabulous pictures in no time when you resolve the minor issues!