Planetary Processing and My Latest Saturn Image

[fatboy1271]

Hi All,

I shot some video with my ASI120MC last night of Saturn; 20 videos at 1000 frames each. Using AutoStakkert I got some pretty decent images; however, I'm wondering what possibly better options people use? I have PixInsight but I'm not sure how geared toward planetary it is...?

Thanks,
fat

[bladekeeper]

Hello FB! Cool capture!

Autostakkert is a great tool for lunar and planetary. It's a great way to analyze, sort, and stack the best frames in a vid file. After that though, open the stack in Registax and apply a little (or a lot, depending on scope used) wavelet sharpening to tighten things up a bit.

Here is a Saturn capture with my ASI120MM-S via my C6-R refractor. Stacked with Autostakkert and wavelets with Registax.

Saturn

Works well on Jupiter and Venus too!

Jupiter

Venus

And here is a lunar mosaic I did using the same process (ASI174MC and SV102T): (click image to inflate and see detail.

[JayTee]

First off, nice image of Saturn.

20 files of 1000 frames each. Did you combine these files into one long file? If so, how did you do this?

When you had AS!2 analyze the images did you use more than 9-10 image stabilization anchor points (hopefully more like 25-50)? After the images were analyzed and ranked how many did you tell it to stack? The top 10% or some other amount?

Let me know, so I can offer some suggestions.

Cheers,
JT

[fatboy1271]

Bryan, awesome images! Thanks for sharing!!! I usually do a Wavelets pass in RG6 but haven't done so yet with these...

[fatboy1271]

First off, nice image of Saturn.

20 files of 1000 frames each. Did you combine these files into one long file? If so, how did you do this?

When you had AS!2 analyze the images did you use more than 9-10 image stabilization anchor points (hopefully more like 25-50)? After the images were analyzed and ranked how many did you tell it to stack? The top 10% or some other amount?

Let me know, so I can offer some suggestions.

Cheers,
JT

Thanks for the reply and all the questions about my processing JayTee! Here's what I did:
> Video capture in SharpCap was set to 1000 frames
> In AS!2 I Opened the video file and used the settings in the image below and let it run...
>> Manually selected 8 APs

Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks again for your time!
fat

[fatboy1271]

Hey JT,

I just realized that I hadn't actually run Analyse (sic). I manually selected my APs and then hit Stack.

[Don Quixote]

Great thread here, Fatboy.
Wonderful instruction going on here.
Thank you.

[JayTee]

Gotcha,

Here are some tips for AS!2. See if they help to improve your image. After you hit the "Open" button and load up your .avi or .ser file (I highly recommend you run it through PIPP first), it should now display in the display window. I set my image size to 640x480 (that is the size based on the actual size of Saturn in my image, yours will probably be smaller) and on the left side, I select 50 as the box size for the APs. Then I tell it to "Place APs in Grid". You should now see several APs appear on your image. Back to the other window left panel, make sure that "Planet" is selected. Further down that panel, I use Gradient, noise robust =3, local, autosize. Then I make sure it will use all 4 processors in my laptop. Under Stack Options I select .tif then under Frame Percentage, I insert 10, 20, and 30 and last box 0. Then select "Normalize" and I don't use Drizzle cause it takes forever to process! That should pretty much get you the best image from the Saturn frames you are stacking. Let me know how it turns out.

Here's a screen capture to make it a bit easier to understand all the directions I just gave.

Cheers,
JT

EDIT: Use both AS!2 and 3 and should have probably noticed that you are using AS!3. I can go back and give the AS!3 directions if you choose. jt

And here is that file (C11 + 2x Barlow, ASI120MC) processed using the settings I gave + Registax 6 "Wavelets" + PS stretch, saturation, Gaussian Blur, and contrast.

[fatboy1271]

Wow, you're awesome JT!!! First, beautiful version of Saturn
> Should I go back to AS!2? If not, any screenshots of 3 would be great but only if you have the time
> I've used PIPP in the past but just with whatever default settings...
> I have access to PS, assuming you are referencing Photoshop, so I'll have to try that out once I go through your process

You Rock and thanks again!

Gotcha,

Here are some tips for AS!2. See if they help to improve your image. After you hit the "Open" button and load up your .avi or .ser file (I highly recommend you run it through PIPP first), it should now display in the display window. I set my image size to 640x480 (that is the size based on the actual size of Saturn in my image, yours will probably be smaller) and on the left side, I select 50 as the box size for the APs. Then I tell it to "Place APs in Grid". You should now see several APs appear on your image. Back to the other window left panel, make sure that "Planet" is selected. Further down that panel, I use Gradient, noise robust =3, local, autosize. Then I make sure it will use all 4 processors in my laptop. Under Stack Options I select .tif then under Frame Percentage, I insert 10, 20, and 30 and last box 0. Then select "Normalize" and I don't use Drizzle cause it takes forever to process! That should pretty much get you the best image from the Saturn frames you are stacking. Let me know how it turns out.

Here's a screen capture to make it a bit easier to understand all the directions I just gave.
AS!2 Saturn.jpg
Cheers,
JT

EDIT: Use both AS!2 and 3 and should have probably noticed that you are using AS!3. I can go back and give the AS!3 directions if you choose. jt

And here is that file (C11 + 2x Barlow, ASI120MC) processed using the settings I gave + Registax 6 "Wavelets" + PS stretch, saturation, Gaussian Blur, and contrast.
Saturn with Wavelets plus PSCC.jpg

[JayTee]

Okay.

So I ran everything again through the entire routine - PIPP → AS!3 → Registax → PSCC. Here are the settings for AS!3, you may have to mess with the correct Bayer matrix options to get the color to show up.

And here is the finished product using the same file as before. The only difference I'm seeing between AS!2 and AS!3 can all be explained by the slight differences in the tweaks I used in PSCC (Photoshop Creative Cloud)

Cheers,
JT

[helicon]

Nice images and thanks for sharing them.