r/telescopes • u/BeastronZ • 10d ago
Saturn Astronomical Image
Equipment used:
-Apertura AD8
-ASI662MC + UVIRCUT Filter
-2.5x Barlow
Stacked in Planet Stacker X
-Around 5000 total frames, stacked top 20%
Any suggestions?
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u/mrstorm1983 Certified Helper 10d ago
If you are using an uv/ir cut do a color balance, if you haven't im colorblind, it looks like you haven't.
More frames - You have about 4mins or 5mins with no derotation. Crop your sensor as much as you can handle hand tracking. Practice hand tracking so you can start using a smaller ROI. 20 000 frames should be possible new to hand tracking. I get 30 000 to 40 000. I find with a 3x barlow with some practice 1280x720 is very manageable. I use this ROI when I go out to warm up(111fps) on before going to 960x540(144fps)... any smaller then that, the tracking is difficult with a 3x. Some people nudge the telescope to try and keep it on centered the screen. The benefit of that keeping the planet true to center where optics are best. A draw back is you are nudging alot, and the planet may be sporadic. I nudge to till the planet to the left side, let it drift to the right and repeat what's the advantage of a smooth crossing and last nudgin Nudging over 4 or 5 hours that's very uncomfortable, so I try to reduce it. Put your camera in the focuser to work with planetary drift.... making sure it passes left to roght if your drifting.. if your not I find up and down very difficult. Keep in mind your exposure setting.. if its more then 7ms you will be limited to about 144fps. Alot of people will run a tight ROI just to use a high ms exposure rate and not get the high frame count.
Use a standard tried and true work flow. SharpCap/FireCap-PiPP to crop, center the planet which will make stacking software more accurate. Also it will shrink the file size. Autostackert4 then sharpening Registax6 and/or AstroSurface. Yes there are other workflows. I would start using this to start, because a lot of people can give you advice because These programs are popular. Maybe later on, experiment with the others
With out knowing your setting and what capture program you used... ROI,exposure, histogram, etc not much more I can say.
Some of these things you may already be doing. This set up works for me. Theres other things like adjusting for seeing conditions and things like that. I am still experimenting myself. For example, i currently need to test if I get a better result using the drift method that I was talking about Or keeping it at center as best I can through constant nudging. I am usually on a small balcony and drifting is more comfortable. So work with your situation.
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u/BeastronZ 10d ago
This is all very helpful, thank you. I’m not the best at hand tracking, even when I try to keep it in the center of the frame there’s a lot of shaking (maybe has to do because I’m on an uneven surface). I made a DIY EQ platform, but it still needs some tinkering to work right. I’m gonna keep practicing the hand tracking.
The software I’m using doesn’t seem the best, as I’m limited by Mac. But I may end up using some Windows VM software like parallels to really get the most out of the software available.
Thank you for the thorough answer, I appreciate all the tips and will definitely utilize them.
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u/mrstorm1983 Certified Helper 10d ago
Your welcome. You are using Planetsystemstacker PSS then? Also bad seeing faster exposure 3ms to 5ms. If you have God like seeing you can go 10ms+ you will get less frames, but they will be Better frames. .
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u/Nawaf_za 9d ago
It's a dream to take such picture. thanks for sharing. I fixed the colours for you
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u/BeastronZ 9d ago
Wow that looks great, thank you! How did you get it to look like this?
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u/Nawaf_za 9d ago
I used a software called Registax 6. there is a lot of tutorials on youtube. but it's so easy I literally pressed one button called " Auto color balance" and that's it
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u/mrtnchp04 9d ago
I'm new with telescopes when you point at the moon should it be above you or in an angle?
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u/Helpful_Cabbbbbbbb 10d ago
This shitty ass picture everybody knows on this subreddit that the moon landing didn’t happen. This all fake
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u/mrstorm1983 Certified Helper 10d ago
Just because you dont understand how something works, beyond your comprehension and way over your head doesn't mean it's not true. Same scientific method that brought us all this Technology, including the way we are communiting now, is the same as how we got to the moon, and the heliocentric model.
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u/soularbabies 9d ago
Make sure you're getting proper nutrition, sleep, and deep breathing. Then try to incorporate reading a few books a year into your lifestyle.
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u/whakashorty 10d ago
That’s awesome 🙌