Mars

A couple of nights with above average seeing allowed me to acquire these two images of Mars. These are about a month past this years very favorable opposition so I'm pretty pleased with the results. Camera used: ASI178MC with Meade 2X Barlow and Celestron 8/AVX. Each image was stacked and wavelet sharpened from the best 20% of 3000 frames acquired at 60 fps. Frame size was 1024x768. Each image is labeled with date and time. 

Mars.11072020.21_55_01

Mars.11102020.21_46_49

Jupiter

The following are several images of Jupiter acquired in October and the beginning of November. ASI178MC was used to acquire 2000 frames at 60 fps at a capture area of 1024x768. A Meade 2X Barlow was used to magnify the image. The best 20% of frames were stacked and averaged using Autostakkert! and wavelet sharpened in Paintshop Pro 2021 using unsharp masking scripts written by the author. Jupiter's low altitude and mediocre early evening Northeast seeing have made imaging Jupiter a real challenge. 

Jupiter.11042020.17_30_02

.Jupiter.10312020.18_45_56

Jupiter.10232020.19_15_17

Jupiter.10212020.18_48_05

Jupiter.10062020.19_42_30

Close up Lunar Craters

These older  closeup images of luner craters were taken using the Celestron NexImager 5 coupled with a Meade 2X Barlow

Cleomedes

Endymion

Langrenus

Petavius

Vendelinus

Jupiter + satellite Io - 10/23/2020 from patio

I don't usually operate from my tree blocked, light polluted patio. However this particular evening there was a short clear sky window where Jupiter was clear of trees. Over a period of about 20 minutes I acquired eleven stills that I stitched into the Jupiter rotation video below. Celestron 8 and Meade 2X barlow were used for acquisition. 

Each still was averaged from 2000 frame videos processed with Autostakkert! and Paintshop Pro.  Seeing was mediocre. None the less details of Jupiter's dynamic atmosphere could be brought out using un-sharp mask scripts I have been experimenting with.  

Jupiter+Io  10/23/2020 @ 19:08 EDT

The skimpy postings to this blog prompted me to go back and review my past trove of lunar and planetary images of which there are many. It's embarrassing so few have been posted. Many of these are superior to images posted more recently.  

So, over the next few weeks I will post a few of the better images each day or two with a little commentary on how the images were acquired and processed in cases when  available. Perusal of my deep sky images suggests I should also do this for my Rick's Deep Sky Imaging blog which I plan to merge with this blog in the near future.

Multi-Unsharp Mask Sharpening

Until recently I stacked solar system images with Autostakkert!3 and sharpened using wavelet sharpening with Registax. I don't like depending on Registax since it's no longer supported. I decided to experiment with multiple application of un-sharp masks to wavelet sharpen. This approach was inspired by an article "How Unsharp Masking and Laplacian Sharpening Work" by Keith Wiley

A series of Paintshop Pro commands can be saved as an editable Python Script. I saved and modified such a script with a for loop that performs  un-sharp mask repetitions. Number of cycles, radius and strength are settable parameters. A medium denoise it applied after the un-sharp mask cycles. After the script I applied chromatic aberration correction. 

Before and after sharpening images of the Copernicus crater appear below. These images were acquired on a night with the moon just below the celestial equator and with average to below average seeing. 

Eleven cycles of  un-sharp masking with radius 2 and strength 55 were applied followed by a median denoise with aperture 3.  Close examination of the post script image suggests using the Paintshop Pro built in chromatic aberration removal tool. 

Scripts have also been created for Jupiter and Saturn. More on these in the future as I'm still experimenting with settings. 

Before wavelet sharpening

After wavelet sharpening

Jupiter and Saturn 08/09/2020

Back in MA from MD it sucks that I have to quarantine for 14 days but that's life in the era of the Covid-19 virus. I can't get to my favorite local park site with Jupiter and Saturn in prime time. At least I can catch a few imaging glimpses during the short window when the gas giants are between increasingly view blocking trees in front of my apartment terrace. Below are images of Jupiter and Saturn taken just after midnight 08/09/2020. 

Seeing was pretty mediocre and building tremors from air conditioners throughout this wood frame building contribute to the blurring and misshaping of Europa. It also didn't help that polar alignment was pretty rough compared to when at a site where Polaris is visible. 

The real value to this exercise was honing in on best settings for imaging the gas giants with the ASI178MC with the 2X Barlow lens. To the east I noticed the gibbous moon with Mars to its right looking quite bright giving me something to look forward to over the next few weeks of planetary imaging. 

Thankfully my quarantine ends right around new moon liberating to travel to my favorite darkish sites for DSO and gas giant imaging. Crossing fingers for clear skies then. 

Jupiter with Europa

Saturn

Jupiter and Saturn 07/26/2020

Jupiter with Callisto's shadow and Europa to the right. 

Saturn

Recent Lunar Images 07/29/2020

These are my first lunar craters imaged with the new ASI178MC camera. Imaging format was 1600x1200. However, in the future, imaging format will likely be reduced, perhaps to 800x600 to focus in on specific craters and increase frames per second rate. A thousand frames were collected using SharpCap, 25% stacked in Autostakkert!3 and wavelet sharpened with Registax 6. 

Tycho Area

Plato Area

Copernicus Area

Clavius Area

Bullialdus Area

Jupiter and Saturn

It was July 19th. I finally got out with the new ASI178MC planetary imager. Actually, its the first night I got successful pictures. The previous July 15 was a total bust because I used the wrong imaging format and to short exposure times.

Anyway, this time I imaged in Raw16 and RGB24 paying attention to gain, exposure time and the histogram. For each image 1000 frames were acquired at 1600x1200 format.  Images were projected with a 2X Barlow. Back in Massachusetts, I'm in Maryland for July, I have a 3X Barlow I'll try in the future. I'll also consider a smaller imaging format to get a faster frame rate.

Jupiter 7/19/2020

Saturn 7/19/2020

New Camera

It's been a long while since I did any solar system imaging having focused on the deep sky. With Jupiter and Saturn hitting opposition in mid July 2020 I figured I would jump back into planetary and lunar imaging. I decided to upgrade to a faster camera; namely a ZWO ASI178MC. A bonus feature is it comes with an all sky lens I might play with if we visit a dark sky site. It can also be used as a guide camera, thought I already have an Orion Magnificent Mini Auto-guider for that role.

No surprise that with the arrival of a new piece of equipment it's been mostly cloudy weather for the last week. I can't complain too much since I write this during a waxing gibbous moon when I wouldn't be DSO imaging anyway. If I get a clear night in the next few days I'll venture out late to the local park for a little gas giant imaging.