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.

Recent Moon imaging

It's been a couple of years since I did Solar System imaging having been focused on bettering my DSO imaging skills. I decided to pull out my old and trusty Celestron NexImage5. By today's standards the NexImage5  has a slow video frame rate. However its 2.2 micron sized square pixels match well with my Celestron 8 SCT's prime focus. 

In the past I would do video image stacking in Registax5 then Registax6. I particularly love the wavelet sharpening feature. Unfortunately Registax6 often chokes on larger video files and crashes when I try to load another video file. after successfully processing and saving an image, 

Autostakkert! 3  is now used for alignment, stacking and initial sharpening. Wavelet processing is then applied to the stacked image with Registax 6. The images below are not by my best ever but represent a back in the saddle restart. 

Clavius

Copernicus

Straight Range and Teneriffe Mountains

Plato

Moon circa 6/26/2015

Celestron NexImage5 prime focus Celestron 8 SCT. Averaged and wavelet processng by Registax 6.

Montes Recti, Montes Teneriffe, Plato

Mare Imbrium

Mare Imbrium: clockwise craters Euler, Pytheas, Lambert

Copernicus, a crater I never tire of imaging. 

Craters Lansberg and Reinhold in Mare Insularum

Bullialdus

Clavius area

Introduction

The role of this blog is to display results of my Solar System imaging with a Celestron NexImage5* digital video camera. NexImage5 is essentially a webcam customized for use imaging the moon and bright planets. For those unfamiliar with the approach I record a short video of the planet or moon; typically 600 to 1200 frames.

I use Registax6 software to process the videos into still images selecting the best images, averaging them the sharpening the final image using "wavelet" processing.  Aside from the NexImage5 camera equipment is a Celestron 8 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. 

*Update: As of June 2020 the NexImage5 was replaced by a higher performing, larger sensor  ZWO ASI178MC.