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. 

Ten cycles of  un-sharp masking with radius 2.0 and strength 35 were applied followed by a median denoise with aperture 1.  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. 

Unsharpened 

Wavelet Sharpened

Jupiter 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 is an image of Jupiter 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

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.

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