Re: [APML] Planets on provia 400f

["John Boudreau" <jeboud@mediaone.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Bert Katzung <katzung1@attbi.com>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: [APML] Planets on provia 400f


> Hi John:
> The old compulsion to image those planets on film is still pretty strong,
> isn't it? I know I should be trying it on CCD, but .... maybe it's just
> inertia plus knowing that setting up the CCD is much more of a hassle than
> just attaching the film camera!

Hi Bert,
Ya, I know what you mean. But the expense of the 2 rolls of 400F plus
processing finally was the last straw for me. The webcam only costs $70, and
gives much better results. It's also fun to watch the planets "live" on the
monitor! You can watch the monitor for moments of good seeing and then
record a sequence. I was able to cobble up a 1.25" adapter for the webcam
out of existing "scrap" parts.
The experience needed in focusing and framing for planet photography with
film is also a help. I am using a Hartman mask for focusing on bright stars,
and when the seeing allows will also be fine tuning with a diffraction mask.

>
> I did fiddle a bit with AIP and with MaxIm this evening, but without any
> significant results. Not familiar enough with those programs yet. I can
get
> them to open the tif images, but they seem to want something else done to
> them before they will activate the deconvolution filters. If I convert to
a
> .fit file with Eddie T's Fitplug plugin in Photoshop and then try to open
in
> the CCD processing programs they claim the header is too huge to work
with.
> Don't know what's going on there---maybe the plugin is only meant to work
in
> the fit---> tif direction and not reverse? I may have to try AstroStack
> although I already have too many programs on my machine that I don't
> understand :-(.

Well first of all, to give it a more manageable file size to work with, I
use a very closely cropped version of a stacked and slightly smoothed (PS
gaussian blur) result of at least 3 frames in MaxIm. The image has to be
split into separate RGB channels for deconvolution, and each channel is
deconvoluted separately. There is a LOT of trial-and-error here.
The unsharp mask feature works very well on RGB images, and may give your
best results on a stacked image by itself.

I don't have any experience with the Fitplug plugin--- can't help there.

>
> When you were using MaxIm on your planet images, did you load them as tif
> files, BMP, or something else? You got a phenomenal amount of detail in
your
> Jupiter cloud bands! Very nice job!
> Bert

Thanks! They were loaded as tif files. As I mentioned above, they were
closely cropped stacked results and RGB split for *mild* deconvolution (The
very fine grain of 100F was also a plus here to work with deconvolution).
The results were then cloned over a fuller framed Photoshop version to get
the final version with background.

Good to see you doing this type of work. Any chance of talking you into
trying 100F with your R-C on small, high-surface brightness planetary
nebula? I've always wanted to see others give it a go.


John Boudreau
jeboud@mediaone.net
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/jeboud/astro.htm



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