Logistics and basic requirements for producing quality images of Jupiter Great Red Spot (GRS) movie project · Niall MacNeill · ... · 7 · 137 · 0

macnenia 4.85
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Hi all,

Please feel free to disagree with any of this. I am just soliciting feedback on the right way forward.

EQUIPMENT
TELESCOPES
From what I can see, you will need to have at least 100mm (8") objective diameter to produce sufficient resolution. Does anyone object to setting a 100mm minimum to participate? Of course larger is better.

FOCAL LENGTH MULTIPLIER
Next Focal Length. I believe the best results are achieved when the focal length you are imaging at is consistent with a pixel resolution at 1/3rd the Dawes limit of your scope or thereabouts. This determines the focal length multiplier you need. Since you are all producing superb resolutions, no doubt you already have this right. To calculate the optimal focal length multiplier for a scope, it is equal to 618 x camera pixel size (microns)/ {Telescope FL (mm) x Dawes Limit of scope (arc secs) }. Lower means under sampling and not achieving the highest resolution achievable with speckle imaging when the seeing is excellent. Higher means oversampling and a dimmer image/ lower frame rates.

Monochrome with colour filters will yield somewhat higher resolutions but OSC cameras also produce very good results.

The Mount just needs to be good enough to hold the planet roughly within the FOV as Autostakkert will centralise the image.

SOFTWARE
WINJUPOS
I was thinking that we should use WinJUPOS as the software platform to capture, de-rotate and manage the images and the animations/ movies we want to create. Given we will all be producing images at different times and at different rotations, WinJUPOS should have the capability of accepting any image, of scaling it to a consistent size and orientation so that any movies we produce will have a consistent look.

Whilst I was suggesting producing images with the GRS central, perhaps we should simply aim to image with the GRS central, but any colour image produced either from a OSC camera or through RGB combination can be loaded into WinJUPOS. This will give us a larger data set. IT IS THEREFORE ESSENTIAL THAT FILE NAMING PROTOCOLS FOLLOW THOSE REQUIRED BY WINJUPOS BASED ON UTC. Does that make sense?

If you use Firecapture as your capture software, videos can automatically be configured with the WinJUPOS naming protocols. I think most of us use Autostakkert to quality assess and stack images and RegiStax to sharpen them. These sharpened images will carry forward the WinJUPOS file naming protocols and can be easily be manipulated further. These sharpened files are the data we will need for the project.

Do we need to do anything around image size, to make it easier to integrate images. Would it make sense to stipulate for example a Region Of Interest (ROI) size within Firecapture when imaging?

Submitted images will need to be assessed for quality. We need to develop protocols to carry out this assessment so that images are accepted or rejected. This needs to be a consensus process that could engender disengagement unless managed well. Where two or more images are taken in the same timeframe the best will need to be determined. Similarly if there is only one image for a given timeframe but the quality is debatable, whether it is retained or rejected needs to be determined.

Please come back to me on this.

Cheers,

Niall
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newtonCs 0.00
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Hello.
Well, I think it is very necessary to use UTC to generate the movie, which is already possible with firecapture and from what I see the friends here in Brazil use firecapture, in my case as I use a mono camera WinJUPOS is essential.
As for the determination about the quality of the images I do not see problems in evaluating them.
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macnenia 4.85
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Thanks Newton, I appreciate the feedback. Did you see the short rough movie I made from our data?
Cheers,  Niall
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newtonCs 0.00
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Yeah, I saw the movie you did. I really liked the result,congratulations, if we can get more employees we will have a positive result in this project.

best regards , Newton.
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KuriousGeorge 1.20
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A Jupiter day is only 10 hours. You could make a great movie using a 14" SCT over 2-3 days. See "Lessons from the Masters", High Resolution Lunar and Planetary Imaging, by Damian Peach. He did this...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIU7_KhDNVE
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macnenia 4.85
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Thanks George. They are beautiful movies and there is another one of his from February 2017, which is quite interesting to compare to some of our shots. He uses a 1m diameter telescope in Chile, with a ZWO ASI 174MM. The issue of course is that over the couple of days he takes these shots to produce the video, there is very little detectable movement in the atmosphere of the planet and we are seeking to make a movie over a long enough timeframe to see the turbulent movements in the atmosphere.

In my location it is also hard to good enough seeing consistently over 2 or 3 days to make a high quality movie such as the one Damien produces. Obviously the siting of the Chilean telescope he is using was chosen for its consistently good seeing and I presume is at altitude.
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Alterra
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I think your approach to the logistics of this project is excellent, very professional, indeed. 
I will adhere to any protocols you develop, of course. Your considerations on equipment and software are all meet here.
Will post some results from my last sessions, to add to the image stack, so to speak.
Already using WinJupos naming conventions wiht UT and a very consolidated (for me at least) processing routine.
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macnenia 4.85
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Excellent Almir, thanks.
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