My first planetary image processing with the Meade ETX 90: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars
This post was originally published on my old blog dedicated to amateur astronomy.
Yesterday I was trying to get ready for the Mars occultation by the Moon that should be visible from here in the first hours of tomorrow (Thank you Terry for this tip). So I decided to set up the equipment outside to enjoy a nice weather (26°C, precipitation 17%, humidity 66%, wind 18km/h) with basically zero clouds, starting around 6:50pm. After no more than 15 minutes of visual playing with the scope a big cloud rolled in. By first droplets of water me and my wife were rushing the equipment inside, and I decided to let it go, started to do other stuff.
When I was getting ready to sleep some hours later I saw a clear sky and a beautiful Mars close to the Moon with Jupiter and Saturn still visible from my garden. So I decided to start it again. Did a quick visual tour on those three planets then I went for the Canon EOS 600D. I was willing to record some videos of them to later process on the computer into a image, so I recorded each one.
After some processing still in the same evening I was able to get not so good but still better (from previous attempts) results. I got satisfied with them, I think they represent a big evolution on my planetary images.
I think it’s a great time for these planets, Mars will be at opposition soon and Jupiter and Saturn are in relatively close positions.
Author: Fernando Schuindt
License: CC BY 4.0
Camera: Canon EOS 600d
Lens/Telescope: Meade ETX 90 (OTA-only) (90mm aperture, 1250mm focal length, f/13.88, Maksutov-Cassegrain)
Location Name: Aracaju - Sergipe, Brazil
Location Aprox. Coordinates: 10°58’31.0”S 37°04’26.0”W
Other Gear: Meade LX85 GEM (unguided, no alignment), Canon EOS to M42 adapter, M42 to 1.25” adapter, Celestron Omni 2x Barlow
Full Resolution Images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/f8soWfeexz54p9zK8
Theme: Jupiter
Composition: 4969 video frames, 2’45” duration, 930MB .MOV raw file.
Processing: PIPP pre-processing, AutoStakkert frame stacking, RegiStax 6 post-processing and Photoshop Camera Raw Filter
Timestamp (Local Time): 04-09-2020 22:11:19
Timestamp (UTC): 04-09-2020 01:11:19
Theme: Saturn
Composition: 10750 video frames, 5’58” duration, 1.97GB .MOV raw file.
Processing: PIPP pre-processing, AutoStakkert frame stacking, RegiStax 6 post-processing and Photoshop Camera Raw Filter
Timestamp (Local Time): 04-09-2020 22:23:44
Timestamp (UTC): 04-09-2020 01:23:44
Theme: Mars
Composition: 9248 video frames, 5’08” duration, 1.69GB .MOV raw file.
Processing: PIPP pre-processing, AutoStakkert frame stacking, RegiStax 6 post-processing and Photoshop Camera Raw Filter
Timestamp (Local Time): 04-09-2020 22:37:34
Timestamp (UTC): 04-09-2020 01:37:34