Hello,
I have just realized i did not give you some tips to set properly the filters in order see many things in the deep sky.
Before talking about JetsonSky settings, the hardware :
The camera must be as good as possible. This means the sensitivity must be high, read noise must be low and photosites size must be high (at least 2,4µm, higher is better).
You can use monochrome or colour camera. I prefer colour camera to get colours but monochrome camera will bring you more signal.
The lens must have a focal / diameter ratio as small as possible (I should say 1,4 is maximum F/D; lower is better).
The focal lens should be greater than 8mm. With smaller focal lens, you will miss many targets and only see brightest objects. 50 mm focal length F/D 1,4 or lower will bring you many many stars and objects.
Higher focal lens with small F/D is really rare and expensive.
Now, JetsonSky settings :
First, I recommend to set BIN2 in order to get quite reasonable resolution (not to high) and catch more signal than we would have with BIN1. I also recommend to use an Infra Red Cut filter on the lens.
Don’t forget to get very precise focus with the lens.
With classical astronomy photography, we use very low gain for the camera. As we do videos, we will have to use (very) high gain for the camera, in order to get small exposure time.
High gain means heavy noise. That’s why I wrote JetsonSky.
We could use low gain with long exposure time but in that case, this will only work with static light (time needed to collect enough light in the photosite). With a moving target (satellite), this won’t work and you will miss it.
So, first, just set high gain (I should say ¾ of the maximum gain of the camera, depending of the camera) and exposure time should be set between 100 and 500ms.
This will bring you interesting signal but will generate heavy noise.
Now, we have to manage noise. To do this, I recommend to use Dn Adaptative Absorber with high dynamic setting. The noise will be dramatically lower and details are preserved. You could use Low dynamic but you will get more ghosts with the moving objects.
Now, the video is much cleaner than RAW video (without treatments).
It is now possible to amplify small signal. To do this, I use Amplif Soft and I select Stars in the selection box. This filter will only amplify small dots, not the rest if the image.
Just raise amplification slider (set between 3 and 5) and adjust µX to select the part of the signal you want to amplify. Check TrGS checkbox (on the left part of the main window) to see the Gaussian curve of the amplification filter (it shows you the part of the signal which will be amplified). Concerning Stars amplification, Ro slider will also modify the Gaussian.
Adjust mainly µX to amplify small stars and satellites without amplifying background noise.
You can also use Histo Eq to raise signal. Histo stretch can also be useful.
Now, you can adjust the video as you want, the main objective is to get maximum signal with the lower possible noise.
If you want to detect moving objects, you will have to get very low noise.
You will also have to set the good white balance in order to get something quite acceptable for colours (first use Cred and Cblue sliders which control the camera and second R G B sliders which are software control of the colours).
I guess you have now the most important informations to start with JetsonSky.
Alain
