ASI224MC poor image results

robby9newbieipad

Good morning

I have the ASI224MC camera and I have been struggling to get a reasonable image from it. I am using SharpCap for camera control and I have downloaded the latest drivers. When I use the all sky lens under DirectShow the image is about 90% black and I can see some lighter areas where there was a bright area. When I use the all sky lens under SharpCap the image is washed out and extremely grainy. I have never been able to get what I would consider a crisp image with the camera. I have been able to use my Canon camera and I can get some quality images with it so I know that the telescope is not the issue.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated

Robin in Canada

Sam@ZWO

224 is one planetary imaging camera

you need to take one video, stack and processing

then you can get one nice image

einari

What exposure and gain settings are you using ?

Have you tried it in daylight ?

robby9newbie

Attached is a sample of what I seem to get for image quality using an 8" SCT with NO barlow lens so I am shooting at f/10 so this should theoretically give the best image quality.22_47_02.jpg This is typical of all of my attempts to image Jupiter. I have tried various settings with no improvement in image quality.

The settings for this image are as follows

Pan=604

Tilt=248

Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)

Binning=1

Capture Area=320x240

Colour Space=RGB24

Temperature=16.8

Hardware Binning=Off

High Speed Mode=Off

Turbo USB=40

Flip=None

Frame Rate Limit=Maximum

Gain=294

Exposure=0.004976

Timestamp Frames=Off

White Bal (B)=95

White Bal (R)=52

Brightness=101

Gamma=51

Auto Exp Max Gain=300

Auto Exp Max Exp=30

Auto Exp Max Brightness=100

Mono Bin=Off

Subtract Dark=None

Display Brightness=1

Display Contrast=1

Display Gamma=1

einari

This looks like typical image after stacking.

How long video and how many frames ?

Did you stack it with Autostakkert ? Did you use Registax and wavelets ?

robby9newbieipad

I used Registax and there were 23885 frames. I did not apply any wavelets however Registax only used 4 align points. You mentioned that this is a typical result after stacking. I was expecting a far crisper image in both the avi file as well as the stacked image before applying wavelets. Using Autostakert I get pretty much the same results. I even ran the avi through PPIP first to eliminate the bad frames and then stack. When I see the resultant stacked image I just give up as it of such low quality.

Looking at the results other people are getting it seems that mine are pretty poor. I have been able to image Jupiter using a Canon T5i with far better results

einari

23885 frames ! Wov, that must have taken some time to process.

Usually the time frame for Jupiter video is max 3 to 4 minutes before Jupiter's rotation starts to smear thing (you can extent this time with derotate feature in WinJupos software - but that's another story.

Also usually it's good to stack only about 30 to 50% of the frames in order to discard the worst frames.

Last, it really is the wavelets that brings the detail.

As example I made some crude wavelets (not good as it's only from your jpg to work with).

robby9newbieipad

So it appears that I have some learning on Registax's wavelets. When I played around with them there was no apparent cange to the image. Obviously I am a total beginner with Registax

So it appears that the camera is working correctly as this is what I was concerned about

Thanks for your help. I am going to a dark site with a number of astronomers tonight and I will take my camera and see what I can get

Robin

robby9newbie

Final Image 2.jpgi started playing with Registax wavelets and I managed to get this image. Far from perfect but it is a good start

Robin

donboy

Robby, First off put the gain down to zero and raise exposure. Run at full resolution or 640x 480 if you need more frame rate. Also you should be using a UV/IR blocking filter which will improve sharpness. And most of all seeing is the most crucial element which you have very little control over and that's where higher frame rates come in which you can obtain with USB 3 and running gain as low as possible without sacrificing frame rate.

Don

robby9newbieipad

Wouldn't setting the gain to zero lower the camera's sensitivity? If the gain is set to zero would I get a crisper image?

Sam@ZWO

you need to raise the gain to make your fps fast enough and read noise lower

robby9newbie

I was out again trying to image Jupiter again but the image quality is no better than before. I have attached an image taken with the CCTV lens where you can see that the image is extremely grainy. I have also attached an image of Vega that was taken with the camera attached to my 50mm guide scope where you can see that the star is not a crisp image nor are the other stars in the image. Focusing using a micro-focuser does not improve the image nor does adjusting the exposure and gain settings. I also attached the camera to my main imaging scope, a Meade 8" LX200 SCT, at f/10 and imaged the double star 6 Lyr and 7 Lyr. Both of these double stars appeared as quite large white circles (about half the size of a dime on the laptop screen at no zoom) which would not focus to a crisp pinpoint image as well no matter what I did to the exposure, gain or focus settings. I do not have an image of this however.

I am now wondering if there is something wrong with the camera as the images is always very grainy and stars are always very bloated. This makes it impossible to focus. I am using SharpCap for image capture and I have downloaded the latest drivers from ZWO.

Robin

robby9newbie

Here is the image of Vega taken through my guide scope

Sam@ZWO

the grainy problem is dew to the gain is very high

you can turn down the gain for a smooth image

about the image of your guide scope

I think the optics is not very good