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IMAGE PROCESSING INDEX - PLANETS - New

Mars unprocessed

Mars unprocessed image


Planet Imaging Processing & Astro Artistry 2

September 2003

Mars processed

Mars processed image

Saturn

Saturn unprocessed image

 

Saturn

Saturn processed image

Astro artistry is the personal preference of processing and presenting the image. Images can be processed for maximum details or processed for a pleasing image. This is a typical imaging processing procedure I have been using on planets such as Mars and Saturn with the Philps ToUcam web camera as of September 2003.

The challenge in imaging the planets is the long focal lengths needed for good image details and the affects of seeing. Fast exposure times help to reduce some of the affects of seeing. But, fast exposures result in dim, noisy and low contrast images as seen in the above single unprocessed image of Mars. Imaging processing improves the signal to noise by stacking (combining) multiple good images into one processed image.

The above Mars images show a single image and the result of combining and processing 128 images into one image. These images are a small 140 x 140 sub frame of the complete 640 x 480 resolution of the Philps ToUcam web camera.

Imaging Equipment

Mars Image Information

Software Used

Setup directories and sort files

Process AVI File with RegiStax
RegiStax processing includes four major steps: Input, Aligning, Stacking and Wavelet Processing.

RegiStax Input Processing

RegiStax Aligning Processing

RegiStax Stacking Processing

RegiStax Wavelet Processing

RegiStax Wavelet Processing Image Summary
The below image table show stacked images with no processing, stacked images with strong wavelet processing and stacked images with wavelet processing. The total number of images in the AVI file was 1400. This results in a 611 MB file that can be put on a CD with the final processed image and related images.

The 128 stacked images with strong wavelet processing was selected as the best image to use. Images less than 128 were too noisy and images more that 128 were less detailed.

Stacked Mars images

Process RegiStax BMP File with Paint Shop Pro
Best and worst Saturn images The left Mars image is from RegiStax processing and the right Mars image is the final image after processing with Paint Shop Pro.