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Horizontally aligning planetary images taken with AZ mounts

Alt-Az Mount Processing Solar System Jupiter
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Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Hi everyone,

Since I own only an Alt-Az mount, I'm looking for a software or technique that can help me in aligning multiple (Jupiter) final images, so the resulting animation comprised of these images, does not reveal the field rotation caused by the mount. More exactly, images taken when the planet is at SE will be showing Jupiter at a different angle (inclined) than what it looks like at South, due to the AZ mount, and I need something to incline images based on a master image.

I've tried Photoshop by manually performing this, but it is a real pain and time killer, while the end result is imperfect and needs additional effort in fine tuning. I know that getting an EQ is something that would definitely help in many aspects, but right now my budget is reserved to my little baby girl and it will stay like that for a couple of more years.

CS,
Andrei
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DEiMiC avatar
DEiMiC avatar
Hello Andrei,

i saw you use autostakkert...

Do you know this function?
you can find it in the advanced tab.
maybe this will work well for you!



BR,
Michael
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Hi Michael!

I almost forgot about that feature! Used to process captures and fill in the details, but the end result was a bit off with weird colors sometimes. Will definitely give it a try on what I need to achieve, so thanks for pointing that out!

CS,
Andrei
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Getting back with updates

The above feature will get me all images rotated and stacked in a single file, where I actually need the files rotated but saved separately to be able to generate a GIF from them. Any other ideas?
Jesco avatar
Jesco avatar
WInJUPOS is the answer.

Process all your images to your liking.

Then perform an image measurement in WinJUPOS on each of them.

Then let WinJUPOS do a derotation for you.

You can make arbitrariliy smooth animations with this technique. As a side effect, it removes field rotation.
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Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Thanks for commenting your ideas, Jesco. Can you guide me to the proper menus? As I can't really find the place where I can generate the animation you are talking about. De-rotating the IMS files results in a single final image, and I wish I could have an option to save individual files after they have been measured and "angle rotated". I'm using v12.
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Bogdan Borz avatar
Bogdan Borz avatar
Hi Andrei,

You won't be able to do the animation with Winjupos. But Winjupos actually alignes the planet horizontally so the derotated images should have the same orientation and cancel the field rotation. You can then use PIPP for the animation.

CS,

Bogdan
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Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Hi Bogdan,

The only place in Winjupos, that at least I know of, that allows you to save individual images based on video captures, is by de-rotating Videos. But that skips on selecting the best frames that AutoStakkert was doing. I could not find a place where I could save individual images AFTER field rotation was solved.

Can you walk me through the steps?

Thanks,
Andrei
Bogdan Borz avatar
Bogdan Borz avatar
Andrei Dumitriu:
Hi Bogdan,

The only place in Winjupos, that at least I know of, that allows you to save individual images based on video captures, is by de-rotating Videos. But that skips on selecting the best frames that AutoStakkert was doing. I could not find a place where I could save individual images AFTER field rotation was solved.

Can you walk me through the steps?

Thanks,
Andrei

You have two options in Winjupos, derotating images or derotating videos. If you have 10 videos for example, just stack each one in Autostakkert; after that you obtain 10 images. Each image needs to be measured in Winjupos second menu from the left. Then you derotate each image (you open an ims file with the measurement). Winjupos will output a derotated image corresponding to each initial video. You use then PIPP to join them in an animated gif for ex.

All best
Bogdan
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Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Andrei Dumitriu avatar
Gotcha! This is a really cool trick to get images rotated to my needs. Thank you, Bogdan!
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