SBIG ST-I Color Imager

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone has any experience planetary imaging using the SBIG ST-I color imager? I've been imaging for a number of years and recently picked up an ST-I. I bought it as a dual purpose autoguider / planetary imager for an SBIG STF-8300C.

My problem is that I am trying to photograph Jupiter with the new ST-I but I am not able to stack & align images within CCD Ops...apparently you can but I'm not having any luck when I am post processing images. I've tried SBIG's own stacker program, but with limited success, yes I can align colour photos but the details are not highly resolved. Exporting an SBIG stacked image (in FITS format) to REGISTAX 6 for wavelet processing is ineffective.

Another issue I've noticed is that I can take 10 minutes to shot & download about 200 frames from the ST-I before the mount tracking drifts out of view. Yet when I imaged with the NEXIMAGE, I can grab 15fps and take 900 photos in a minute.

When I export the raw stills as FITS files and stack them in REGISTAX 6...I can get good image resolution, but no color. At best, REGISTAX 6 only sees a green channel so I've only processed in mono as a result. I've attached some example photos, the Feb 2014 images were taken with the ST-i on an 8" Edge HD. For comparison I've attached a 2011 photo using a Celestron NEXSTAR 5i and a (very old) NEXIMAGE web cam.

It maybe something stupid I'm doing...maybe I shouldn't be trying to use a single shot color camera like a web cam? Or maybe there is a function I'm not aware of with the SBIG software? I would appreciate if anyone can point me in the right direction...


Clear skies


Dave

Sorry Folks,

Can't seem to edit the post, the top 2 images are of Jupiter taken last week. the close up is with a 2xbarlow about 160 frames. The middle image is prime focus ST-I about 250 frames. Both taken on an 8" EDGE HD and processed in REGISTAX 6. The last image is a blown up image taken on a NEXSTAR 5i using a 2005 NEXIMAGE web cam setup, about 900 frames if I remember correctly.


Thanks


Dave