Saturn 10th Sept in good seeing

[Dave882 (David)]

We had a good break in the jetstream a few days back just as the latest set of clouds rolled in and managed a few captures that I've just processed. Lots of high cloud around which was quite thick at time which made capture and processing more difficult - to the extent that I was actively adjusting gain during the capture to try and maintain a decent histogram.

I spent a bit of time out - so have a few different captures:

Saturn with Titan, Enceladus, & Tethys +GIF:
ASI462mc + UV/IR cut filter - 5x 3min captures derotated

Saturn with Tethys (+ a faint Enceladus):
ASI782mm + IR685 pass filter - 5x 3min captures detrotated

Saturn with Tethys in transit & Titan (+ a faint Enceladus) +GIF:
ASI462mc + UV/IR cut filter - 3x 3min captures derotated

Details:
c14 non edge
eq8
asi178mm (IR685 filter) 3min captures, 15ms
asi462mc (UV/IR filter) 3min captures, 13ms
ASICAP
AS!4
Registax6
Winjupos
Lightroom
Ezgif.com

Thanks for dropping by!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Great captures there Dave, love the tiny moons, very nice.

I haven't taken an image of a planet in 21 years, since I hit a couple of Mars at the great opposition 0f 2003, using my 12"SCT and through a red filter if I recall?..pretty crappy but I was happy with them at the time : 4th August and 17th August

Mike

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Mike. I for one would LOVE to see you have another crack at some planetary imaging. The advancement in cameras and imaging software/processing has been phenomenal in the last 20yrs but by far the greatest challenge to planetary imaging is the seeing…and I reckon you may just have a slight advantage in that department- I mean your current setup is practically in orbit up there!!

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

Awesome colour and sharpness in the bands and rings.. The planet presents in an unfamiliar pose but ever striking is Saturn.
Yes seeing is king with planetary imaging and that’s the fun of capture cause you never quite know what the night will dish up.
In this case your capture stacked up very well.
Nice trophy Dave.

Anth

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Stunning images yet again Dave!
A young friend was asking me 2 days ago if I got a scope out to photograph Saturn and mentioned he had a look and could only see a tiny dot. He has a 127mm Celestron reflector with some very expensive Tele Vue eyepieces his mother got him (the whole set-up for his 21st) and a Meade Barlow I've loaned him long term. I asked if he tried the Barlow with his big Tele Vue but I'm suspecting maybe he's been looking at one of the moons, not Saturn itself. I've seen Saturn through a 70mm refractor and the rings were clearly visible. I guess I've also taken small images through my 152mm refractor with a DSLR but now I have a Powermate (I haven't tried yet).

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Great images of the Ringed World, nice and sharp and showing the subtle colouring of the cloud bands and capturing some of the moons as well..

[foc (Ross)]

Excellent Saturn work!

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks guys much appreciated!

Anth- You're very right about the conditions! Last night I had a brief visual session and had a period of maybe 10min of phenomenal seeing - proper contrast and colour in Saturn's bands, beautiful green, brown, magenta - like i was looking at a processed image. It didn't last long and even though I got the camera out hoping for a return of the stability, it was just mush and I gave up and went to bed!

Leo - I still remember the first telescope I owned was a crappy little 90mm Celestron refractor on a mount that didn't work so the only way to track the movement was by moving the tripod legs - I could see the rings pretty clearly but if the conditions were poor it was a fuzzy blob. I spent hours and hours with that little scope!

Thanks Jeff - Yes I was happy with the colour and contrast in the bands but did use some LightRoom to add saturation a little. Now we are looking almost edge-on the bands seem to look quite different to oother years - more subtle in colour and difficult to see good contrast unless the seeing is very good. Not sure why that is...

Thanks Ross I'm glad you liked the images. Appreciate your comments!

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Last night was overcast earlier but when I got up for one of my "better get out of bed to do this" moments I noticed the sky was clear, possibly around 4:30AM looking through the dunny window. I have a nice north easterly view from my seat in there, pity there's no room for a small mount and rig on the windowsill, lol

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Dave882

Thanks Mike. I for one would LOVE to see you have another crack at some planetary imaging. The advancement in cameras and imaging software/processing has been phenomenal in the last 20yrs but by far the greatest challenge to planetary imaging is the seeing…and I reckon you may just have a slight advantage in that department- I mean your current setup is practically in orbit up there!!

Ha! you're quite right, hmm?..maybe...actually I had intended setting up the 6" AP Starfire APO on the NJP mount for some planet shots at Eagleviw but I think 6" is a tad small in terms of aperture and it's F7.5 aaaaand I don't have a planetary camera ...hey, a C14 would be good on the NJP mount

You are likely quite right about the seeing, back in 2021, before I had the observatory up there, I was using my 12" F4.9 dob and it was giving highly detailed views up to 750X most nights, I was definitely seeing the Encke division and polar hexagon on Saturn and very clear detail inside the GRS...haven't observed the planets through the 18" yet but we have had some success pushing it to over 1000X on a few bright PN's and the Homunculus etc...

Anyway, great shots again, I can see how planet imaging could be addictive, they just look so cool.

Mike

[Dave882 (David)]

Thankfully my (now quite elderly) eq8 is still up to the task carrying stupid amounts of weight. Especially since every planetary session sees me swapping between tiny light asto planetary camera to big bulky binoviewers with 2x large eyepieces swung out to the side… she manages quite well even if quite out of balance. Hmm- is it cheating to consider putting the c14 on another mount after all these years . Definitely something I’ve considered for dso imaging. Tho sounds a little like we’re playing Astro-matchmaker!

You have skies that most of us only dream of. I think there is only one time I’ve seen the Encke division, and it was through cloud! I was so captivated by the view I actually got rained on!!!

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...d.php?t=200229

I will regularly hit the planets at 450x but there only one or 2 nights in the year when I can go higher mag than that.