Saturn Titan transit 24/2/09

RobF (Rob) · #1 25-02-2009, 10:55 PM

I tried to take enough video files to make up an animation, but as Dennis and others have said, Brissy was marginal last night with bands of big white fluffy clouds wafting through. Seemed to be lined up in a lane to get max coverage of Saturn from my position!!

I'm only a newbie planetary imager, but to me the seeing seemed to go crazy whenever one of those clouds got within 5 degrees of Saturn.

Anyway, my first AVI for the night likely to be only one worth showing. Seeing appeared to get much worse later with more clouds about. I'm very happy to be able to glimse Titan and its shadow too. No way I could make out Titan at the eyepiece (not without getting seasick!), though could make out shadow in moments of better seeing. Sounds like we were lucky to see anything anyway.

About 650 frames from 450D liveview, stacked in Registax, taken 2158 AEST 24/2/09.
Double 2x barlows in series (2" & 1.25")

Thanks for looking...

Quark (Trevor) · #2 25-02-2009, 11:06 PM

Well done Rob,
You have captured a pretty rare event, regardless of the seeing and the clouds.

Regards
Trevor

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #3 25-02-2009, 11:10 PM

Nicely done Rob,

You can even see Titan's disc on Saturn's face, great work!

Cheers

Chris

erick (Eric) · #4 25-02-2009, 11:58 PM

Good capture, Rob. The more I think about it after reading these reports, my seeing must have been better than I thought. Once I picked it up, I had no trouble seeing Titan itself against the planet.

iceman (Mike) · #5 26-02-2009, 06:34 AM

Well done Rob, nicely captured.

Lester · #6 26-02-2009, 07:31 AM

Nice capture of this rare event Rob.

Dennis · #7 26-02-2009, 08:08 AM

Hi Rob

That is an excellent effort Rob using the 450 Live View, you’re breaking new ground here with this technique. I’m so glad you persevered; it certainly was worth it to get this shot.

Cheers

Dennis

rogerg (Roger) · #8 26-02-2009, 09:56 AM

That's a pretty good image! And I've often wondered what the quality would be like capturing from Live View, so it's great to see an example of that. You've fortunate to have a record of the event

RobF (Rob) · #9 26-02-2009, 07:15 PM

Cheers guys! The encouragement means a lot.

I wouldn't have even known about the transit let alone had a clue how to go about recording it in the pre-web era. IIS is such a fantastic resource. Loved your comment in another thread Chris about feeling like you've been dropped 3/4 way up Everest.....!