Saturn and 5 satellites - UPDATED – orbits added. UPDATE 2: Animation added!

[Dennis]

Hello,

After spending a couple of hours imaging the Moon (28th March), I swung the ‘scope over to Saturn to bang off an AVI before I went to bed, just because it was hanging there in the East.:)

A couple of days later I punched the 3000 frame AVI through Autostakkert and after some histogram stretching, I was astonished to discover that I had recorded 5 of the Saturnian moons.:D

The attached image is a composite of a 2 Layers generated from the same image; a planetary Layer with Saturn’s disc optimally exposed and a moon’s Layer that has been significantly stretched to show the moons

Saturn and Satellites Data from SkyTools 3 Professional Edition.

Saturn: Magnitude: 0.27, Size: 43"x 17"
Titan 8.4 mag, 60.6” sep.
Rhea 9.8 mag, 78.2” sep.
Enceladus 11.8 mag, 12.5” sep.
Dione 10.5 mag, 43.5” sep.
Tethys 10.3 mag, 16.2” sep.



Earth Distance: 9.0 AU
Sun Distance: 9.8 AU
Diameter: 120,536 km


Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Great stuff Dennis! It's amazing, once you stretch a planet stack out, only to find a heap of moons!

Not purposely hijacking, but I know you'll be interested in mine from the 23rd March..

Nice work again!

[Dennis]

Nice one John, yours is in colour too!

Cheers

Dennis

[EricB]

What a nice shot :thumbsup:

Eric

[RobF]

Beautifully rendered - top stuff Dennis.

[Larryp]

Great work, Dennis:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

oh i love this stuff - top shelf Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks guys – here’s a couple of images showing the orbits as shown in Starry Night Pro Plus 6. In CS6 I created the elliptical paths on a separate Layer and brightened the satellites to make them more prominent.

Cheers

Dennis

[DavidU]

Well done.:thumbsup:

[gavcol]

Very impressive, excellent work. :thumbsup:

Regards

Gav

[Dennis]

And it just gets better….here is the animation, to be followed by the best seller, T-shirt, blockbuster movie, etc.!:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

i want the t shirt and autograph.......:D:thumbsup:

[RobF]

I don't recall seeing anyone go to the trouble of emulating orbits before Dennis. Nice touch.

This is definitely getting epic. Not sure about the blockbuster movie, but I'm still cheering.

[Dennis]

Thanks David & Rob.

@Rob – Rolf (SkyViking) posted a “Uranus & Moons” orbit image a while ago, so I’m following in his footsteps, albeit a bit closer to Earth!

Cheers

Dennis

[SpaceNoob]

very cool stuff :-)

[Craige]

Nice work Dennis!

[peter_4059]

Great stuff Dennis. The detail in Saturn is awesome.

[Quark]

Nicely done Dennis, a truly epic production and very effective.

Regards
Trevor

[pete123]

Great work.

[John Hothersall]

Love the orbit rings which makes it all look dynamic.

John.

[strongmanmike]

Holy Saturns Moons Batman :eyepop:

Great result...lucky you decided to point at Saturn :thumbsup:

Mike

[Dennis]

Thanks Trevor!

When I swung the ‘scope to Saturn after imaging the lunar surface, I was taken aback at how small Saturn appeared in the FOV and how dim it was compared to the “in-your-face” lunar features, as it has been quite a while since I imaged the planets.

The image scale, clarity and details in your planetary images are astounding and if you pointed your ‘scope at the Moon, I suspect you would be able to record sub-kilometre features.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Chris, Craige, Peter, Peter, John and Michael, I appreciate your comments, it has been a fun project.

Cheers

Dennis

[LewisM]

Loving the contrast and crispness that Mewlon delivers! Kick myself still for knocking one back at $2000 :(

[iceman]

Beautiful work again Dennis. Love your production work!

[kustard]

Very cool :)

[batema]

Very cool. Well done.