'nother Saturn on April 2nd: Midnight

[von Tom]

Excellent seeing in Brisbane last night. Had finished work and gave Saturn another shot. Attached is an original capture size stack, a downsampled one, and an RGB study of the planet, the capture method (one thumb required for tracking), and the camera, and a closeup of an attempt to enhance the hexagon, and a spherical projection of the pole simulating an overhead view.

Canon EOS 600D, 5x Powermate, teleconverters, 12" SkyWatcher Goto Dobsonian, manually tracked, 2.5 minutes video crop mode.

Video of capture process and tracking: http://youtu.be/WCblwAye7mw

http://youtu.be/WCblwAye7mw


Thanks for looking,

Tom

[Larryp]

Lovely images, Tom!

[von Tom]

Thanks Larry,

Video and more piccies added.

Cheers,

Tom

[U.K.Cowboy]

Fantastic images Tom. I'm spellbound by what you are achieving with this setup but rather confused as to the "manual tracking"? How can you keep Saturn on chip without the scope's tracking activated?

[von Tom]

Hi Stuart, for this I don't activate the telescope's auto tracking. The scope is unaligned and only moved by using the hand controller. I started the switch to manual tracking as it was sometimes easier than correcting any auto tracking errors during capture (which introduces a little backlash as well as a lag before the auto tracking kicks in again). Call me lazy but it's easier for me to point and manually track than it is to go through the alignment process :)

Cheets,
Tom

[John Hothersall]

Wondered if you were about last night, seeing was very fine, your pole has come out very nicely.

John.

[U.K.Cowboy]

I never thought this was possible Tom with the slew speeds being too fast when out of tracking mode but clearly you are making it work. I see Eric does the same on lunar. As you say backlash and lag can be annoying when tracking.....hmmmm...might just try your method.;)

[Dennis]

Blimey Tom – you should have posted a “Warning” about image scale as the 1st Saturn almost knocked me off my chair with its sheer size when I opened the image!

Great to see the photos and read the description of your set up too.

Cheers

Dennis

[Deeno]

Great stuff!
Amazing the results with your setup.
Reminds me of the images that the Iceman acheived with a 12" GSO newt on a EQ6......

[Saturn%5]

Just amazing Tom :thumbsup:

[Solar]

Pretty AWEEESOME Tom.
I have been guiding my solar stuff for the last week (see Heart of the Sun Beats post) and I got the idea from your description of your capture process a couple of weeks ago.
I still cant get a go for the weather at night is rain,rain,rain. :mad2:

[asimov]

Great work Tom! In my experience auto guiding sucks for your reasons stated. You are still obviously polar aligned though right? & just manually with the controller, correct..?

[von Tom]

Thanks guys.

Stuart, as the planet approaches the field of view I set the slew speed to 1x (out of the 9 speeds available) to then match the movement. This works pretty well until the object gets close to zenith when the azimuth at that speed can't keep up.

John, nothing is aligned, it's just the manual alt/az movements through the hand controller. I've gotten pretty used to hitting those buttons in the right sequence (up, left left, up left left up left up left left etc) depending on the position of the object in the sky.

Tom

[asimov]

Ok I'm with you now - the Alt/Az Dob..

[von Tom]

With all this talk of manual input, the autotracking on the dob is quite good when you go through the alignment process. It's just at the magnifications I use that I prefer manual.

[U.K.Cowboy]

Its certainly a skill you've developed Tom.:)

[Quark]

Impressive images Tom, pioneering work really, might prompt others to try planetary imaging with similar equipment.

Regards
Trevor

[Derek Klepp]

Tom I must agree with Trevor you really are setting a precedent here and with gear that is accessible and versatile. Apart from perhaps the scope every family needs a good DSLR.Your pics just keep getting better.

[Shiraz]

great work Tom - lots of detail in this set. regards Ray

[allan gould]

Exceptional images and processing. Envious is not appropriate.