First Saturn for the season

[iceman]

Well, it's done..

First Saturn for the season is under the belt.

Captured at 5:15am local time, the sky was very bright and I couldn't even see Saturn naked eye anymore.

Gain was at 100% maximum, captured for 1 minute on each colour channel with the DMK and 2x barlow. I only used the 2x because I was having some trouble with my tracking (moved the scope back out the back), and the seeing didn't support any more than that either. Altitude was 17°.

Saturn is getting higher each day, but the sun is rising earlier each day. I don't think i'll really get to have a good shot at it until daylight savings kicks in later this month.

250 frames from each channel stacked in registax, mild wavelets, LR deconvolution in AstraImage, recombined, taken to photoshop for levels + colour balance adjustment, + high pass filter.

Glad the first is out of the way, hopefully they'll all get better from here on in.

Thanks for looking.

[Orion]

Very nice, considering the time you imaged it.

[Dennis]

Gee that's a great image for so early in the season, especially given the altitude and seeing. Can't wait to see the results mid Saturn season.

Cheers

Dennis

[Lester]

Hi Mike,

that will get a few going. Nice effort.

[Ric]

Nice shot Mike, there is a great amount of detail as well.

cheers

[Lee]

excellent image Mike..... too early for me most of the time!

[RB]

That's really cool Mike.
Wow 5.15am, not even visable naked eye, amazing shot.

[andrew]

Lovely image mate :) 5:15 too early for me :P

[Checker]

Great Pic Mike!

[spacezebra]

Nice pic Mike

I hope to have a Saturn or two in my portfolio, one day. Looking forward to talking to Brian from RT tomorrow.



Cheers Petra

[iceman]

Thanks for the comments, guys.. I took some more images this morning with the 3x and 5x! I want image scale! :) Seeing was horrible again with such a low altitude, but we'll see how they turn out.

I was surprised to see the tilt of the rings this season, it's really much flatter than last year and will be even more difficult to get that elusive cassini division all the way around!

[OneOfOne]

You only have until around 2009 as I recall too. I guess it will be a competition to see who gets the first shot when the rings "come back", but they will be "on the other side" won't they? It would make in interesting, half a lifetime, movie to capture one complete Saturnian year in time lapse and see the rings go from open to close. Save up those images!

[asimov]

Nice shot! Yes indeed, the rings are flatter than last season. It'll make it a bit harder to capture a full CD, which will make it interesting! I'm just waiting for it to clear a tree then its all systems go for this object!

[h0ughy]

WELL, its time - Mike thanks for the Saturn shot, its always awe inspiring to see the ringed one!

[davidpretorius]

oooooooo yessssssssssssssssss, its saturn seasson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ving]

saturn making a comeback, thats what i like to hear :)

[EzyStyles]

nice image as always mike. you did a fine job and i thought i was the only late nighter :P