Saturn from Melbourne this morning

[John K]

Had my first go at Saturn this morning. Tough object.

In addition to the low altitude, average seeing, and my neighbours tin roof I also had a 2 degree differential between my mirror and ambient.

Taken with an NGT12.5" w/OMI Torus Optics, 5 x Powermate and SPC900 webcam. 200 of the best frames split in RGB and processed using Astra Image, Photoshop and Noiseworks. Reduce to 80% of the original. The Red component is also attached which was the best of the 3 components.

John K.

[matt]

Wow!

Very nice John.

Beautiful colours on Saturn and that red channel is very promising

[jjjnettie]

Looking good John.

[Dennis]

Hi John

I'd be happy with that! Excellent image.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

Great start John, it certainly is more challenging to image than Jupiter.

[asimov]

A nice shot. Go the 900!

[Lester]

Great image John.

One of the best I have seen for a while.

[Omaroo]

Very nice image John!

I got to see Saturn for the first time this season last night through my 8". Seeing in southern Sydney was actually pretty good at 3:00am, so it's a pity I didn't have the 12" and the ToUcam with me in the field. I caught it with the longest side of the ring's elliptical absolutely vertical - so I'm still getting used to the EQ mount rotating things on me.

Cheers
Chris

[John K]

Thanks for all your kind comments guys, hoping for better things as the planet gets higher.

John.

[spacezebra]

Yes, I would be very happy with that image - excellent.

Cheers Petra

[Rez]

I am yet to see Saturn with my newly acquired 8" dobsonian.

Is this picture indicative of how I should expect to see it through my scope ?

Rez

[Omaroo]

Not quite :)

You'll see it, depending on the EP you've chosen, in varying sizes from a pinpoint with blobs out the side to something you'd instantly recognise as Saturn. The largest I got to see it the other night, without the seeing destroying my view through too much magnification, was though a 7mm EP on my 8" Newt. That's at 142 mag. With that EP fitted, I saw Saturn as an elongated disk although I could make out the rings, and a gap between the rings and the planetary sphere. I'd say it would have fit across my FOV several dozen times end to end. You will not see it like you look at the photos in this thread. It'd be nice - but that's pie in the sky stuff unfortunately. You only get images like that with reasonably good exposure to either film or CCD, a lot of corrective work and then cropping the 98% of the empty black away from the bit you want. You'll also see it through your eyepiece in near-monochrome - not nice and bright colour.

Certainly makes me want to finally use my ToUcam....... :)

[Ric]

Hi John, very nice images indeed and all quite detailed in the belts and rings.

great stuff

[ving]

best for the season john! :)

cant wait for more :)