Saturated Occultation - now an APOD!!

[Retrograde]

EDIT: This image was selected as today's APOD (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190814.html). Super excited - my first one!

The moon and Saturn just prior to last night's occultation of Saturn from Sydney.
I boosted the saturation to bring out the colours of the lunar surface.

This is a single frame at prime focus through the Skywatcher Mak-Newt (1000mm fl) with a Pentax K-5 DSLR. I attempted to equalise the brightness of the moon and Saturn as best I could.

[multiweb]

Excellent shot Pete. Great widefield of the event. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Excellent shot and nice to see a wider view.

Nicely processed.

Cheers

Dennis

[Derek Klepp]

Very nice .

[Retrograde]

Thanks Marc!



Thank-you Dennis - cheers.



Thanks Derek - appreciate it.

[Dennis]

Congratulations - a well deserved result, it captures the event with such majesty.:thumbsup::)

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

Excellent work, done well with that

[Peter Ward]

Timely and well executed. Congrats! A worthy APOD :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Congratulations Pete.

[Merckx]

Congratulations Peter, a well deserving APOD

[JA]

That is so well done and unique. Congratulations Pete :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Retrograde]

Thanks again Dennis!




Thank-you David!



Thank-you very much, Peter!

[Retrograde]

Thanks Rodney - much appreciated!



Thank-you James!



Thanks JA - cheers!

[kkara4]

great photo Pete! Well Done! I will be posting mine up in the coming days.

Curious to know, how does an image get selected for APOD? do you have to submit it somewhere in particular or does someone from NASA trawl the forums for candidates?

[N1]

Congrats Pete on a great capture, presentation and APOD!

[OICURMT]

Congrats! Great shot. :thumbsup:



Noticed the APOD stated Moon will occult Saturn every lap it makes around the Earth this year. Looks like WA is next for a shot (Sept 8th), NZ gets a chance on Nov 2nd.
Looking forward to seeing pics from others here over the next months.


http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/saturn.jpg

[Retrograde]

Thanks Krishan! Looking forward to seeing your take. :thumbsup:

Yes to have an image selected you have to submit it. On the APOD web page are the submission details down the bottom (you email Robert and Jerry).



Thank-you Mirko!



Thank-you!

Interesting info - looks some of the other states and the Kiwis get their chance over the coming months.

[Atmos]

Congratulations on the APOD, it's well deserved :)

[atkinsonr]

Wow! Congratulations. I have a Pentax K5 gathering dust - I had no idea you could get such a lovely image out of it.

[multiweb]

Good on you Pete. APOD. :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Thanks Colin!



Thanks again Marc!

[Retrograde]

Thanks Rich.

The Pentax K-5 is a good astro camera - dust it off! :D

Despite its age (I've had mine since 2012) the K-5 still holds up remarkably well, even against much newer and more fancied cameras when it comes to long exposure noise.

See this long exposure test which lists a whole lot of cameras: https://www.brendandaveyphotography.com/more/long-exposure-sensor-testing/
At 30 and 300 seconds the K-5 is ahead of such great cameras as the Nikon D850 and all of the Canons (as long as you don't go over ISO 3200 that is - the K-5 falls off a cliff above 3200 and gives you green banding everywhere - plenty of the newer cameras can realistically shoot at ISO 10000).

There's a lot more to an astro-camera than LE-noise however and taking good astro-photos can be about what you do with the equipment you have. Check the astrobin link in my sig - nearly all my photos were taken with a K-5 or astro-modded K-5iis.