Saturn/Moon Occultation

[multiweb]

Here's my take on the event. I finally managed to crop saturn off the SER video file so I could stack it independently in AS!3 from the moon limb and then recomposite it in place in the final in PS. So I got a reasonably bright, sharpish Saturn next to a moon limb not too over exposed. This is the ingress, shot with the CN-212 at prime focus and an ASI 120MM.

I have the full field here (http://www.astropic.space/astro/saturn_moon_ingress.jpg).

Trying to play with the rest of the videos this week-end see if I can come up with more and something for the egress. :thumbsup:

PS: Added egress. Full field here (http://www.astropic.space/astro/saturn_moon_egress.jpg).

Added Vidoeos.

Ingress

https://vimeo.com/353516960

and Egress

https://vimeo.com/354160386

[Tinderboxsky]

Fabulous result Marc.

[JA]

That's sensational Marc. :thumbsup:
It's definitely on the TO-DO list, whenever it next comes around.

Best
JA

[multiweb]

Thanks guys. :thumbsup: Yeah it's a good one to image. Got to try one with Jupiter when that happens. :)

[N1]

Amazing detail Marc

[Retrograde]

Very nice Marc! I like the full-field shot as it provides context. :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks guys. :thumbsup:
Just uploaded the videos now.

[peter_4059]

Top stuff as usual Marc.

[multiweb]

Thanks Peter. :thumbsup: Shear luck I guess that it turned out alright. Planetary is really not my thing. I'm a bit of a clut at it but somehow I always seem to get something in the end. Gotta say the programs like AutoStakkert! and Registax are amazing at getting details out of the blurry videos. I wish we had something like this for deepsky. :)

[Saturnine]

Well done, I like the full field view, very similar in framing to what I had taken but yours is so much better. Processing is not my strong point, that's why I admire everyone elses images and the time they put into them, post capture.

[Dennis]

Really nice work Marc, well worth the effort in set up, capturing and post processing.:thumbsup::)

Also it is very interesting and informative to compare the views and perspectives from 1,000km apart.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. :thumbsup: TBH I didn't spend too much time on processing. Most of the programs are automated with default settings. It's pretty straight forward and works 9/10 times.


Thanks Dennis. :thumbsup: Yeah it was great to see many shots from different latitudes. The timing and the features on the moon were very different. Interesting to see the offset in the craters.

[Outcast]

Awesome shots Marc, truly remarkable!!

[multiweb]

Good day mate. :thumbsup: Did you guys have any clear skies up north?

[Outcast]

Yes we did but, sadly I was working afternoon shift so wasn't able to view or image....

[multiweb]

No worries. You might get another shot in september.

[strongmanmike]

Great result Marc :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

Thanks Mike. :thumbsup: Fun to do.

[h0ughy]

It's in a class of Dennis S. Great stuff

[Aussie_Dave]

Great images and videos Marc, love it. We'll be getting the same next month in WA south, September the 8th. I've been wanting to capture this for some years, It's been very high on my To Do list.

Just a question though, did you adjust capture settings while recording the Egress video or did you stop, adjust and then start recording again?

[Peter Ward]

I really enjoyed the view

Maaaaate. Wonderful stuff. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Dennis is always a great help and he knows what he's doing. :)


Thanks Dave. :thumbsup: There are two ways you can go about it. Widefield or narrow field. Widefield looks good and it's pretty easy to do. I did one here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=1107036&postcount=1) in 2014. All you need is a small refractor, a DSLR and a canon timer or other.

Long FL is a bit trickier to work with the brightness levels. I didn't get it quite right this time either. Next time should be easier. I figured that it's best to under expose Saturn rather than get it bright enough to see and burn the moon. I used sharpcap (v.3.2.6062.0). The ASI 120MM was set to full resolution (1280x960) unbinned. I've attached the camera settings for ingress and egress. I tweaked the exposure time to balance the moon and saturn brightness during the ingress but it was harder at the egress because the moon seemed a lot brighter and I nearly missed Saturn. I couldn't find it in the field although I had intitially kept the same settings when it disappeared.

You can tweak brightness while capturing in sharpcap. No need to stop and start. I did 500 frames segments because I wasn't polar aligned and had to correct the mount location often. What you see in the viewport is what you record in the SER file so it's wysiwyg. I used 16bit SER so I captured a better sample of the dynamic range. I wanted to get as much details as I could from dark to bright.



Thanks Peter. Glad you enjoyed it. :thumbsup:

[Aussie_Dave]

Cheers Marc, that helps a lot. I figured I'd need to do 2 videos, one for the moon edge and a separate video for Saturn as the moon has passed over it and merge the 2 images, layering the moon over Saturn. That may be the safest way for me being my first attempt as I don't want to stuff it up just with the one video. I also don't know exactly where Saturn will pop out from the edge, I'm just going by what Stellarium shows me. I'll be at a focal length of 2500mm and using either the ASI224mc or Neximage 5.

[Derek Klepp]

Great results Marc enjoyed those videos.

[multiweb]

If you have stellarium you can very accurately plan where Saturn will transit the limb and look for the features on the moon surface. That's what I did and it was spot on. Don't forget to set the moon scale to 1 in Stellarium. Also selecting Saturn and pressing the space bar will center it on your screen with a reticule so you know where it is behind the moon. I used that with the current time to know when to go back out and start videoing again.

Don't bother doing two videos. It is likely you'll have plenty of moon shots from various videos during the event to get a sharp moon composite. You'll also have many videos of saturn on its own to get a sharp planet. You can crop around saturn to register only the planet when it's far enough from the moon.

In short just keep shooting short videos of 1000 or 500 frames and keep recording, tweaking the levels. Then you'll have plenty of data to get the bits you need to make your final composites.

Not sure about Neximage. I haven't used it in years. Sharpcap is pretty cheap to buy and it does a great job. Better play it safe. Rehearse well ahead. Maybe train on star occultations with the moon.

[multiweb]

Thanks Derek. :thumbsup:

[Aussie_Dave]

Thanks for the info Marc, Champion!

[Dennis]

A few observations from recording this event:


Using The Sky X Pro, I was tracking on Saturn so effectively, Saturn was stationary in the FOV and the lunar limb crept up from outside the FOV to eventually gobble up Saturn in the FOV.

It might be worth orienting your camera so that the moon enters the FOV parallel to one side of the frame – my efforts had the lunar limb coming in at an oblique angle. This way, you get an AVI where you have the potential to crop out the moon section, leaving just Saturn in the Frame for then taking into AS3! for Align and Stack operations.

Using Autostakkert3!, for those AVIs where Saturn was very close to the lunar limb, even though I selected Saturn as COG, sometimes the AS3! Alignment process grabbed onto the much brighter moon and so Saturn did not Align and Stack very well, with several ghost images smeared across the frame.

When Using Autostakkert3! on Saturn still a few arcmins from the moon, I ended up with a nicely Aligned and Stacked Saturn with several stacked, ghost images of the lunar limb as it moved across the frame.

I could not Align and Stack on Saturn for the AVI that had Saturn actually being gobbled up by the moon, even though I started off with a full Saturn in Frames 01, 02, 03..100, etc. but with the end of the recording having a partial Saturn. I’m not sure how you can Align and Stack on a shrinking Saturn?


Cheers

Dennis

[andyc]

Really nice Marc, we had some good conditions there! How did you process the raw videos for upload (ie keep them reasonable without being gigantic?)

[multiweb]

Thanks Andy. :thumbsup: I captured 16bit SER files at 9fps with Sharpcap. Then loaded them in PIPP to tweak levels/gamma and cropped where needed for Saturn and saved them again as 16bit SER. I then I exported them to 16bit TIFF sequences from AS!3. I then loaded them as footages in After Effect CS6, stabilised them with the warp stabilizer effect, tweaked levels, contrast and brightness and exported them as uncompressed AVIs. Then I loaded them in Premiere Pro CS6 as a 25fps sequence, cut them and exported the final to Vimeo HD 1080p 25 in H.264 format. You get a mp4 that's compatible for upload. ~40MB for 2min - 1920x1080@25fps from original 1280x960.

[andyc]

I see, thanks :) That may be beyond my video editing capabilities (especially as no Premiere), but good to know it is possible!

[Ross G]

Hello Marc,


Amazing photos and videos!


What a great record of this special event to go with your previous one.


Ross.

[multiweb]

Thanks Ross. :thumbsup: Got them both now. Widefield and long FL. :)

[muletopia]

Very nice Marc,
I know my photography and processing is not up to an attempt, so my wife and I just watched the ingress from home here in SW WA. It really bought home how quickly the planet is hidden.

I don't know why Ausie dave did not try last night.


So well done Marc nice to see.
Chris

[multiweb]

Thanks Chris. :thumbsup: Yeah you had a good one in WA too.

[skysurfer]

Nice these occultations.

Using the Occult app (Windows only) one can plot maps of visibility area.
Here an example of the 2019 and 2024 events.

[astronobob]

Awesome Marc'us :cool:

[Tulloch]

Brilliant captures - I especially like the one with half a Saturn coming out of the moon's shadow. Thanks for posting them.

Andrew