Saturn & Jupiter from 27 August 2022

[Averton]

Having been out all yesterday it has taken us a bit to process our data from Saturday night (27 August). We started a little earlier in the evening thinking that the cloud was going to move in, so Jupiter was still pretty low. The seeing was the best we have had this year. We also tried out a R+IR filter (610nm) on a monochrome camera. The Jupiter mono image with the moons is a single image with no enhancing of the moon exposure level. Also Europa on Jupiter's disk showed up better in the mono. It was just an enjoyable evening of planetary viewing and imaging.

All the images were taken with our 6" SCT. The colour images used an ADC and ASI178MC. The mono images were taken with ASI178MM.

[Anth10]

Clare & Peter,
Some fine detail revealed for certain in both planets. That mono cam sensitivity is a real winner.
Nice one.

Cheers,
Anthony

[Dave882]

Those are really superb shots! I especially liked the mono Jupiter with Europa transit and the rgb Saturn. But for some reason the moons of Saturn are looking a little bit..plastic? Maybe something to do with the way you did the layers? The moons of Jupiter look much more natural to my eye. Anyways, just my 2c - 0therwise a fantastic set of shots! Great job!!:thumbsup:

[Averton]

Thanks Anthony. Yes, we were happy with the mono and filter combination.

[Averton]

Thanks David.
Appreciate the feedback and agree entirely about Saturn's moons. As mentioned, with the mono Jupiter image there are no layers, it is just a single image with the moons as capture. With the colour Jupiter it's almost the same, the moons only needed the slightest increase in exposure. Unfortunately with Saturn the moons are at such a low level (barely above the noise) that we have to create a layer which is dramatically over exposed and then mask it. It's these last two steps that is hard to get right. Too much or too little exposure is an issue, and the masking is problematic. Something for us to keep working on. It's worth it for Saturn.
Thanks again.

[Saturnine]

Quite fine planetary images P & C, catching Saturns' moons is not easy without over exposing Saturn itself.

[Averton]

Thanks Jeff :)

[Retrograde]

Great images with such a modest-aperture scope!

[Averton]

Thanks Pete :)