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iceman
08-08-2007, 11:21 AM
On the 7th August, I captured 3 out of the 4 gas giants. Unfortunately I couldn't get Saturn, it's behind the Sun somewhere :)

I've already posted the Jupiter and Uranus shots, and here's a horrible image of Neptune.

I don't like this image and hope to get a better one soon (Neptune reaches opposition in the next week).

My raw data has some horrible pattern noise in every frame. I'm not sure where it came from - it wasn't there earlier in the night for Jupiter. It affected the raw data terribly.
The conditions were also terrible, with a gusty breeze knocking the scope around and the seeing was only 5/10 at best.

Neptune is really faint - took ages to get it on the CCD and needed a long exposure of 1/2 a second but with the wind and my inaccurate tracking (did not drift align), this poor image is the best I could get.

It's LRGB with a few hundred frames of Luminance @ 1/4s exposures and a handful of frames of colour data @ 1/2s exposures. As you can see the colour data is basically non-existant. :(

Anyway I'll try for better in a few weeks.

Rob_K
08-08-2007, 11:29 AM
Sorry Mike, wrong section - Omega Centauri should be in Deep Space.:P

Good attempt anyway - hope you get it sorted :thumbsup:

Cheers -

ballaratdragons
08-08-2007, 11:41 AM
Hey Mike, 10 points for persistance! :thumbsup:

I know the feeling well. Setting up, aligning, computers at the ready, wind howling, fog drifting, objects dancing.

Record the data, stack it, and there's not a lot to process!!! :mad2:

Those are the nights we call 'Practice' :lol:

ving
08-08-2007, 11:45 AM
LMAO!!!

wait for better seeing mike!

jase
08-08-2007, 03:13 PM
Well, I think its time for a change Mike. Come join the DSO imaging guys for a while. :D

iceman
08-08-2007, 04:55 PM
haha thanks Jase but I think i'd be even worse at that than this Neptune image :)

I want to do some widefield stuff but will wait until Jupiter is gone :)