Saturn - another seasons best

[iceman]

Only early in the season and have only captured Saturn a couple of times, but I'm happy with these results.

Captured yesterday morning, the seeing was fairly stable (not as good as it was with Mars) but getting close to dawn, the ambient temperature was starting to drop which introduced some instability.

The seeing wasn't quite up to using the 5x powermate (as you can see from the image), but the 3x barlow capture was just right for the conditions, allowing me to use 30fps on all channels and get enough data in the histogram.

Saturn is still a very difficult target being low and dim, and processing is a challenge. You want contrast on the globe to reveal the banding but you want to leave the rings fairly natural to try and bring up the faint crepe ring. When I get some better data I'll take more time and care in processing to get the best of both worlds.

Thanks for looking.

[bird]

Thanks Mike, good results!

Bird

[callingrohit]

Hi Mike,

as usual you get the best out of saturn....great images....

IMO, the top image is much more sharper and clearer than the bottom one. It may be my lcd but if i look very closely into that image, I can see a translucent area near the saturn globe.... it is also present in the top image taken with the barlow on the right-side of the globe but is not that visible as in the bottom one.

Could this be caused by the stacking software ? usually the extra translucent layer comes up if there is a slight mis-alignment in the registration of images which each of the stacking softwares do.

but in the end....amazing images.. & also thanks for guiding me to saturn.... i checked it out 2 nights ago at 4am in NE sky and it was just awesome..... the 9mm plossl gave a good view...and when I used the 2 x barlow + 9mm plossl..... i wanted to shout and scream.....gotya saturn.....it was one hell of a view.....will be trying to photograph it over the weekend....I know it won't be good at all as I'll be afocal, but then again I'll be trying it with an eyepiece projection adaptor and I just have to try and learn....prime focus is just way out of my budget right now....will post if i get a image at all.....

[goober]

Nice image. Bye, bye rings... they're closing up fast.

[Rodstar]

You guys have more stamina than I, I just can't get out of bed quite that early at the moment. Anyway, well done Mike, nice to open the Saturn account for the season, with pretty decent views at such low altitude.

[jjjnettie]

Great looking Saturn concidering how low he was.

I should make the effort to get up early and do the same.

[h0ughy]

topstuff Mike

[Outbackmanyep]

Gee i miss that sight in a telescope! Can't wait till it gets higher!
Great image Mike! :thumbsup:

Cheers!

[DJVege]

Wow Mike! Awesome shots. I think I like Saturn images the best.

Quick question, though. What causes the image to be flipped? The only difference was a 3x barlow to a 5x powermate, right?

[vash]

I guess it would be the way he put the camera orientation in the barlow, you can see the shadow is on the left side in both images.

but nice images all the same

[Astro78]

Awesome Pics! Uhm "bye bye rings" ....NOooo