First Saturn with DMK, Jan 5

[Matty P]

I finally had a chance to use the DMK last night (this morning) and I got a few shots of Saturn. The seeing was reasonable so I was able to get a few decent shots of Saturn before the clouds appeared.

What a camera, I wish I had an opportunity to use the Barlow on Saturn but it is a bit hard to image through cloud. :rolleyes:

I am very happy with my first attempt of Saturn with the DMK. A great way to start off ‘08. :D

Matt :thumbsup:

[RB]

Off to a good start Matt, well done !

[rumples riot]

Yeah more mag would be better, but you got a good start at it despite the image scale.

[Matty P]

Yeh... a bit small for my likings but I'm happy how it came out. I might go looking another Barlow lens, maybe a 3x.

Would a 5x powermate be an overkill? :shrug:

What is the max focal length I can push my C8 to without losing too much light and detail?

Thanks,
Matt

[rumples riot]

Given that you are still now waiting for the filter wheel and filters, just wait a while as the filter wheel will act as an extension and give you around a 4.3x effect to your focal length. Using a 5x will reduce your light too much especially for this target.

Your focal length with the filter wheel in place will be around 8600mm, going any bigger will reduce your light and of course you will struggle to get properly exposed frames at 8 fps. In fact I suspect that even at 4.3 you will have trouble at 8fps. So some experimentation is needed here. Always make sure that your histogram is fully exposed.

[rumples riot]

Sorry I miss read your first, yes a 3x barlow will be fine; that will make your final image focal length of 8600mm

[davidpretorius]

nice work!

make sure it is a good 3x barlow.......also, sorry to stress you now, but somewhere in the equation should be a bigger mirror.

Jupiter is around the corner (next couple of months) and it is ideally placed for the next 2 years.........you have a good camera, filter wheel etc and now looking at a 3x barlow..........the c9,25 and 3x barlows combination are very good (p haese, m watson, dennis etc) for very nice and good sized planetary

[Matty P]

Don't worry David, I haven't caught aperture fever yet. :rolleyes: I am quite happy with my C8 and wouldn't change it for anything in the world (except if you were offering me a C14) :lol:. The problem is whatever size mirror you have you are always going to want a larger one. If you have an 8" mirror you will want 10" mirror, if you have a 10" you will want a 12" mirror. It just keeps going! :evil:

Paul, the Atik filter wheels optical length is 19.5mm. I'm not sure how you work it out, what mag will that give me? Also, how do I find out how many frames the camera is capturing?

What brand of Barlow lens do you guys recommend?

Matt :thumbsup: