iceman
11-11-2008, 10:32 AM
Hi all
With the forecast predicting clear skies for the next few days, I took the opportunity to get up early this morning and image Saturn - my first image for this Saturn season.
It's also my first planetary image in what feels like months (I think it literally has been months), so I eased back into it with a shorter focal length than normal - also partly because Saturn is so dim and so low that it wouldn't be likely to support high-resolution just yet.
The seeing was quite acceptable given the low altitude, reminds me why I love imaging in the early mornings. It was almost a non-event, as clouds greeted me when I first went outside at 4:40am. I waited them out until about 5:10am when I was just starting to pack up, when they finally started clearing. I captured 1 complete run, and then packed up as it was time to get ready for work. Clouds came back shortly after, so I was lucky to get any image at all.
With the rings closing up this year, it's really going to be a challenge to capture any ring detail like the Cassini Division - and it's much fainter than normal too.
12" Newt on EQ6, with DMK21AU04 + 2x barlow. 15fps for 1 minute per channel. ~85 frames stacked in each channel.
Quite happy with the outcome for the first of the season. Hopefully more to come in the following days and weeks.
With the forecast predicting clear skies for the next few days, I took the opportunity to get up early this morning and image Saturn - my first image for this Saturn season.
It's also my first planetary image in what feels like months (I think it literally has been months), so I eased back into it with a shorter focal length than normal - also partly because Saturn is so dim and so low that it wouldn't be likely to support high-resolution just yet.
The seeing was quite acceptable given the low altitude, reminds me why I love imaging in the early mornings. It was almost a non-event, as clouds greeted me when I first went outside at 4:40am. I waited them out until about 5:10am when I was just starting to pack up, when they finally started clearing. I captured 1 complete run, and then packed up as it was time to get ready for work. Clouds came back shortly after, so I was lucky to get any image at all.
With the rings closing up this year, it's really going to be a challenge to capture any ring detail like the Cassini Division - and it's much fainter than normal too.
12" Newt on EQ6, with DMK21AU04 + 2x barlow. 15fps for 1 minute per channel. ~85 frames stacked in each channel.
Quite happy with the outcome for the first of the season. Hopefully more to come in the following days and weeks.