Saturn + Titan RGB image and animation

[matt]

Hi all.

Finally got around to creating a single (RGB) colour image of Saturn and Titan from the night of the transit, Feb 8/9... as well as the animation.

Pretty happy with the colour image. Not only are both planet and satellite captured, but if you look closely enough you can see Titan's shadow skimming the pole!!!

I initially dismissed the shadow as a processing artifact until I checked with SN...and there it was!!! Just grazing the limb. Apparently these are quite rare.

This image took a little work processing in Photoshop, using a layer mask to enhance Titan and to bring out more of the subtle features of the image.

The image scale is a little larger in the animation to make Titan a little more obvious.

Thanks for looking.

[iceman]

Fantastic work Matt, excellent animation and image.
I'd probably adjust the black point in some of the frames in the animation - on my laptop which shows things pretty bright, the background flickers quite a lot which is a bit distracting.

On most LCD's it probably looks great though.

Well done!

[gregbradley]

Great job Matt.

Greg.

[matt]

Thanks, guys.

Made a few adjustments...but to be honest, I'm flying blind because on my monitor I couldn't see any of the flickering Mike refers to.

Perhaps some of the backgrounds on a few of the frames showed variations due to selective gamma adjustment to bring Titan out?

[Lester]

Good capture of this rare event Matt.

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

You’ve done a great job in recording this event, under some quite ordinary conditions. Although LRGB planetary imaging is certainly more demanding in terms of capture and post capture processing, the benefits are clear to see compared to the one shot colour of the DBK.

Cheers

Dennis

[edwardsdj]

Awesome Matt :)

[firstlight]

Great RGB and animation, Matt.

[allan gould]

Really excellent, you must be pleased