Titan shadow transit 29th April 2009

[Quark]

Hi All,

Just coming to terms with my Peltier cooler, think I have just about sorted it out. The seeing tonight in Broken Hill was very good, 8+/10.
Have captured 18 avi's for 6 RGB images.

This is one of the best.
All "R and G" channels were 45 second captures at 1/27th sec exposure
frame rate was 30 fps
Gain 1000
Histogram 200
All "B" channel avi's were 45 second captures at 1/19th sec exposure
frame rate was 30 fps
Gain 1023
Histogram 150
Gamma for all avi's was 140
Brightness for all avi's was 50

The data was so good for this RGB that with Registax V5 set at 95% the R and G avi's stacked over 500 of the 620 available frames for those channels.

I hope to be able to post a nice animation of the final couple of hours of this event, however it will take me a few days to finish processing.

Thanks for looking
Regards
Trevor

[Dennis]

A beautiful image Trevor. I had to work quite hard before Tethys popped out of the background, so thanks for the labels!

I don’t envy you the days ahead of avi processing to make the animation, but I am most certainly looking forward to seeing it!

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

Beautiful image, Trevor. Very sharp and clean.

Lovely work.

[Paul Haese]

Nice Trevor. You got the better end of the seeing mate. And yours is brighter to boot. I reckon it must be those 2 extra inches plus that smaller obstruction. Saturn is so hard to image now. I went down to 3.7 fps just for a laugh and it was like watching paint dry. Only 900 frames each on a run.

I love the colour you got on Titan, more golden than I got, but it was easy to see it on screen.

Nice work.

[Quark]

Thanks Paul, yes the seeing was pretty good but it really was amazing how quickly the image cleaned up when I turned off the fans after the mirror temp stabilized at .5 C below ambient.

As you say the extra light gathering area really helps, especially with Saturn being so dim this apparition.

With my rig it really does seem that the mirror temp is critical.

It seems that the seeing is probably the most significant factor, along with working out how best to use the active cooling. I must say that I am stoked with this result.



Thanks Mike, I really have appreciated the tips you have given me over this last 12 months regarding image processing. This is certainly my best effort to date.



Thanks Dennis, this time around I captured R, G & B avi's at 20 minute intervals instead of 10 minute intervals to reduce the time spent processing. As you know, unless you have done it, it is hard to comprehend the time involved for what seems to be such relatively short animations. I suppose a colour CCD would cut it by a third but I like the resolution of the DMK.

[Lester]

Another very nice image of Saturn and Titan with transit, I like the colour and detail.

Good on ya Trevor.

[Kevnool]

Great image of Saturn Trev.
Colours are outstanding.
Cheers Kev.

[Quark]

Thanks Kev, I think I just about have my Saturn capture routine down pat.



Thanks Lester, I have done a lot of trial and error to come up with the right histogram levels for Saturn, such that the colour balance needs very little work in post processing. At least to end up with the colours that I think look right.

[bird]

Another great result Trevor, I was away for the last few days and didn't catch this thread until now - well done.

cheers, Bird