Saturn 5th May

[Quark]

Hi All,

Imaged Saturn last night over a 95 minute period.
My aim was to image the second longest lived storm recorded on Saturn.
The storm is in the STrZ and was to be in the region of the Central Meridian at 13:00 UTC.

Was setup early and captured four RGB's from 11:20 UTC to 12:55 UTC.
I have posted the four RGB images plus an animation of those images.

Image 1
Was captured in very good seeing 7 to 8 /10
There is a cloud structure highlighted in the SEBZ

Image 2
Still very good seeing 7 to 8 / 10
The structure in the SEBZ is still visible and the storm I set out to image is entering stage right in the STrZ.

Image 3
Murphy has a lot to answer for, high level cirrus started wafting through which reduced my signal, although the image still looked good but dimmer due to the filtering affect of the cloud.

Image 4
With a much thicker region of cloud about to encroach on Saturn, this was my last RGB. With less signal this is the grainiest of the four but the storm in the STrZ is visible.


The animation of the above four images highlights the movement of the storm in the STrZ. The feature in the SEBZ is harder to pick as it is only in the first two frames before it is lost in the East and the first two frames were 40 minutes apart.

With the quality of data I am getting now it is time to start looking for more magnification. I think I might start saving up for a 4x Powermate.

Thanks for looking
Regards
Trevor

[Lester]

Top quality set of images there Trevor.

If you magnify the image more with a 4x powermate, will you still have enough light for a reasonable fps capture?

[peter_4059]

A nice set of images Trevor. A bit difficult to see the details you are referring to on this image scale. I'm looking forward to seeing the 4x images.

It looks like the ring plane is opening up again?

Peter

[Quark]

Thanks Peter, that storm in the STrZ is now the second longest lived storm ever recorded on Saturn, I am use to tracking down very fine storm structure on Saturn, I have been involved in this for over 12 months now and often find it difficult to understand why others find it hard to pick out relatively bright features. That said I don't bother posting my images at all when the detail is too difficult to eek out.

The image scale of these images is from a 16" F4.5 Newt working at F13.5.

The 4x images will have to wait until I can afford a 4x Powermate.

For these images the ring plane, relative to Earth was open a tad over 4 degrees but will be edge on in September



Thanks Lester, starting with a 16" F4.5 system means that 3x 4x or even 5x will be obtainable still with quite respectable frame rates and exposure.

I currently use 3x and for Saturn my R and G channels easily fill my histogram out to 200 at 30fps with 1/27th sec exposure. Going to 4x I would expect to still run at 30 fps with an exposure of maybe 1/23 or 1/19 sec

[bird]

Well done Trevor, another fine set of images.

cheers, Bird

[iceman]

Nice images, Trevor. More good data from you.

You can't go less than 1/30s exp at 30fps. If you do, it drops your fps to 15fps.

With cameras like Anthony's, you can go 1/exp, so if you want 1/20s exp, it'll do 20fps.
But the DMK is limited to 15fps or 30fps, and if you want an exposure in-between, you have to pick the slower frame rate.

[Quark]

Thanks Mike, I wasn't aware of the frame rate restriction with the DMK. I have always left it set on 30 fps. This means that all of my Saturn work for this apparition has been at 15fps as I have been using exposures of 1/27 sec for the R & G channels and 1/19 sec for the B channel.

Obviously for Jupiter this is not a problem, it is so much brighter. When the rings of Saturn open up again then 30fps will be obtainable for me as I will be able to go to 1/30 sec exposure, that is based on my capture settings from last year. Thanks again for the info, it is nice to have a better understanding of my equipment, it will help me produce better results.



Thanks Bird, I thought your image was a real rip snorter.

[alphajuno]

I've noticed with the DMK that you can get a slightly higher frame rate for 1/27 at the 1/60 setting than the 1/30 or 1/15 settings. The pattern is if there is a setting that's a little more than twice your exposure time, then you may have a few more frames than picking the lower setting. You don't want to pick the slightly higher setting than your exposure time because that gives the least number of frames (in my experience).