Saturn 11/01/05

[iceman]

Hey guys.

I got the laptop again yesterday, and have it for the next 5 weeks! I can see many cloudy or sleepless nights coming!

I set my alarm for 3:30am to get up and image Jupiter and Saturn, but knowing how the astronomy gods hate me, I tricked them and got up at 2am instead when my daughter woke me up.

It was clear and cold, apart from a few drifting clouds which didn't bother things too much. Seeing was average to ok. My tricking of the astronomy gods worked, because at 5am when I went to work, the sky was full of clouds :clap: :D

I took about 6 avi's of Saturn before it went too far West behind some big gum trees and had to give up on it. I then turned my attention to Jupiter and have yet to process those avi's.

Here's my mornings processing effort of the Saturn avi's..

My technique was pretty much the same as the last times.. I am getting better and quicker at getting the settings right, focusing, aligning the planet to drift through the FOV (remember this is with a dob! No tracking!). Not so much frustration today, I wish the seeing was better, that's all.

I used my 10" dob @ f/10 (focal length 2500mm (2x barlow) ). I got about 500 frames in total with the videos combined. I removed some obviously dud frames (due to bad seeing, dust donuts) in Virtual Dub before processing in registax.

I tried various combinations of alignment features, number of frames stacked and wavelet settings.. I couldn't make up my mind which one I like best, so I need your help :)

The main cloud belt is visible, as is the Cassini, but unfortunately due to bad seeing or scope shaking, my cassini has an unfortunate deviation like a couple of my previous versions last month. :(

Here's a composite of the 9 processed versions - the last one has been resampled at 1.3x using the Mitchell method. The number below each image is the number of frames stacked.

Appreciate any advice, suggestions, or which image you think should be kept while the rest get thrown away :D

[rumples riot]

Getting Better Mike. Image 9 looks pretty good albeit it a little blurred. I think I am going to give up on Saturn as even on nights of good seeing, it is still too low to get good images. However, you are doing great stuff with your equipment. Keep it up.

[ving]

i was thinking 2 or 3... or 9 lightened a bit?

good stuff though :)

[[1ponders]]

3 or 4 for me. Good shot for no post Registax processing. Maybe try some level adjustments in PS to balance out the colour distribution and intensity.

I hope you don't mind but I had a bit of a play with it in PS with levels etc (all of about 2 minutes). Wasn't able to get all the orange out of the rings, but imho I think four looks clearer. Opinions :)

[Striker]

Image no 10...does it for me.....sorry...had to say it....lol..

[gbeal]

Ice,
given the limitations of your equipment (and I mean that in the nicest sense) I reckon they are all good.
The biggest killer is the seeing, and I too had the same snag with Saturn around midnight last night, when I finished a bit of deepsky. It is a one in ten, or less chance of getting good to better seeing, so image everynight you can, and biff anything that isn't up to snuff. Eventually it will happen.
Gary

[iceman]

Thanks for the comments Gary and everyone.

You are right Gary, seeing is really the killer at the moment.. i'm getting to the stage now where I will throw anything out that wasn't better than my last attempt.. no point going backwards :)

I don't think i'm reaching the limit of what I can pull out with my equipment just yet - with better seeing and slightly better focus, and more frames, I know I'll eventually get a crisp sharp Saturn - something i'm yet to achieve.

But that's what keeps you trying every night, getting up at 2 or 3am and getting 3-4 hours sleep before work the next day!! Trying to get that darn perfect image! It's a neverending pursuit..

[Mick]

There yours Ice thats the best thing, very nice.

[gbeal]

Indeed the seeing is the biggest bugbear.
I have just finished processing (and posting) the M42, and M46 images, as well as the three avi's of Saturn.
Saturn was rubbish, and has already been deleted. To be fair I could not even make out the Cassini Division, so what can I expect.
Gary

[rumples riot]

I see keep pluggin along Mike. I know that a dob is an impediment, but I always say never say never. Rules are meant to be broken. But I think in the end and it might be a couple of years down the track, you will eventually wear tired of the dob. Until then keep going and I hope you do it. It would be one for the books.

[Robby]

Very nice Ice.
Image 4 does it for me... I guess I can only echo the comments re. seeing. I was all setup to do Saturn last night, but canned it after I noticed the poor seeing.
I reckon you should be able to see the cassini division on the screen (even if it comes & goes) before imaging.
But this happens very rarely, so it's always good to practice when the seeing is not so good. And you never know you might get lucky with a random 2-3mins of steady seeing!! It happens!