Finally Bagged Saturn

[Hitchhiker]

After getting up early several mornings and seeing nothing but clouds I finally got some clear skies for Saturn.

Started my run a little late - I was getting a little pushed for time as the sky in the east started to lighten. Moderately good seeing. Forgot to record settings as I was just a little bit too excited to be finally imaging Saturn.:doh:

Comments are most welcome - my image processing is still pretty weak though I've come a long way with the help of everyone on this forum.

[[1ponders]]

Good to see you managed to bag it finally :P Will you upload a jpeg of the image rather than a bmp to reduce the kb size (max size 100 kb). There are still quite a number of members on dial up.

:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

There is definately some fine detail in there. Do you remember what size alignment box you used in Registax and what part of Saturn did you use for the alignment?

[davidpretorius]

you are getting similiar colour that i am getting at the moment. i hope to have another go tonight

how much was your heart beating whilst imaging and the sun was coming up. it is a real rush!!!

first saturn to boot, well done!!!

[RB]

Yes some good detail there Adam.
Well done for the 1st one.


:thumbsup:

[Hitchhiker]

OOps! Replaced Bitmap with Jpeg.

[1ponders]I used a 256x256 alignment box which fit the whole of Saturn in. I think I read in a tutorial somewhere that you could do that and that is what I did for Mars. Should I only use a smaller part of Saturn to register on?

DP - Saturn is the one I have really wanted to get. Seeing Saturn in the eyepiece of a crummy telescope as a kid is what started me on this lifelong obsession. I will never grow tired of seeing Saturn in the eyepiece (or on the laptop screen).

[matt]

Well done Adam.

As 1ponders says, you caught a bit of detail.

Hold on to the original best frames so you can have another go at them when your processing improves. They're handy to come back to when he have a repeat of the recent 40 days and 40 nights of rain and cloud!:lol:

Don't worry about your processing skills. They're probably better than mine and we'll both get better the more questions we ask and the more we practice.

Onya buddy

[Robert_T]

Hi Adam, I know the feeling well - had the same rush racing the sunrise a couple mornings this week and it's hard to keep track of everything. It's great to see the rings appearing on the PC and like you Saturn through a crappy 50mm refractor - more years ago than I care to remember :P - was what got me started too.

It looks to me that the red and blue colour channels are misaligned and that's creating the fringing and hiding some detail in your shot. Hope you don't mind - I had a go at trying to align these better on your image in Astra Image 2 (no doubt this would be easier in something like photshop) and it did seem to help. Result posted here - does at least seem to reduce the fringing.

Do you capture avis with your LPI and process in registax or are you using the meade capture software. If you use registax theres a button in the final processing that will align the colour channels for you.

Anyway, congrats on bagging one of the big ones!

[[1ponders]]

As Robert has just said try the RGB realign in Registax and see how that goes. If not (and I still work by "hit and miss" and "trial and error") try saving each individual bmp and then opening them in registax and processing it theres.

Actually before I go on, how/what are you capturing (capture combine or capture and save each bmp)? What are you using to process? And do you have K3CCDTools Version 1 (Its free you just need to download a new key every couple of months. Unless you buy it of course, then buy Version 2 and you get Version 1 thrown in)

[rumples riot]

Adam, well done on your shot.

Couple of things you might like to check. It seems to me your collimation might be a little out. The general blurring can be an indication of this. The LX200 are good scopes but they need collimation often. You will find that a very minute turn will improve it by a large percentage. Try also to have your gain a little higher also. This will give more detail and if you get around 3000 frames and stack 2000, your image will be very smooth and have good brightness.

Finally, be mindful of cool down times. I have used this type of scope extensively and found that they can take many hours to cool down. This can also cause blurring of your images if not properly cooled down. I would suggest an SCT cooler as a good piece of equipment to purchase.

Anyway, keep em coming. I hope to see some good stuff from you.

Paul

[iceman]

Great stuff Adam, well done. I'd like to have a go at your avi, if you wouldn't mind sending it to me? I think you could get a bit more detail out of that.

Excellent shot.

[ving]

good stuff adam... I havent seen saturn this time around yet, not a morning person. :)

[Hitchhiker]

Thanks, everyone, for all your comments.

Rumples: I've been working on my collimation for the last few weeks - I'm nowhere near where I would like to be but I'm moving in the right direction. It's amazing how much of a difference collimation makes (I know everyone says that). I spent some time collimating and then thought I would have a look at the moon even though the seeing was bad - the difference was really striking even with poor seeing! The detail is just so much sharper, so it is something I'm going to put more effort into. I'm wondering also if the general blurring in my image is caused by using a very old, low quality 2X barlow? I had this barlow in my astro 'toolkit' - I will replace it with something better next year (after I've paid off all the other gear I've bought) :P

I will also get an SCT cooler when the bank balance is looking a bit healthier.

iceman: I'd be ecstatic if you would process my images. I have PMed you.

All: I'm using the Meade Autostar Envisage software to capture images - I usually save as .bmp but this morning I captured as .tif files because I wanted to make sure I got more than 8 bits of image data. I save all images - I don't let Envisage do any combining though it happily volunteers to do it for me. I use Registax to stack all images - I didn't actually use the RGB shift on these images, though I used it all the time for Mars - when I have looked at my images I now notice the blue and red fringes so I will use it.

A question to all planetary imagers - how do you focus? I use a Hartmann mask and that is not too bad if the seeing is good, but I'm wondering if I'm getting 'perfect' focus. I've read about using brightness values when focussing on a star - when the value gets to a maximum you are critically focussed. I've heard about using FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) and I suppose there is always just twiddling the knob - but what method are you using Rumples, Robert_T, bird and others - your images always seem to perfectly in focus.

Thanks again for all the support - I really appreciate it.

:prey2:

[[1ponders]]

Adam do you focus on a star lock the mirror and then slew to the planet or try to focus on the planet itself with the hartmann mask? May be have a read of this "How To"
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,187,0,0,1,0

[ballaratdragons]

Adam, I gave your Saturn a go. Hope you don't mind.

This is the best I can get it. Reprocessed in Photoshop. I think I lost some of the cloud band in the process.

[rumples riot]

Adam, I tend to stand back a couple of feet from the screen and focus on the planet. Going back and forth through focus until I think I have it right. Then I do a quick AVI and run it through registax and do a bit of wavelets. This will tell me for certain how good my focus is. When I first started planetary imaging I did use a hartman mask, but now know what I am looking for in terms of focus. So looking at the screen works best for me.

More practice will afford you the ability to focus by looking at the screen and searching for the detail as it drifts in and out of focus.

[Robert_T]

like rumples I focus using the image on the screen, but this is not through any experience with Hartmann masks etc, I've just been too slack to make one up and try it:P . I try and pick the most contrast rich transition on whatever I'm imaging - say the shadow of Saturn's globe on the rings and move backwards and forwards slowly trying to get a glimpse of the best focus on that spot when seeing snaps in place (so I know what I'm aiming for) then start at one side of that and using the electronic focusser (these are absolutely fantastic) nudge a step, wait, nudge again wait etc until I think I've passed the peak focus and then nudge back one. I also tend to "bracket" on focus taking an avi and then nudging focus either side and taking avi's that way I've a better chance of nailing a good one - requires a bit more disk space and post-processing time of course but worth it for a focus slacker like me:nerd:

cheers,

[Hitchhiker]

Yes, I used Regulus yesterday morning to focus on, locked the mirror and slewed over to Saturn. I have only used the Hartmann mask so far in pretty poor seeing. Once I get the three triangles together the image is boiling all over the place and I expect to see diffraction spikes but I think turbulence washes them out. Yesterday, I probably had the best seeing I've had when planetary imaging - not that it was great - but I could see diffraction spikes. Also, as I moved my focusser the star image seemed to get brighter. I've read elsewhere about lining up diffraction spikes or getting the diffraction spikes to a maximum length. Like everything it's probably all seeing related - the better the seeing the better your focussing and imaging.

Thanks for the advice Robert_T and Rumples - it really helps to find out what others are doing and where I can get with time and effort and good advice. Incidentally I have the Meade electric focusser.

Ken, I'm happy for you to play with my image. :)

[asimov]

Nice capture there Adam.:thumbsup: It's even more special 'cos it's your first! Well done!

[[1ponders]]

Adam if you're not seeing the diffraction well try upping the gain and brightness until they are readily viewable. Then when you move back to saturn drop your gain back down again.

[iceman]

Hi Adam.

Here's my effort at your Saturn avi..

I couldn't do any better than your effort, except for maybe the colour. I'm not sure what causes it, but after stacking the images, any heavy wavelets resulted in the big ring around the globe. I'm not sure if it's due to underexposure, not enough saturation or something else.

Your focus looks good, but obviously the white balance was off.

Have you tried using k3ccdtools to capture? It should give you a bit more control than Envisage.

The red channel of the image is fine (without that artifact), but the green and blue are horrible. Not sure if it's the result of a filter or something else in the LPI?

Oh and my processing involved:
- Registax
- Levels, Colour Balance and Saturation adjustment in Photoshop

Anyway sorry I couldn't do any better. Will have a go at your Mars shortly.