Saturn - Morning of the 18th

[Chrissyo]

I think this is one of my better Saturn sessions. I went out to get a nice global shot of the moon, but found the pull of the ringed planet to strong! I also had an experiment to see if less magnification would result in a better shot. Let me explain the 4 different shots:

Top Left: The best shot I pulled from photoshop after playing with the curves and levels.
Bottom Left: The Top Left shot scaled down slightly for better quality.
Top Right: The magnification vs quality test I did. Seems there is no change in quality. Can anyone verify with similar tests?
Bottom Right: Saturn fresh from Registax (ie. the original shot).

As always, these were taken with my 10" non-motorised Dobsonian and videocamera held with homemade camera bracket.

Enjoy!

[Dennis]

Hi Chrissyo

Those Saturn's are a great bunch of images - well done!

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Very nice Chrissyo, I like top left the best. Well done.

[Robert_T]

great stuff Chrissyo :)


i like the bottom ones best

[davidpretorius]

these are very good, i hate the colour i am getting at the moment with rae mode on the toucam.

i will try and emulate tonight what you have achieved

well done

[[1ponders]]

I love it when people start to push the envelope. You should be damn happy with those Chris. Great stuff.

[iceman]

That's awesome, well done. Bottom left is my favourite.

[rumples riot]

Nice stuff Chrissyo, good to see you back.

[ballaratdragons]

Well done Chrissyo! That Video Camera of yours certainly gets a work out!

I like top left. Grab it and add some brightness in PhotShop and see how it comes out. If it looks too washed out play with the Contrast.

[ballaratdragons]

Chrissyo, may I have a play with the pic for you?

[Chrissyo]

Sure thing! Go for it :) I'm currently having a play around with the settings in Registax to see if I can make it nicer. Half the fun is processing :nerd:

[ballaratdragons]

Here you go Chrissyo. 15 seconds all up. I pasted your pic into Photoshop, Brought the Brightness up to +47 and the Contrast up to +23.

I have not touched the colour balance as I din't think it needs it. There are a few other tricks I could try to clear it up but I will let you play with it first.

Great pics!!! Well done.

[Chrissyo]

Well, I finished reprocessing in Registax and I got a result that I think is nicer than my previous shots. So, I decided to see just what kinda variety I can pull out of photoshop, so I just spent a lot of time playing around with everything! Tell me what you think of my results (the centre pic is obviously the original one). I think my favourites are the top row, and the bottom right hand one.

[ballaratdragons]

WOW!!!! Now that's colourful! LOL!
The one in the bottom right is probably the best.

I had another play with the bottom left pic in your original group. I cleaned it up a bit and played with the colour balance and got it to this stage. I think the Cassini Division is clearer now and the banding on the planet may be better!??!

If only the weather would clear up so I can take some pics and have a play with my own ones. Such is life :lol:

[Chrissyo]

Wow, yes, the cassini division IS heaps better! Its very clear and crisp on the top left side, a lot nicer than anything I've managed to do before! :) Anything specific you did to get it that crisp and clean? Or are you guarding your secrets? :P

[ballaratdragons]

No, I'm not keeping anything to myself! I have learnt heaps in here so I give back with anything I can. I may not know a lot about Registax (well practically nothing) but I can make things look a lot better in PhotoShop, so I share what knowledge I do know.

1. Enlarge image to 500%
2. Click on eyedropper and pick up background colour
3. Go to brush size 3
4. Carefully clean away blurred edge around planet with size 3 brush (I didn't do this with yours) and clean away blur from gap between rings and planet.
5. In 'Colour Balance' I slid the bottom slide up towards the 'Blue' to +10

That's all I did to yours. Hope that helps.

[Chrissyo]

Awesome! I'll give these a go with my next shot! Thanks for the help Ken! :)

[ballaratdragons]

There is already a good pic there to work with. It's just a matter of learning how to bring it out. As I found out recently with my Venus pic, a terrible pic can be hiding some fine detail. I managed to bring out the 5 Moons in Davo's pic of Saturn only a couple of days ago.

The detail is there, just go and find it. Happy hunting!!