MARS and SATURN - New Years Day B'Berg

[Robert_T]

Hi All, camping at my in-laws place west of Bundaberg over the new year and saw some fabulous skies - almost forgotten what a truly dark sky looks like. Between beers and bed I ran a few avis on the neximage and C9.25 (the LXD75 mount is a great travel mount for this scope BTW) on Mars and later Saturn. Seeing wasn't the best, but around 5-6/10 so can't complain. For the Saturn I was running a fair bit of gain (for me) ~40% so the image here is a stitch up of over 2000 frames from 3600 taken in two 180sec runs. I used 3x barlow and ext tube for Saturn as well as Mars, so Saturn appears very large (probably too large and I'll use the 2.5x powermate next time) - no resampling was used - saturn was only 25-30deg above the horizon so a fair bit of murk to get through.

Three nights and I could only manage an hour or so at the scope and even then got yelled at for being "unsociable" :P.:drink:

Comments welcome as always.

cheers,

[davidpretorius]

these look slightly over processed??

slight ring around mars and saturn looks like it has some straightish sides.

but gee, they are bloooody good!

great cassini division and the colours for saturn are "A1"

you are getting to the top league of extraordinary planet masters, so we now get to nit pick!!

[asimov]

Nit picker #2 here......Now lets see..:confuse3: I think those images are pure............................... .......................MAGNIFICENT! !

Please don't get ahead of us mere mortals too far Rob!...that's the good fellow!? :sad: Otherwize I'll have to send my mother to your place (she lives in Bargara) To pinch your corrector plate!! ;)

Nice work 'O planet MASTAAA!:)

[Robert_T]

oh no, my nits been picked, and asi's mum's gonna nick my corrector plate :scared:
phew, I'm back in Brisbane now so should be safe.

thanks for the comments guys, I've just gone out to the scope and found a seven foot carpet snake meandering underneath it (I have severe snakaphobia) and so my brief flirtation with planetary mastery is at and end ;) ... I'm still too jittery to go out and bring the scope back inside .

cheers,

[h0ughy]

they are great Robert excellent

[matt]

Rob

Those are very nice images. I really enjoy seeing your work. It's great to see what someone with similar gear to mine is achieving, and frightening to see how far I've got to go!!!!
:scared:
And Asi ... that's some fine snake in the grass handiwork by yo' mama:lol: :lol:

[asimov]

I can't work out how you guys get such excellent banding!! Even when my Saturns have a complete CD I don't get banding like that..Might it have something to do with my 6" aperture as opposed to 9 inches plus like most guys on here that image?

[asimov]

And thanks mum for driving all the way to Brissy to plant that snake....your a champion!

[Robert_T]

DOn't know for sure Asi, it could be a lot due to aperture, I've been able to get more banding detail with the C9.25 compared with my 7 inch Mewlon - I've attached a 7in shot with good CD but little banding below. I haven't tried the 6in acro on Saturn before, but also suspect with the very subtle colouratio of Saturns banding that chromatic aberration on the acro is probably masking things a little too.:confuse3:

... did I mention too that snakes scare the #%@$ out of me:scared:

cheers matee,

[asimov]

Spiders 'do it for me' ! :scared:

Chromatic abberation...:confuse3: Interesting. I hope you do get a pic of Saturn this season using your achro just so we compare/discuss/ascertain/etc...:prey:

I was at a site the other night & spotted filters specially made for achro refractors. I'm not sure how they work or what they do exactly though. :confuse2:

As you know I was using my baader fring killer for awhile. I'm wondering if a UV/IR cut will do any good on the refractor as well.

[ving]

sweet pics :D

[Robert_T]

will see what we can do re the 6in Asi...

Don't think there's a hell of a lot of difference between the Baader Fringe Killer and their Ir/UV filter (I use the latter) according to the spectrums they publish. I have read on Cloudy Nights some people who have invested in what's called an Aries Chromocor (which I think is a more serious bit of hardware than a fileter) who rave about the results on 6 inch acros turning them into semi-apos etc etc... have a goodle around and see what you can find on that:)

cheers mate

[asimov]

Yeah I did that a few months ago re: the chromacorr....too expensive for my blood at the moment. :sad:

When I'm well enough I'll get the 12.5" newt back together & that should solve all my problems!!;)

Thanks Rob.

[Robert_T]

look forward to seeing that Asi, reckon with the skills you've developed on the 6 in when you get going with the 12.5in you'll be producing some pretty spectacular results I reckon :nerd: :)

[rumples riot]

Lovely images there Robert, Very good detail. The images look fine on my LCD. No ringing or other aberrations. Keep up the good work.