Saturn 6th April 2011

[Lester]

Hi all, got my first run at Saturn last night in calm dewy conditions. Some star twinkle up to 20 degrees. Saturn looked very steady through 5mm eyepiece. I used DFK and DMK with 2.5x barlow. I may have a retweek at these later. There are 3 (I think) satellites to the left of Saturn that are visible in the DMK image.

The first is DFK image.

[iceman]

Wow, that's incredibly sharp, Lester. That first image is great.

What's causing the banding though?

[von Tom]

Excellent, beautiful images Lester. The moons are Rhea (lower left), Dione (upper left) and Tethys (closest to planet)). And assuming the image was taken at around 13:00UT last night you also have captured Enceladus (magnitude 11.8, visible in the 1st picture top left close in to the planet, and in the 2nd picture if levels are pushed).

Tom

[Lester]

Thanks for your reply Mike. I am not sure what is causing the banding; with the DFK part of the screen background was brighter than the other 75%, with line verticle just to the left of Saturn. Someone may be able to help here.

[Lester]

Thanks Tom for the Satellite identification, and your comments.

[Shiraz]

Hi lester. Really fine images - Cassini all the way round, that's impressive. Regards Ray

[Quark]

Some really nice data there Lester definitely worth revisiting, both images are extremely bright on my screen maybe some gamma reduction and a curves adjustment would rein in the brightness and better reveal the wealth of detail in this most excellent data.

Well done and great to see you back into some planetary work.
Regards
Trevor

[Troy]

Nice images :thumbsup:

[Clayton]

Lovely shots Lester:thumbsup:
Fantastic detail in the rings.
Nice to see you get a break with conditions :)

[Lester]

Thanks for your comments, Ray, Trevor, Troy and Rob. It's been so long since I have processed a planetary image, that I need to do some more to get my processing recipe worked out.

All the best.

[Lester]

I have darkened the images a tad with curves, and think this is better.
DFK image
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Planetary%20images/ade47e71.jpg

DMK image
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/Planetary%20images/4b1ce929.jpg

[Lester]

Here is a repro of the DMK. Did a multi alignment in Registax and reduced the deconvolution in Astra image with the blue and green channels. Also helps to proces without a dull head.

[Quark]

Certainly getting there Lester, reckon your most definitely back and what a sweet data set to play with.

Cheers
Trevor

[Clayton]

Absolutely stunning Lester :eyepop:
Love them repro's :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

wow Lester that's looks great! Sharp as.

[michaellxv]

Looking very nice Lester.

[Lester]

Thanks for your comments everyone. All the best.

[iceman]

Those repro's hit the spot - nice one Lester!

[Lester]

Thanks Mike, I am usually a bit slow out of the blocks.

All the best.