Graduate - Saturn - SPC900NC - 10" Newt

[Logieberra]

Hey guys

Self endorsed graduation from the beginner's AP section. Yay :)

I prefer the 2nd pic, but it developed a strange 'line' in processing. Shame, as I can't seem to replicate these settings (they are pleasing to 'my' eyes...).

Skywatcher BD254 - 10" Newt
Powermate 5x
El' Cheapo IR filter (GSO? More of a CCD dust protector)
G11
Toying with Registax 5 & 6... and a mish-mash of indiscriminate settings... :shrug:

Logie

[michaellxv]

Congrats Logan.
Good details in both images although the second one helps bring them out more.

[asimov]

Hey that's nice work Logan! The first one is nice, due to the presence of the C ring & the colour balance is pretty close. Your next mission (if you choose to accept) is to lower the gamma to pop the highlights (storm etc) without losing the C ring..:D

[asimov]

BTW I've seen those lines before. Turned out to be on the AVI itself. The reason being, my HD was close to being 100% full at the time. I then 'lost' a heap of proggies & old AVI's to make room & I haven't seen those horizontal lines again. Could be the problem in your case, & it might not be..:shrug:

[DavidU]

Well done, very nice.

[Logieberra]

Thanks guys.

I have always loved Saturn :)

I vividly remember my first encounter with her:
· mid-1990's…
· using a 60mm refractor (TASCO I think) borrowed from my high school’s science program…
· rickety equatorial mount…
· not even close to polar alignment (what did that mean?)…
· a crisp / cold early morning in Canberra...
· she just sat there like a jewel in the sky, beautiful.

I’m so glad to have found this forum, the wealth of information out there, and people's willingness to help ‘new starters'!

I never would have dreamed of obtaining this sort of detail on a planet (still a ways to go our course).

And a big thanks to Chinese manufacturing! In the mid-1990's both Meade and Celestron were out of my league! I drooled over their annual reports / product catalogues. Thanks for keeping the market honest Mr Skywatcher & Co :)

Logie

[Logieberra]

John, can you please expand on this - I like detailed advice!!!

"... lower the gamma to pop the highlights (storm etc) without losing the C ring".

So keep adjusting gamma until I can just barely make out the 'C' ring?

And what about gain. People often say, 'don't be affraid of using too much gain'. Is this the case, should I go nuts with it? Max it out on the SPC900NC slide bar?

[asimov]

The best program I've found for adding or subtracting gamma is Astraimage 2.5MAX. Yes that's correct, lower the gamma but without losing too much brightness on the C ring. That will usually bring out the details better. Upping the highlight levels doesn't hurt either. There's a fine line between tweeking the gamma & keeping that C ring visible.

Gain: I use gain maxed out with the DBK but the 900nc is not quite as tolerable as the DBK. I'd probably take it to 80-85% though.

Because of the 6 min window, this will give you plenty of frames to stack to cancel out the grain/noise from such a high gain level at capture time; depending on the quality of the seeing of course.

[Quark]

Nice work Logan, I like your enthusiasm.

Look forward to following your progress.

Regards
Trevor