Mar and Saturn in good to excellent seeing (Now with better Mars)

[Paul Haese]

Last night couple of the guys came down to do some DSO imaging at Clayton and I was in two minds as to whether I should do some DSO imaging or planetary. I decided I would wait until dark and just test the seeing before making up my mind. The predictors had all seemed to indicate that seeing would not be that great, so I decided that a wait and see approach was going to work best.

At around 9pm after cooling the C14 I slewed to Sirius and what I saw shocked me. The seeing was that good that I saw solid diffraction rings from a solid star that was Sirius. I could detect little if any movement and I called out to the guys to come and take a look, first through the diagonal then straight through via cranning ones neck; all at around 488x The straight through view was spectacular and I wondered what the night would hold. Mars was still too low and Saturn had not even risen.

When Mars did rise high enough we were treated to a lovely visual of Syrtis Major and the pole and tine little dark regions near the pole. I quickly setup to capture some data after waiting a short while from the first viewing. Mars was still being blocked by the slide of roof of the observatory and the light from Mars was only hitting half the mirror. There was some wind and this was making Mars wobble a little, not bad seeing but not like I had seen a while ago higher up in the sky. Overall seeing on Mars never got much better than 7/10. However it is very low still and I was happy with this result (http://paulhaese.net/Mars17March20121249UT.html).

Saturn on the other hand climbed higher out of the soup and presented a real show. Visually the live feed was still but the scope was being buffeted by wind. There are storms present in the NEB and there is a dark spot on the border of the NEB and where the Dragon storm was last year. In the red channel you can see the octagon shape belt at the pole. This was a nice night of quality seeing. Click here (http://paulhaese.net/Saturn17March20121530UT.html)for the Saturn image at the site.

Edit, this is the last run on Mars for the night. It turned out to be better than expected. Click here (http://paulhaese.net/Mars17March20121322UT.html)for image

[jjjnettie]

Such fine definition of the rings is sublime!
It must have been a beautiful night. :)

[Quark]

Congrats Paul on this most successful session, Mars is quite nice but Saturn is outstanding, a fine result indeed. Super resolution that maybe, could only be improved by slightly reducing the overall capture time to 6 mins, which I think in seeing like this, would define even better the storm remnant & NEB cloud structure.

Superb work.
Regards
Trevor

[allan gould]

Love those images Paul. Really clear imaging conditions have lead to great photos. Well done

[batema]

They are outstanding.

[kinetic]

Paul,

incredible...quite possibly the most impressive amateur Saturn image I have ever seen. Processing is flawless!

Steve

[DJ N]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the awesome night!! Absolute highlight of the night was the peek at Mars in your C14......mesmerising:eyepop:.

Love the images!!


Cheers,

Danny

[Paul Haese]

thanks guys for the comments, all very much appreciated.

JJJ it was a very nice night but a little windy at times. Those are the breaks though.

Trev I take your point and will reduce timing to reduce blurring. :thumbsup: I have been imaging at 6.5 minutes but could reduce the red time to make up for the blue time.

Steve, while I thank you for the wonderful comment I reckon Trevs image last week was better, or Damians for the last 10 years is worlds beyond mine. If you have not looked at those I encourage you to do so. Trevs is spectacular and Damians images are ones to aspire toward.

Danny you are always welcome. I hope you came away from the night with some nice data to process, but I think the tops of the night was splitting Antares and the companion and seeing the greenish glow of the companion in the diffraction rings of Antares. Or maybe seeing Sirius like I described. Or better still sharing it with my mates.:thumbsup:

[von Tom]

Congratulations on your Mars and Saturn Paul. Amazing.

Tom

[SkyViking]

Fantastic images Paul, they have a very impressive natural look and the detail is outstanding. Excellent work as usual, thanks for the view.

[h0ughy]

wow - very impressive Paul and i love the colours and detail. I wish i could get to the level you are at with this one fine day. i certainly appreciate the processing you have done

[strongmanmike]

Great results Paul...a rather successful fishing expedition :thumbsup:

I like the feeling you have achieved with Mars

Mike

[iceman]

Beautiful results, Paul. Saturn is stunning!

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Paul - super! Thanks for the great job!

[DavidU]

Wow ! Very nice Paul. Crisp as.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys, all comments appreciated.

Mike it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Looking forward to good seeing like this when Jupiter comes back this year.

[astronobob]

They are magic Paul, Really dig the colours that define the banding & details on the Saturnian body especially, betterer than Casinni images :thumbsup: Top Show !

[Shiraz]

very nice result Paul - spectacular. We're going to need such good seeing for the next Jupiter - I don't think it will get above 34 degrees altitude down this way. Regards Ray

[Paul Haese]

thanks Bob, but I think Cassini images are just within another class of their own.:)




Yes this in itself will be a test of Clayton. Can that site produce great seeing on Jupiter? I suspect it will be problematic as Mars was wobbling around and flickering at 45 degrees in good seeing. Thing is to make the best of these planets.

[Quark]

Trev I take your point and will reduce timing to reduce blurring. :thumbsup: I have been imaging at 6.5 minutes but could reduce the red time to make up for the blue time.

Just had another thought Paul, you could use the new derotate function in WinJUPOS to create new versions of your 3 channels that are derotated to mid point of the G channel or maybe even just derotate to the mid point of each channel, which would still effectively be well within 6 mins overall.

Regards
Trevor

[John K]

Awesome images Paul. Love the belts on Saturn.

p.s. good seeing but be on it's ways East to Victoria then! Lets see.

[Paul Haese]

That's a thought Trev. I will take a look in the next few days.

John, yes most likely, although I have it on good authority that the east coast just loves rain and clouds.:P Have you seen blue sky recently?

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

These are just gorgeous! The wonderful detail and controlled processing really makes them look so natural, just as if I was peering out of my spaceship porthole. Love the moons of Saturn – really quite a special view.

Thanks for these amazing views!

Cheers

Dennis

[Rigel003]

Terrific images, as expected. Nice to be there at the inception of these babies. Thanks for the great night.

[John Hothersall]

Missed a day here and its all gone crazy with this image of Saturn, surface starting to look like Jupiter - very busy indeed, don't think this standard will be surpassed. Seeing rings round stars normally means madness which I will take over permanent Bris cloud anytime.

John.

[asimov]

Nice work Paul!

[pgc hunter]

That Saturn is a beauty. Reminds me of Hubble. Awesome stuff :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the lovely comments. Can I just say that seeing makes great images. I am merely just the passenger that delivers the image.

Graeme it was a lovely night and I look forward to both you and Danny sharing your images in that seeing.

John, not sure about it not being surpassed. Better seeing would give better resolution. I do think though the boys with the larger scopes will give better results in great seeing. The beauty of it though is that we are now resolving some of the storms on the surface and that was not happening 3-4 years ago. It is becoming common place. It's good for science because we can contribute and there are plenty of us now.

Dennis that is my aim always, so the image is like looking out a porthole at the planet from orbit. I'll bet most other guys are the same.

[Paul Haese]

I've added a better Mars image that was in the pack. Please see the first post for the image.

[Quark]

That is really quite a beautiful image Paul, absolute top shelf quality.

Regards
Trevor

[ballaratdragons]

They are really really well done Paul. About time you got some top seeing.
Makes all the effort worthwhile.

That last Mars image is excellent :)

[Deeno]

Amazing images!

[lacad01]

Wow, such clear detail, super shots :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Satchmo]

Paul- Can you explain the dark ring encircling inside of the edge of the planet and passing through the larger of the polar caps on the latest Mars image ?

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys.

Ken it has nearly been a year since I have seen great seeing.

Mark this is a common defect on Mars images. I think what is happening is frames that are a little warped are being included in the stack and this leads to this dreaded line. In good seeing conditions it is less dominant that in poorer conditions. I have been trying to eliminate the problem with a mask and doing a blur; this has been effective but the line is still present. In the next apparition I fully expect that the increased elevation will help to eliminate the problem altogether. Time will tell though.

[dj gravelrash]

beautiful shots

[Poita]

Wow, that Saturn is impressive.
I'd love to see a shorter stack to see if there is any more cloud detail there to be had.

[lepton3]

OK, I don't think I have ever seen the hexagonal polar formation on an amateur image before. That red channel is stunning.

-Ivan

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys.

Ivan it was a real treat. I still have some data I need to process to make an animation, so I might do one to see the hexagon moving around.

[kinetic]

well, Paul, I don't care what you reckon, I think the processing you use
makes it, for me, one of the most visually impressive Saturn pics
by an amateur I have seen:P:thumbsup:
Taking nothing away from Trev either, his stuff is always stunning!
You blokes continue to inspire and amaze me with your abilities.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Steve, all things being equal if the seeing is good I can usually produce a good image. Hours of processing and capture have honed the skill I possess. Quite an honor you have bestowed upon me. :)