Saturn in good seeing - April3 UT

[Shiraz]

Hi

There was a hole in the high altitude winds, so the fine detail was back at last - local seeing was also fairly stable. This was the best seeing since first light with this scope over a year ago and the first chance to give it a real test. It was a pleasure to see fine detail on the feeds and even the blue channel was fairly good at higher altitudes - still some minor seeing induced stacking artefacts, but nothing too bad. Also got some Mars imagery, but haven't had time to process yet - will require more effort than Saturn, since seeing below 45 degrees altitude was not as good.

thanks for looking. Regards Ray

[lepton3]

Ray, a fantastic image. I was observing as well, and noted the seeing was above par, and am glad you were able to take advantage of it.

Very nice processing, and a nice image scale.

-Ivan

[von Tom]

That is excellent Ray!

Tom

[Clayton]

That is downright beautiful Ray :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
I was out with the eyeball thinking that I was probably missing something nice :(
Fantastic detail and colour :)

[Lester]

That is an outstanding crisp image Ray. Thanks for the view.

All the best.

[DavidU]

Wow, what a corker ! Nice work Ray.:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

sighs.....so beautiful

[strongmanmike]

WOW :eyepop: you must be happy with that one :thumbsup:

Mike

[Shiraz]

thanks very much Ivan - nice to have some good seeing


thank you Tom


thanks Rob - really pleased to get a good 'un


hi Lester - thank you


thanks a lot Dave


thanks Jeanette - agree, the planets are just stunningly beautiful.


thanks Mike - happy? sure am - occasional compensation for all the nights with no result


regards Ray

[Paul Haese]

Nice Ray. The seeing at home was not that good.

[cybereye]

Sh... oops, must watch my language... gosh that's bloody good!!!

Now that is an image to aspire to!

Cheers,
Mario

[SkyViking]

Wow what an incredible image, it looks exeptionally natural and very delicate with that wispy transparent C ring. Great processing for sure! Thanks for the view.

[asimov]

Yep, copped some nice seeing there Ray, & superbly processed as usual!

[Shiraz]

Thanks Paul

Thanks Mario - profanity appreciated.

thanks Rolf. I think the bright feature in the crepe ring is visible - haven't been able to image that before.

thanks Asi - seems that the altitude helps a lot as well in some conditions, Mars data from lower down was pretty ordinary.

regards ray

[iceman]

Beautiful! Love the crepe ring.

[StephenM]

Amazing detail Ray! Well done.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Quark]

Strewth Ray, what a bottler of an image, a superb job. Have had very little sleep over the last 48 hrs, been imaging through to 3:30 both days and still processing. Just getting up to date with these threads and what a pleasure to see an image of this quality.

Regards
Trevor

[Shiraz]

thanks Mike - yes the C ring was quite visible on the feeds as well.

thank you Stephen.

thanks Trevor. was hoping you were making good use of the conditions. It was real thrill to get some good seeing down this way.

regards ray

[prokyon]

Simply brilliant!!! :eyepop:

Werner

[Shiraz]

thanks very much Werner.

finally got time for Mars processing - best attached. Low altitude of Mars down this neck of the woods had a significant effect on seeing

regards Ray

[asimov]

Nice, Ray. I don't know any planet imager further north than me, so I suspect I've got it fairly good for Mars?...52 degrees maximum alt. for me here right now..

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Ray a stunning Saturn - top stuff!

[Shiraz]

thanks John. You have certainly "made hay while the sun shone" this Mars season and it looks like being further north is an advantage. Altitude has been particularly important down here during the warmer months - watching Saturn rise up through the murk is instructive and its has been pretty useless below about 50 degrees. have imaged successfully in past down as far as 21deg, but clear conditions that low seem to be more likely in colder weather.
maybe will have to move to Darwin for the next Jupiter season...its going to be a cruel 34 deg max altitude down here.
There has also been a pretty sharp cutoff in seeing when the 200hPa winds get above about 45kts - it's not necessarily good if winds are lighter, but is pretty much guaranteed bad if they are above.

thanks very much Matt - good to see you back.

regards ray

[Clayton]

Thats a nice effort with Mars as well Ray :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

thanks Rob. pretty hard target eh? regards Ray