Saturn in poor conditions - dispersion corrector test

[Shiraz]

Hi
Have been waiting many weeks for some clear sky to test out an ASH dispersion corrector against the sinking Saturn. I had a little bit of calibration data from earlier testing and finally worked out an efficient procedure for aligning the thing on a Newtonian scope - and got a big enough hole in the clouds on the 26th to take a corrected LRGB sequence. Although there was not enough clear sky to take a before and after sequence, the corrector clearly made a big difference to the luminance data through the 60kt jetstream edge.

Posted the RGB stack and the LRGB stack. RG at 30Hz, B at 15Hz and L at 60Hz - 300mm Newtonian, 5x Powermate, TIS618 and Astronomik filters. Nothing wonderful as images go due to the jetstream, but the improvement with the dispersion corrected luminance is striking. At this low down, the luminance would normally be so smeared by dispersion that it would be unusable. This little gadget cost an arm and a leg - almost as much as my scope, but it works. now to get some good seeing and test it properly - should help with G and B on Jupiter as well.

edit: I have no relationship of any type with ASH

thanks for looking. regards Ray

[Nico13]

Not too bad at all Ray, looking forward to the images from good seeing conditions.

[Quark]

Well done Ray, sounds promising. Nice LRGB, there are always ways to improve what we do, reckon planetary imaging, in particular, really is in a continual state of R&D.

Regards
Trevor

[Shiraz]

thanks Ken - so am I



Agree Trevor - always something we can do to improve things. it really is quite surprising how much this field has changed, even in the past couple of years.

regards Ray