[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi Everyone,

I was playing around with my thermonuclear DSLR (runs the chip at 35 deg when the ambient is 19 deg) on some objects last night and noticed via Stellarium that Saturn was up.

So, I got out my trusty DSLR televue powermate adaptor and screwed the front element onto the Canon's T ring, then used the excellent feature in Backyard EOS called Planetary which introduces another x5 zoom function. So, technically, I think this is an F125 shot???? Not sure.

Big pixels on the DSLR and pretty shoddy seeing mean that I didnt get many details and there was lots of noise, but I am quite happy that the image scale is quite good compared to the miniscule blip when framing on the DSLR without the TV barlow.....

So, here it is, my first Saturn shot showing the Cassini division (last one the rings were edge on) so I am quite chuffed with that.

A new cooled astro cam is on the shopping list, but until then, what I have will have to do.

Image details:

Target: Saturn
Date: 25th Feb 2012 (24th Feb 2012 UT)
Time: 1:23am ( 14:23 UT)
Location: Kellyville Ridge
Scope: 200mm F5 Skywatcher Reflector on HEQ5 Pro
Camera: Canon DSLR 1000D
Magnification: 5x Televue Powermate, x5 Backyard EOS (capture software)
Frames: 80 stacked from 100 captured
Exposure: 1/10 sec at ISO 1600
Capture S/W: Backyard Eos
Processing: Virtual Dub, PCFE, Registax 6, PS3

Thanks for looking

Cheers

Chris