Saturn from the 15th

[Daniel Beringer]

Hi all,

Here is another attempt at Saturn. I think it is my best so far. This time the toucam pro II was operating at 640x480. I resized it for the web.

Thanks for looking and any suggestions

[Garyh]

looks very nice but why have you made it only half size?
I have been enlarging mine to post.
cheers

[iceman (Mike)]

Nicely done, Daniel. Very sharp and good colour.

Perhaps a little too dim still - check the histogram, i'm sure you can stretch it a little more.

What scope are you using?

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great Saturn Daniel.

[Daniel Beringer]

Thanks for the replys.

I normally avoid enlarging them beyound their native size as it makes the image less sharp with more noticable noise. With web cameras, noise is more noticable than with a camera like the DMK21.

I'm using a c9.25 now Mike, I'm sure I can get more detail out of this scope with better processing skills and longer cool down time. If I over sharpen the last image I'm sure there is a hint of a storm and the Encke Gap?

[Gendo (Justin)]

Hi Dan,

I also see the storm. That may be Encke gap there, but sometimes its a processing artifact (depends how much shape shifting was going in the avi).

The full size one looks like it could be run through Registax, just to use the RGB align function, as the colors look a bit misaligned. That will also improve sharpness. Like Mike said, a mild histogram stetch or an increase in gamma would brighten it up nicely. It has a nice level of resolution, and the color is okay. I'd probably lower gamma on the blue channel a bit.

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Daniel

Like Justin said, shift the blue channel up 1 pixel and the red channel down 1 pixel - that should align them nicely.

Unfortunately at that resolution, you're really not likely to capture the encke division. It's usually a processing artifact from oversharpening. It's very easy to do.

The full size is definitely the way to go! Don't downsize!

[Gendo (Justin)]

Right now, Encke Gap is about 0.085 arc seconds across, according to a quick measurement of an HST image I have. Damian Peach caught what I would call an impression of Encke Gap in his Saturn images repeatedly with a C9.25 in 2005 using a monochrome camera and RGB filters. view here:http://www.damianpeach.com/sat_0405.htm

I think its possible, but only when seeing is really good. Also, probably only possible with a monochrome camera and filters because color cameras are bayer matrixed, i.e. lower true resolution. I have yet to get a capture that I could definately say shows the gap even with a monochrome camera and C11.

If I saw the same thing in all 3 color channels, I'd be more inclined to say it is Encke Gap, but its different in each channel. What I see in red channel is definately an artifact.

Still, its a very good shot Dan.

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

Very Very nice indeed Daniel.

Great colour, and detail.
I may as well give up the race before I start, with photos like this to compare any of my future attempts to..

Keep it up.

Geoffro