It's been a while since I was spying on the sky. I had the luck of both a clear night and no commitments the next morning and looking up it looked very clear, almost like glass... even the starts were not twinkling.
I set up the scope and had a look at Saturn, which was high up in the sky, it was super clear, with my 5mm eyepiece the 406X magnification showed me a still and stable Saturn, the Cassini division was as clear and obvious as the nose on my face, even the bands on the globe were easily visible along with 6 clear and bright points of light around Saturn. Needless to say I was treated to a stunning view.
I wanted to see just how far I could push this view so I put a 2X Barlow in with my 5mm eyepiece, knowing that that is more the pushing the friendship on my 8" SCT, but much to my surprise Saturn looked OK, a bit softer then without the barlow but the Cassini division was still visible and the bands were getting a bit harder to see, still, coming and going and very subtle but visible... also Saturn looked massive in the eyepiece.
I had to try to image Saturn and I think I got my clearest and best Saturn so far.
After Saturn before packing up I did a quick 26x30s subs of the Omega Centauri globular cluster... Its a bit soft but it was a quick setup and focus since as I was setting up to image Omega Centauri I accidently knocked the tripod slightly and thought I might have stuffed up my polar alignment, so I just risked and "fudged" it, tuned out OK I thought.
Saturn was captured on the DMK618 1/30th sec Gain at around 700 for IR cut Luminance video, 1/15th Gain max for Red, 1/5 Green Max Gain and 0.5sec max gain for Blue. All were 3 minute captures.
Omega Centauri was ISO1600 Canon 300D (modded) 26x30sec subs, processed in Nebulosity 3.
Attached images are Saturn through a Celestron 2X Barlow, Saturn through a 3X TV Barlow and Omega Centauri.
