The weather in Melbourne has been lousy for astronomical viewing over the last few weeks. I have been having withdrawal symptoms from lack of time under the stars. Skippy Sky forecast a small window of opportunity from 1.00 am until sunrise this morning and their predictions were correct. I didn't try anything serious, just grabbed my cheap and nasty Saxon 500mm f5 achromat and pointed the EQ3 where Octans would have been if it were visible at that time. Mars was quite low in the west and Saturn was a little higher but both are fading and shrinking now and I think this will be my last go this year for planets, especially with this set up
. I had to use 6400 iso on Saturn as it was so dim, hence the noise. This is a result of the best frames of a 3 minute video grab each with the Canon 550d and 4mm eyepiece projection method.
Both planets were bobbing around a bit so I was surprised to capture so much detail. Mars is in phase mode now as it is well past opposition, so the view is less spectacular but still fun to try as a challenge
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