Saturn - first serious attempt

[browndog (Ian)]

Decided to try and image Saturn last night. First time I have tried planetary imaging with the SCT. I spent some time beforehand trying to get the collimation of my SCT "just right". Not sure if it is properly aligned yet, but it is better than it has been.

Imaged using a Celestron 8" SCT and webcam. Used the helpful guide posted by iceman and just followed the instructions. This is really useful for beginners - so easy to follow.

I am pretty happy with this initial result but think I can do better.

Any comments are greatly appreciated and welcome.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Ian,

Thats a great first attempt. Very sharp. The sky could be darkened a bit with PS.

Well done,

Peter

[iceman (Mike)]

Agree with Peter, a very nice first effort. You can raise the black point of the blue channel and it would look even better!

[Matty P (Matt)]

For a first attempt you have done very well.

Is it just me or have you captured a storm?

Looking forward for more.

[Robert_T]

Hi Ian, that's a lovely first shot of saturn and you've got the colour working well too. Are you using a barlow? You could increase your image scale a little.

cheers,

Rob

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Hi Ian,

Awesome first attempt

Out of interest, did you have the webcam set for 640x480. Mine was set to 320x240 by default until Mike pointed out I could double the image scale simply by using the full resolution.

Have fun,
Doug

[browndog (Ian)]

Originally Posted by peter_4059

Ian,

Thats a great first attempt. Very sharp. The sky could be darkened a bit with PS.

Well done,

Peter

Hi Peter, thank you for the feedback. On second look the the background sky could be darkened. I didn't really use PS for any additional processing other than raising the saturation level.

Originally Posted by iceman

Agree with Peter, a very nice first effort. You can raise the black point of the blue channel and it would look even better!

Hi Mike - See above, and I will play around with the blue channel and see how it make a difference to both the background and image. Perhaps even tweak the green channel??? Not too sure what colour Saturn should be so may need to check some other images for proper comparison.

BTW - great article on Plantary imaging. Easy to use and follow. A big thank you.

Originally Posted by Matty P

For a first attempt you have done very well.

Is it just me or have you captured a storm?

Looking forward for more.

Hi Matty - thank you for the comments. Not to sure about the storm. Purely accidental if it has occurred at all.

Originally Posted by Robert_T

Hi Ian, that's a lovely first shot of saturn and you've got the colour working well too. Are you using a barlow? You could increase your image scale a little.

cheers,

Rob

Hi Rob - argh err... this is rather embarrassing in regard to the barlow...
I was doing some DSO shots beforehand with the focal reducer attached, and forgot to remove. So the image was taken with a 2x Barlow and a 6.3 Focal Reducer...

So I think I can get a better image scale with just a barlow. A simple mistake by a beginner...

Originally Posted by edwardsdj

Hi Ian,

Awesome first attempt

Out of interest, did you have the webcam set for 640x480. Mine was set to 320x240 by default until Mike pointed out I could double the image scale simply by using the full resolution.

Have fun,
Doug

Hi Doug - Thanks for the handy tip. I will need to double check but I think I was using 640x480. I think my problem of image size was "user error" - see above.

[matt]

Originally Posted by iceman

You can raise the black point of the blue channel and it would look even better!

How's that done, Mike?

[davewaldo]

Hi Matt,

In PS, using "levels" select the Blue channel then move the black slider to the right. Easy. If you hold down alt why you do this, you can even see the clipping which is occurring.



Dave.

[matt]

Thanks, Dave. Much appreciated

Does the learning curve ever end...or get less steep?

I think not.