A Birthday Saturn Image

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all

This image of Saturn was captured on the morning of the 6th January 2009 at about 2am, but it was still my birthday in Universal Time / GMT. The seeing was maybe a little above average but I was really tired, so it didn’t take much to convince myself that the seeing wasn’t good enough and that I should go back to bed.

So I only captured 2 runs, and the image below is from the second run. For all I know the seeing may have improved once I went to bed but I was too tired to care

You can see in the image below that the rings are starting to open up slightly again, but they will close again over the next few months until they are completely edge on and disappear from view in early September 2009. Unfortunately Saturn will be too close to the Sun to effectively observe from Earth at that time.

Please click the link to read more capture and processing information.
A Birthday Saturn Image

Thanks for looking.

[Dennis]

Hi Mike

What a lovely birthday present you gave to yourself! Top stuff!

A very impressive image scale for such a relatively low target. Nice separation between the rings and planetary disc too. I read your notes about cooling the mirror to 0.5 deg C of ambient, in contrast to my efforts of last night/this morning, where I was forced to have the dew heaters running as dew was forming on the OTA and I was concerned about the corrector dewing over. Oh the challenges of a hot and humid Brisbane in the summer months!

Cheers

Dennis

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

That's a nice image Mike. As Dennis says the image scale is impressive. How do you manage to find Saturn with that focal length? I've found the 5x powermate/10" newt/Neximage quite a challenge.

Happy Birthday,

Peter

[AlexN]

Mike - Top Job indeed.. 43° is definitely not high in the sky! and you've got yourself plenty of good detail in that image! A happy birthday indeed!

Well done.

Peter - When I've imaged Saturn/Jupiter at 6000~8000mm, I take the camera out, and use a reticule EP with a parfocalising ring to center the planet in the field of view, then slot the camera back in... from there, I almost always have the planet on the chip (or at least, part of the disc) if not, defocusing about 3mm will turn the planet into a big airy disc, then if the planet is within 1x its own diameter of the field of view, you'll see the airy disc in the field of fiew...

[gregbradley]

Awesome image Mike, I love it.

I am gearing up to get into planetary imaging myself. I have dabbled in the past with a Nexstar 11 GPS, a Tak FS152 and an RCOS 12.5 inch. The Nexstar 11 was the best.

Still evaluating the ideal camera. SKYnyx seem good as do some Point Grey Research cameras and the DMKs. Any advice on which one to get?

Paul has been giving me some excellent guidance.

Greg.

[AlexN]

Greg - I know you asked Mike's opinion... but heres my 2c.. If you have the funds for the Skynyx 2.0, Get it... The Imaging Source cameras are good, but the dynamic range of the Skynyx puts it over the line, not to mention better resolution and faster frame rate.

[Garyh]

It`s a beautiful Saturn mike!
Tried a few times lately to capture Saturn and thou no jetstream the seeing has been below average.
cheers

[Jen]

lovely pic Mike great work cheers

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys, appreciate your feedback.

Originally Posted by peter_4059

That's a nice image Mike. As Dennis says the image scale is impressive. How do you manage to find Saturn with that focal length? I've found the 5x powermate/10" newt/Neximage quite a challenge.

Happy Birthday,

Peter

The main problem is the loss of light, and of course needing the seeing to be more stable to get a satisfactory image.
It's much tougher this year than in previous years due to the rings closing up.

Originally Posted by AlexN

Peter - When I've imaged Saturn/Jupiter at 6000~8000mm, I take the camera out, and use a reticule EP with a parfocalising ring to center the planet in the field of view, then slot the camera back in... from there, I almost always have the planet on the chip (or at least, part of the disc) if not, defocusing about 3mm will turn the planet into a big airy disc, then if the planet is within 1x its own diameter of the field of view, you'll see the airy disc in the field of fiew...

That's generally the approach I try to use too.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Awesome image Mike, I love it.

I am gearing up to get into planetary imaging myself. I have dabbled in the past with a Nexstar 11 GPS, a Tak FS152 and an RCOS 12.5 inch. The Nexstar 11 was the best.

Still evaluating the ideal camera. SKYnyx seem good as do some Point Grey Research cameras and the DMKs. Any advice on which one to get?

Paul has been giving me some excellent guidance.

Greg.

You really can't go wrong with either the Skynyx or the Pt Grey cameras. Both will do an excellent job. If you don't have firewire, the Skynyx is probably the more convenient because it's USB.

I look forward to your dabbling in planetary! The nexstar 11 will be great for planetary with good resolution and focal length.


Thanks again.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Nicely done Mike,

Should get some decent images now things have cooled down a bit.

Regards
Trevor