Had first light with my new optics July 25th. It was Saturn through the cloud for about 30 sec's. With my record, first light really just had to be Saturn, even though I was unable to capture data on that night.
Imaged Jupiter July 26th, have good coverage in and around the GRS. There seems to be a quite pale stream of material skirting the Nth Preceding edge of the GRS, it shows up in RGB & 807nm IR.
There is some nice detail in the SEB both in the f & p directions. There seems almost a thin band within the SEB from the GRS all the way to the limb on the f side. A couple of prominent red barges in the NEB and a nicely resolved small white oval in the STB.
I apologize for the colour balance, I have a new computer that I am processing on and trying to calibrate it is proving rather problematic.
Imaged Saturn last night, my first data since June 24th, The Jet has been parked overhead for a month, this is very unusual for my location.
This is my first Saturn data with the new custom optics I have installed in what really is a completely new telescope. We were still Jet effected but there is reasonable detail within the storm considering how far we are now past opposition.
Saturn will remain at reasonable altitude for me for at least the next few weeks and I will continue to image it when conditions permit.
I can feel the excitement Trevor, and hope you get some good seeing soon. The detail you have resolved IMO is Very good for 5/10 conditions. Looking forward to more from FRED.
Images look promising but it is a bit hard to tell at this stage the performance of the mirror.
Yes we will have to wait for Trevor's results in good seeing for anyone to know if the mirror is any good or not
( That bit of tounge in cheek could be misconstrued ....so suffice to say that the sensitivity of my bench tests reveals detail way smaller than can ever be seen in a real world star test hence at least one person already knows how good the mirror actually is )
Seeing is king. Images look promising but it is a bit hard to tell at this stage the performance of the mirror.
Hi Paul, the performance of this mirror is not in question. This optical train is of the highest possible quality. I suppose I could have waited for good seeing but then my imaging is driven by what I can contribute to planetary science rather than the esthetic's of the result so I am often imaging when others are not. When I do get good seeing this system will deliver top shelf results.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lester
I can feel the excitement Trevor, and hope you get some good seeing soon. The detail you have resolved IMO is Very good for 5/10 conditions. Looking forward to more from FRED.
Thanks very much Lester, yep, my excitement meter is running high for sure. Even in this poor level of seeing I have noticed differences with my capture setup. For both Sat & Jup all channels were saturated. This mirror is delivering a brighter & I think slightly more contrasty image so I had to reduce the gain to get the histo back to the normal level that I use for each channel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidU
A bit of good seeing should give awesome images with the new optics.
Thanks David, I am sooooo..... hanging out for some good seeing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Satchmo
Yes we will have to wait for Trevor's results in good seeing for anyone to know if the mirror is any good or not
( That bit of tounge in cheek could be misconstrued ....so suffice to say that the sensitivity of my bench tests reveals detail way smaller than can ever be seen in a real world star test hence at least one person already knows how good the mirror actually is )
Well said Mark, both Bird and obviously I concur regarding the quality of your work.
Yes we will have to wait for Trevor's results in good seeing for anyone to know if the mirror is any good or not
( That bit of tounge in cheek could be misconstrued ....so suffice to say that the sensitivity of my bench tests reveals detail way smaller than can ever be seen in a real world star test hence at least one person already knows how good the mirror actually is )
but then my imaging is driven by what I can contribute to planetary science rather than the esthetic's of the result so I am often imaging when others are not.
Yes that is true. I tend towards wanting nicer images for presentation, and neither is better than the other. I did go out for a look the other morning and I could not get any sharp focus so I promptly went back to bed. Soon the spring seeing will start as the highs come down over our way. Then I will start trying. Like we have discussed too, once you get some good seeing I will come up for a couple of nights to do some imaging. Should be fun. If we can get Anthony to your house that would be even more fun.
Congrats on first light - looking really good already Trevor, considering the seeing. The jetstream is pretty much a solid band all round the globe at present, so I guess we will just have to wait to see the quality of imagery that it can produce - something to look forward to. regards Ray
Yes that is true. I tend toward wanting nicer images for presentation, and neither is better than the other. I did go out for a look the other morning and I could not get any sharp focus so I promptly went back to bed. Soon the spring seeing will start as the highs come down over our way. Then I will start trying. Like we have discussed too, once you get some good seeing I will come up for a couple of nights to do some imaging. Should be fun. If we can get Anthony to your house that would be even more fun.
No probs Paul, Georg Fischer contacted me last night regarding the level of SED's he is detecting winding down. I only have another couple of weeks before I lose Saturn, courtesy of a palm tree, so I will make every effort to image when I can.
Last night was even worse than the night before but I was still able to image a brighter plume within the storm which is of significance to other researchers who are still applying for time on various telescopes to image these brighter plumes in IR.
It certainly would be a most interesting exercise to have your C14 alongside both Nemesis & FRED imaging in the same conditions and is a worthy gaol to work toward, a mini planetary imaging party. By then both Nemesis and FRED will have 16" Mark Suchting mirrors in them.
Congrats on first light - looking really good already Trevor, considering the seeing. The jetstream is pretty much a solid band all round the globe at present, so I guess we will just have to wait to see the quality of imagery that it can produce - something to look forward to. regards Ray
Thanks Ray, reckon we are in the same boat with the jet, certainly time for it to move on.
Nice work Trevor, great to see some more images from you.
Are you able to use shorter exposure times now?
Thanks Mike, I am pretty happy with the exposure times and frame rates that I can use with the Flea3 so I have used the increase in the brightness of the image to reduce gain, I think a little less noise is always going to help. Last year when Bird came to visit I noticed that with his custom primary there was a definite difference between our live feeds, this being with both of us using the same imaging setup.
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