Saturn - 08/02/2006

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all.

Here's a medoicre Saturn from the other night in less than average seeing. Transparency was not good either, so gain had to be high creating a grainy image.

I used the 900nc ToUcam firmware in my 840k ToUcam, and it appeared to go ok. I can't say whether it's better, but it doesn't appear to be any worse.

I took some videos at 5/10/15fps, and after quick processing on all of them, 5fps still produces the best results, and for me, even when the seeing is not good. The higher frame rate gives you more frames, but it seems to simply compress the data too much and detail is lost.

Also because of the higher frame rate and faster shutter, gain needs to be higher to achieve the same levels, and it makes for an even grainier image.

Here's my 5fps shot, 1000 frames stacked in red/green/blue and recombined in AstraImage.

[Robby]

Nothing wrong with that Mike. If I got that quality I'd be pretty happy... I haven't had much luck with Saturn this year. It's just too low in the sky for us long white cloud dwellers.
Well done.

[Robert_T]

Nice workhorse image Mike , I wish I could get colour like that, I like the lemon globe! No storm visible here that I can see, must be hiding on the other side. I must try 5fps on Saturn. At least with Saturn you can run 200sec without rotational smearing and get 1000 frames. On Jupiter though with a max of 90-100 sec it just isn't enough to get rid of the grain... unless of course the seeing is spectacular.

[davidpretorius]

well done mike, I get the horrible feeling, we have missed saturn this time around. low in the sky, seeing over xmas etc

There were some great ones Bird & yourself & there were a couple of other ones, but I think already Jupiter has more better pics taken already.

I will try again tonight!

[RB (Andrew)]

Not bad Mike considering the conditions.
Colour is good.
I wonder what the new Philips cameras are like?

Thanks also for the info on frame rates.
Do you have difficulty cleaning the sensor?
I can't seem to get mine clean no matter what I do.

[ving (David)]

well i like it mike!
interesting colours

[Dennis]

Hey Mike

10 out of 10 for that effort with Saturn, given the conditions you describe. Even so, that is still an excellent image.

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov (John)]

Well, certainly different colours! I like it.

[iceman (Mike)]

Do you have difficulty cleaning the sensor?
I can't seem to get mine clean no matter what I do.

Funny you should say that Andrew.. I'd always had trouble cleaning my sensor.. Every time I cleaned it, I removed the marks I wanted to get rid of, but they were replaced by others. And they were always in an inconvenient spot that I had to try and avoid while capturing.

But an hour before this image was captured, I cleaned it again, using the same technique, but this time I got lucky and all my marks are gone, except for 1 right near the bottom left corner which I don't let the planet drift near.

So I'm happy! A clean chip!

thanks for the comments everyone.