Saturn from Sydney, May 5th

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

After Mars, I decided to have a quick look at Saturn... visually was a bit between the two, some good moments of seeing with banding clearly visible and the Cassini division prominent along with some ring contrast and fleeting hits of further ring detail.

From the imager... seeing was definitely deteriorating compared to my Mars captures

C8 Edge HD on SE mount
QHY5L-ii, 640x480 ~30fps
Small image (bottom) at f/10
Larger image (top) at ~f/22.5 with Baader Hyperion 2.25x Barlow

Just stacked through AS!2 and both processed with only a little colour enhancement and a tiny bit of sharpening. It may be my imagination but is there a hint of the hexagon at the pole?

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Thats a respectable Saturn Dunk...

The only downsode the QHY5l-11 is the noise level when the gain is raised.

I might have another go tonight if seeing conditions permit.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks John, yeah had to raise the gain noticeably with the Barlow inline.

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Here's an image of Saturn from my 8SE, 100 stacks in AS!2 chosen from 1000. Images are at f/10 - the seeing wasn't up to a longer FL. The 3rd one is a Paint.NET touched version of the 2nd.

Like my Mars image, these really need some careful work to bring them out properly, but I'm pretty happy with it as a first effort

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Nice one Barry, you should be happy

I had another go last night, but by the time Saturn got high enough the seeing had deteriorated. I'm glad I packed up when I did though, as it chucked it down with rain shortly after