My best Saturn image so far!

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all

Got about 10 minutes of good seeing this morning, after Saturn rose above 24°. Luckily I was out there, ready to capture, with no jetstream over coastal NSW!

It seems I may have captured some storms/spots as seen on the red channel (and highly processed cutout on the right).. It may be artifacts but who knows I'll check some other avi's and see if it appears on those too.

Captured for about 1:20 for each colour channel, with the 10" dob, 5x powermate and DMK21AF04 @ 15fps. Gain was at maximum (100%). Stacked 300 frames in each channel for the final result.

Wavelets processed in registax, followed by mild ME deconvolution in AstraImage, and final curves and levels adjustment and noise reduction in Photoshop.

Really happy with this image, it's by far my best Saturn image, especially given the low altitude and brightening sky (30 mins before sunrise).

Thanks for looking, comments welcome.

[Lester]

Very nice Mike,

Wont be long now and there will be a flood on Saturn images.

[sheeny (Al)]

Good one Mike.

Saturn is always a fav!

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Mike

Those are wonderful images. I'm trembling in anticipation at the images you will be posting when old Kronos climbs the ecliptic ladder later in the season. Good luck in chasing down those candidate storms.

Cheers

Dennis

[Ric]

Great image mike, I love the way that you have set it out with the three seperate channels and the composite.
Cant wait to have a go myself.


Top stuff

[davidpretorius]

yup, a great start for the season!

top stuff ol capitan!

[asimov (John)]

Nice one mate.

[Mick (Michael)]

Wow Mike, sweet images.

[Lee]

Beautiful image Mike.... the blue channel is a lot less sharp than red and green - do you account for that at all in the combine???

[RB (Andrew)]

Wow Mike fantastic image, love the colours !!!

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

very nice mike.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Originally Posted by Lee

the blue channel is a lot less sharp than red and green - do you account for that at all in the combine???

The blue channel is usually the most messy because the blue wavelength is most affected my atmospheric dispertion, especially at the low altitudes.
Sometimes I choose slighly different processing on the blue channel (usually less aggressive sharpening) when it's messy like this, because otherwise it just exaggerates the grain even more. You can also choose to apply more noise reduction to the blue channel.

The blue channel is also the dimmest, so when combining it usually needs more intensity to bring the colour balance to what you think Saturn should look like.

[ving (David)]

not bad mike, not bad at all

we should be flooded with saturn pics soon me thinks.

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Nice image Mike. I set up with my "new" 13.1" scope to have a go at Saturn this morning but the rain came and washed me away :-(

Bird

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys, look forward to your images Anthony!

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi Mike

There is so much on the forum to read and look at - I have finally got to this thread - and yes I ditto all below. Excellent images.

Hopefully a lot more to come.

Cheers Petra

[hevelsky]

Hi Mike,
Nice image of Saturn !!!!
Great Job.

[Robert_T]

Hey Mike, you've clearly lost none of your touch and are now reaping the benefit of that Joop skill on the dusky ringed one...

it's enough to make me get up before the sun in the morning once again!

cheers,

[iceman (Mike)]

Rob!
Great to see you back, haven't seen you around in ages! Look forward to seeing your new stuff with the DMK soon!

[atalas]

Man that's a great Saturn Iceman !