Saturn - Jan 11 2.30am (Canberra)

[matt]

Here's the result of processing the first AVI of about 16 I captured earlier this morning of Saturn.

The seeing was as variable as I've ever seen it.

For very brief moments it would have been 5/10, before dropping away to 2/10 or worse. Quite interesting to watch on the laptop screen. Like waves washing over the sky.

Anyway, this is just a quick and dirty through Registax3...

9.25, ToUcam Pro II, 3x barlow, 180 seconds at 10fps.

Best 350 frames stacked. Mild wavelets.

Thanks for looking.

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice one Matt, I think that's your best for the season! Great banding and the CD is more "stable" throughout the rings.

The "waves" could've been caused by boundary layer in your scope, due to the mirror not being at ambient.

Nice job! Hope the other 15 avi's are as good.

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

I'll echo Mike's words; that is a great Saturn image - well done you're getting some terrific results despite the lousy conditions that Canberra throws at you.

Cheers

Dennis

[John K]

Very nice Matt

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Very nice image Matt .
I hope to capture something like that one day, maybe not with the LPI

[davidpretorius]

spot on Matt, well done!

yes it is interesting watching the image wobble and fluff about on the screen

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nice one Matt.

You're not shooting over someones house or over a large paved area are you? Even at 2 in the morning, if I shoot over the next door concrete paved tennis courts I'll still get jumpy images. Mind you that's been quite a while ago now

[matt]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

Last night was a very keen demonstration of the impact of variable seeing.

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Nice one Matt.

You're not shooting over someones house or over a large paved area are you? Even at 2 in the morning, if I shoot over the next door concrete paved tennis courts I'll still get jumpy images. Mind you that's been quite a while ago now

Paul... I image from a suburban Canberra backyard. There are houses in every direction... and it's ConcreteVille as far as the eye can see

I've just never seen the seeing come and go quite so rapidly as it did last night. It was like someone was flicking an on-off switch, it was that rapid.

I normally observe a more gradual breakdown, with a likewise more gradual recovery. However, the transitions last night were brutal.

It was quite something to watch on the lappy screen.

I've only just woken up from crawling into bed at dawn this morning and will now spend the next few hours chugging through the other AVIs to see whether there's anything better in the bunch.

Cheers

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Mind you that's been quite a while ago now

yup, know how you feel, the last three nights = take scope out, check collimation, go to bed, get up at 3am, clouds, swear and go back to bed....

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Nice one Matt. I remember what it was like imaging from Flynn, in hot weather it was very unstable.

cheers, Bird

[sheeny (Al)]

That's very good work Matt! Seeing was really bad here last night - I ended up flagging any imaging away!

Al.

[matt]

Cheers Al

I actually nearly didn't bother last night.

When I went to the eyepiece around 9pm I couldn't even get a focus on stars with the 24mm Panoptic!!! Stars were just fuzzy blobs.

I'd never seen it so bad.

But with only a few days to go before my holidays are over I was determined to capture something

To tell the truth, I would have imaged in a blizzard last night

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

They're really natural colours that you've captured Matt.
Your patience is amazing when faced with adverse conditions.
Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.
Well done.

[Ric]

Great image Matt, very nice colour and banding.
I'm hoping to have a go tonight, clouds pending

Cheers

[spearo (Frank)]

NIce shot there Matt!
hope to be able to do half as good as that someday
looks great
f