First Saturn for 08

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

I had my first attempt at Saturn for 08 last night. Had a few problems with the focuser as the focus point was either racked right in using an extension tube or right out without it.

Clouds also didn't cooperate so I only managed to grab about 200 frames in the clear patches. The sky soon clouded over completely and I decided to call it quits. As you would expect the clouds completely cleared by the time I had packed everything up but at least I have something to show for it.

Image captured with the Neximage using 5x powermate. This is the first season I've had the powermate having used a 2x and 3x barlow previously. I'm pleased with the image scale.

Thanks for looking!

[Marko of Oz (Mark)]

That image is really dark on my monitor. I can barely pick out Saturn. Is it dark to others also?
Maybe your monitor(or mine) needs adjusting. It shows up a little brighter on my laptops screen.

cheers

[davidpretorius]

from memory the nex image is not as sensitive, so for a 5x powermate, the amount of light being captured would be considerably down.

I know that I had to image at 7.5fps with a 5x powermata and 10" mirror and even then, the histogram was not full.

As you say Peter, nice image scale.

Now onto jupiter Yippee

[iceman (Mike)]

Very nice image! What was the gain set to ? it is really dim.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Gain was at 50% of the range and from memory the exposure was 1/25. I was surprised at how dim it was at the time also.

I think I remembered to removed the Hartman mask