A rather plain Saturn – C9.25, DBK21 1st March 2009, Brisbane

[Dennis]

Hello,

No moons I’m sorry to say, but here is Saturn as imaged from Brisbane on 1st March 2009, 11:30pm AEST, under 6 to 7/10 seeing.

C9.25 F10
Televue x3 Barlow
DBK21AF04.AS ccd camera (colour).

Best 629 frames from 1500. Due to operator error, I forgot to switch on the dew heater strap, so the SCT corrector gradually dewed up, making the overall image soft.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman (Mike)]

That's a beautiful image, Dennis! Lovely colours, very smooth and a very visible CD!

Nicely done indeed.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Lovely image Dennis,

As you say, it is a bit soft, shame about not turning on the dew heater. I can relate to that. Not that I need a due heater in my observatory in Broken Hill, however I have had a few nights when I have been cursing how unstable the seeing has been, only to find that I forgot to turn on the cooling system for my primary mirror.

I really like the job the DBK does with the colour, if only it could attain a faster frame rate. I think the slight softness in this image contributes to a quite pleasing smoothing effect of the image.

Well done.

Regards
Trevor

[matt]

But there is a moon, Dennis. In fact, two!!

It's half-way between the edge of the rings and the left edge of the frame...slightly abover the line of the rings. The other's off to the right...slightly closer to the rings.

Now...get that DMK and filter wheel crankin'!!!!

Nice image, by the way

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Not so very plain Dennis.
There's a storm brewing in the upper equatorial band.
Thanks for posting.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Very nice Dennis. As Matt says I can see a moon on each side of the image quite clearly.

Peter

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Very nice Dennis! Nothing plain about it if you ask me.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Dennis]

Thanks for the nice comments and the moon discoveries! Gee, you lot must have excellent screens, or calibrate them religiously!

I’ve just had a look at Starry Night Pro Plus 6 for 11:34pm and it shows the following:

Rhea (mag 9.58) on the left
Tethys (mag 10.08) on the right
Enceladus (mag 11.58) was also “in view” just above the ring plane on the RHS but it is not visible on the avi.

So, here is a re-worked version showing the 2 moons, using Curves in CS3.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by matt

Now...get that DMK and filter wheel crankin'!!!!
Nice image, by the way

Hi Matt

I’m slowly working up to it. I’ve almost completed the mains adapter/connector wiring assembly that should allow me to drive the SBIG CFW8 colour filter wheel independent from the SBIG ST7E ccd camera.

In theory, I should then have a motorized filter wheel to try out.

Cheers

Dennis

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Nice work Dennis, and I can see 2 moons as well :-)

cheers, Bird

[Lester]

I like it too Dennis.

[pgc hunter]

nothing plain about that. That's a very nice image.

[Dennis]

Thanks for all the nice words everyone, perhaps I should edit the title of the original post as the comment “plain” was more in regard to the lack of moons transiting the planetary disc!

Little did I know I had a couple of moons lurking in the data until Matt and a few others alerted me to them.

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

perhaps I should edit the title of the original post as the comment “plain” was more in regard to the lack of moons transiting the planetary disc!

I seem to remember Mike Salway using the term "The Boring Side" when refering to one of his Jupiter images that had no Transits nor GRS.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

I seem to remember Mike Salway using the term "The Boring Side" when refering to one of his Jupiter images that had no Transits nor GRS.

Thanks Jeanette – have a lovely day today, on your birthday and I hope you are showered with heaps of astro goodies and plenty of opportunities to try them all out!

Hmm, that makes you a Pisces?

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Yep, I'm a Pisces.
Just going down to the creek now to cool off. LOL

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Thats not plain Dennis thats fantastic.
Cant wait and i,ll definatelly look at a gooden.
I realy enjoy looking at them all.
Cheers Kev.