Bit rough & ready (learning layer masks as I go to equalise the exposure) but this is a single frame through the ED102 just as the occultation is about to begin (it's also my first ever pic of Saturn )
Despite some cloud I managed to get both the disappearance and reappearance. It was amazing to watch on the screen with 5x Powermate. Hope to get going with the processing soon, but it's 1am here so I'm off for now
Was fairly clear for the Saturn occultation here, some high haze and clouds scudding through. Did my usual B-grade job LOL, and apologies for the dust bunnies etc as I forgot to clean my gear! Here's some very short videos - keep them small when viewing as they don't suit hi-res. The surface brightness difference between the Moon & Saturn is a killer, Saturn's a faint ghost planet! Did slightly better (but not much!) on the egress.
Waaaaaaaah ! My telescope got rained on for the very first time in 5 years. I was being wildly optimistic to view the Saturn/Moon occultation tonight so wheeled it out to cool mirror down, and Russ was super keen to take pics spending the last couple of days getting stuff prepared for it. He still thinks we got a chance with optimism that would tug at ones heart strings (I blame him for scope getting wet lol). With an hour yet to go for the event, I really don't think this is going to happen- it'd take a miracle. Boooooh Brisbane!
At least I got a very quick look at Saturn near the moon between a cloud gap, so I'll have to be happy with that.
Hi Mirka, thank you on behalf of so many people (including me by the looks grrr!) for having a go at contributing. In my opinion, any image is a good image as it allows the people missing this event (moi, for one ) to see it. Thank you also for the tips- tho....
Hi Suzy,
I'm so sorry the weather did not co-operate. I hope you get to see the next one on August 4th.
At last - clear skies for an astronomical event - having missed both the recent lunar and solar eclipses.
Obviously not as good as other pictures on this site but pretty happy with my images taken with a compact Canon held to the eyepiece of a 70mm refractor - proves you can get workable results without expensive equipment!!
Finally an event I could watch undisturbed by clouds!!!!
Even if the photos could have turned out better and post-work and enhancing didn't help much, it was the first event I could actually watch, so it was special...
Photos taken at my local beach with a cheap 70mm refractor somebody gave me for the solar eclipse (and they haven't picked it up yet....) and a cheap point-and-shoot camera... I also used a ND filter and tried to enhance later because the glow was really strong.
Last edited by OzStarGazer; 15-05-2014 at 02:54 PM.
Waaaaaaaah ! My telescope got rained on for the very first time in 5 years.
It was 100% cloud for most of last evening at my place too (and a bit of rain as well), so I cancelled the session at the Retirement Village with my father.
But at about 8:50 a nice hole in the clouds opened up around the Moon. I grabbed my scope and set it up, and managed to watch for 20 minutes as Saturn slid out of view - beautiful! I had no time to set up a decent camera, but I got a few blurry shots on my phone camera held up to the eyepiece (but not good enough to post here!)
Then the clouds and rain returned - and that was it for the night!
A few of the many shots that were submitted almost 'real-time' to Gianluca Masi at Virtual Telescope Project for his worldwide webcast.
Luckily the very thin high cloud here in Melbourne somewhat thinned out as the evening progressed ...and it was a warmish dew-less night too, which helped greatly!
Many thanks to Gianluca for producing such a wonderfully narrated webcast of this event lastnight...! It was a pleasure to be a part of
From Western Sydney, using a Watec 910BD camera. The High Dynamic Range function allowed the planet and the moon to be relatively well displayed.
How this function is accomplished is not documented, so times as displayed may not reflect reality :-) For scientific work, the HDR images should probably be avoided till more is known about them. For general use, it can't be beat.