Twilight Saturn 21/12/08

starfinder (Russ) · #1 21-12-2008, 10:36 PM

Hi All. Beautiful views of Saturn this morning, rings almost edge on and major moons lined up. Seeing was average and twilight had begun.

Thought I'd try my ToUcam for imaging using a 4X Powermate on the back of a Tak FS128, tracking the sky on an EQ-6. I used exposure of 1/25th second, gain around 50% and collected around 2000 frames at low res, 360x280px. These were stacked in Registax 4.0 with some brightness and contrast adjustment and then adjusted further in PS. Apart from better seeing, what would the readership advise for improving results from this technology? All advice much appreciated! Russ

Jen · #2 21-12-2008, 11:57 PM

Nice Russ

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #3 22-12-2008, 02:01 AM

Wow,

Thats a very nice pic Russ, well done.

Cant see the moons though, but it may just be me?

Superb!

Chris

iceman (Mike) · #4 22-12-2008, 03:57 AM

Nice image Russ. A bit of work on the levels would give the background a more pleasing appearance.

Matty P (Matt) · #5 22-12-2008, 12:14 PM

Nice work Russ. Looks very nice indeed. Very sharp.

Well done.

starfinder (Russ) · #6 22-12-2008, 09:20 PM

Hi all. Thanks for the very positive responses and encouragement. Thanks Mike for advice on improving background appearance. I'll do some tinkering with levels to darken the background and take it from there. Screwdriverone, relax....it's not you! There are moons visible, but faintly - hopefully a darker background will improve their visibility. Cheers. Russ

starfinder (Russ) · #7 26-12-2008, 04:48 PM

Hi everyone.

I've reworked the data in Registax 4 (and in the process learnt a huge amount about important features of the programme, like only using best quality frames, etc (lol!)) and here's the result. Ah, so much to learn and so little time! Background was adjusted in PS. An improvement over the original, I hope you'll agree. Russ

rwong · #8 26-12-2008, 07:53 PM

Hi Russ

It is definitely a huge improvement, esp the background.

Congratulations!
Reg

starfinder (Russ) · #9 27-12-2008, 12:08 PM

Thanks Reg. I'm a relative "newbie" using Registax, so the practice I'm getting with Saturn is very useful. A little trial-and-error can go a long way!

Happy New Year to yourself and all IceinSpace members. Russ

Jen · #10 27-12-2008, 12:11 PM

Getting better Russ you can only get better from here on practice makes perfect

starfinder (Russ) · #11 28-12-2008, 03:06 PM

Thanks Jen. It's a steep learning curve, but an enjoyable journey along the road to discovery. And you never know what lies just around the corner!