Saturn and 6 satellites

Dennis · #1 30-04-2013, 09:01 AM

Here is a composite of 2 AVI’s taken of Saturn when at opposition on 28th April 2013. One AVI was exposed to record details in the disc and rings, the 2nd to record the fainter moons. The two final output images were then combined using Layer Masks in CS6.

Saturn
Diameter: 120536.0 km
Size: 43"x 17"

Satellites:
Name Mag PA° Sep"
Mimas 13.0 172.0 9.8
Enceladus 11.8 306.2 17.8
Tethys 10.3 296.2 27.9
Dione 10.5 285.9 44.7
Rhea 9.8 153.0 27.9
Titan 8.4 50.9 87.4

On April 28, 2013 Saturn was at opposition at magnitude 0.1 and subtending 19"x 17" (planetary disc). The star below and to the right of Enceladus is GSC 5571:822 at mag 13.27

Cheers

Dennis

The exposure details for the planet and satellites are provided below:

Saturn
[ASI120MM Camera (ZWO Design)]
Resolution=1280x960
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Exposure (s)=0.089246
Brightness=0
Gamma=1
Gain=40

Saturn’s satellites
[ASI120MM Camera (ZWO Design)]
Resolution=1280x960
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Exposure (s)=0.981086
Brightness=10
Gamma=60
Gain=50

allan gould · #2 30-04-2013, 09:28 AM

Excellent image Dennis. I was out last night waiting for the seeing to get better. It did at about 11:45pm but had to pack it in. I like these wide fields with the moons in tow.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #3 30-04-2013, 09:37 AM

Very nice Dennis......

Flash

Draco (Draco) · #4 30-04-2013, 10:56 AM

yay waiting for my 10" dobson so that I can see similar

skytry (Peter) · #5 03-05-2013, 01:20 PM

hi Denis,
well done, hoping for more in the future,
regards,
Peter.

Dennis · #6 03-05-2013, 03:03 PM

Thanks Allan, Col, Niv and Peter, I appreciate your comments.

@Niv – wishing you clear skies and collimated optics for your new Dob!

@ Peter – yes, I may give this another go when the satellites positions are more favourable to see if I can get a couple of more in the frame.

Cheers

Dennis

Larryp (Laurie) · #7 03-05-2013, 03:55 PM

Nice work, Dennis!

asimov (John) · #8 03-05-2013, 04:41 PM

Nice work Dennis!

Ciarlotto (Nunzio) · #9 03-05-2013, 04:52 PM

I like it very much, Dennis! It's the first time I see a so nice image of Saturn and its satellites.

Quark (Trevor) · #10 03-05-2013, 05:02 PM

Very nice work Dennis, I can see you using this camera to advantage with similar projects for Uranus & Neptune. Love the ability to utilize the wide field as well as being able to go back to 640 x 480 for nice frame rates with the planets.

Well done.
Regards
Trevor

ThinBlueLine (Amanda) · #11 03-05-2013, 07:23 PM

Well done - that's beautiful !!