Saturn

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

My first real image of Saturn. Second light my skywatcher Maksutov - Cassegrain 102mm and svbony 2 x barlow and ASI 224mc planetary cam. 30 sec vid capture stacked.

[Dave882 (David)]

Nice work Paul. That’s great for a first capture of Saturn! Note that you can capture 3min videos with Saturn without rotational blurring and even longer if you derotate. With more data you can select more ‘good’ frames and your noise will be reduced.

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Dave882

Nice work Paul. That’s great for a first capture of Saturn! Note that you can capture 3min videos with Saturn without rotational blurring and even longer if you derotate. With more data you can select more ‘good’ frames and your noise will be reduced.

Good to know Dave. It's a good feeling to do some planetary for a change. I'm definitely going to try and get better at it. BTW do you recommend ADC to correct the image? My FL is over 1300

[Dave882 (David)]

If used correctly, an ADC will give an improvement (although since Saturn is quite high in our sky it will be very small difference). It’ll make more of a difference for Jupiter. But having said that my suggestion would be to keep it simple and get your basic capture parameters right first and then add the adc for that extra boost. Just my 2c

I’m by no means an expert, but here’s a few general tips:
- Seeing/transparency is #1. If it’s so blurry that you’re struggling to focus it’ll be impossible to get that fine detail.
- Makes sure your scope is acclimatised. I’ve got my sct wrapped and don’t turn the dew heater on.
- Perfect collimation. Get this dialled in on a night of excellent seeing.
-Perfect focus. Focus on the planet regularly. Fire capture / ASICAP can manipulate the screen contrast/brightness to help you. Take your time. But if the conditions are crap it’ll be hard to get it spot on.
- Set the histogram carefully. Don’t let it go above approx 60% or you’ll blow out the bright areas.
- Set the fastest frame rate as possible by reducing your ROI, use usb3. I’ve found ASICAP give me the best frame rate but others prefer Firecapture.
- Capture 1-2min for Jupiter, 3-5min for Saturn. If at top of this range you’ll need to derotate with Winjupos.
- Best results can be had by capturing multiple images over the space of say 15-30min and detrotating and combining these together in Winjupos. There’s some good info online to help with this.

Hope some of that helps you out

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Dave882

If used correctly, an ADC will give an improvement (although since Saturn is quite high in our sky it will be very small difference). It’ll make more of a difference for Jupiter. But having said that my suggestion would be to keep it simple and get your basic capture parameters right first and then add the adc for that extra boost. Just my 2c

I’m by no means an expert, but here’s a few general tips:
- Seeing/transparency is #1. If it’s so blurry that you’re struggling to focus it’ll be impossible to get that fine detail.
- Makes sure your scope is acclimatised. I’ve got my sct wrapped and don’t turn the dew heater on.
- Perfect collimation. Get this dialled in on a night of excellent seeing.
-Perfect focus. Focus on the planet regularly. Fire capture / ASICAP can manipulate the screen contrast/brightness to help you. Take your time. But if the conditions are crap it’ll be hard to get it spot on.
- Set the histogram carefully. Don’t let it go above approx 60% or you’ll blow out the bright areas.
- Set the fastest frame rate as possible by reducing your ROI, use usb3. I’ve found ASICAP give me the best frame rate but others prefer Firecapture.
- Capture 1-2min for Jupiter, 3-5min for Saturn. If at top of this range you’ll need to derotate with Winjupos.
- Best results can be had by capturing multiple images over the space of say 15-30min and detrotating and combining these together in Winjupos. There’s some good info online to help with this.

Hope some of that helps you out

Great. Very helpful. Thanks!