A QHY5, Wratten Saturn - not for the purists!!

[cybereye (Mario)]

Hello!!

After the success I had imaging Saturn with the QHY5 I decided to give it another try. So last Wednesday night I set up the scope and started imaging Saturn again. But then I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I could get some colour into the image. And then it struck me - I had a set of Wratten filters tucked away in my Felix type bag of tricks.

Now before I continue with my tale, I should point out that I know this is not how you do LRGB imaging. I know that there are specific filters needed and that you can't use Wratten filters. I know, I know, I know.

But I did it anyway!!

So on with the story. I took one image without any filters - this I would use as the luminosity. Then using a 23A and an 80A for the Red and Blue channels I took two other AVIs. I then processed each of these in Registax5 and eneded up with 3 bitmaps that were stacks of 250 frames each.

"What about the Green channel?" I hear you ask. I'd read somewhere that you could synthesis this by averaging your blue and red channels. So this is what I did!! I then took all files into PS, bumbled my way through and somehow ended up with a "dirty" coloured image of Saturn which I present at the end of this message.

And once again - I know this isn't how you do LRGB imaging. But it was fun doing and I learnt quite a bit in the process.

Cheers,
Mario

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

You know what mario... brilliant, you have captured all the belts and yes thats right its not real colour, but what the hell is narrow band .

I like it even if it isn't the right colours

[bartman (Bart)]

It's a bit grainy, but for an experiment ( with those filters) it is a great result!
Mario, you have inspired me to take some shots with the QHY5 of Saturn!!!
Bartman

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

This is what it's all about Mario, having a bit of fun, experimenting, pushing the envelope.
Great image!

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

I'm not really equipped to comment - I'm not really sure what colour the thing is normally - mine come out yellow - and a little boy looked through my scope the other night at a school show and tell and said - "It's very tiny, and yellowy orange."
I said, "It looks tiny coz it's really far away and yes, it looks orangey doesn't it?"
I still like your pic though

[renormalised (Carl)]

Good experiment that turned out quite smick

Maybe a little soft on the focus, but I like it

You want to grab yourself a set of filters.

[cybereye (Mario)]

Thanks everyone! I'm very proud of this little image as I really didn't have that many pixels to work with. A lot of work went into it so it was a very, very pleasing result.

One thing I failed to point out was that, like my first effort, this image uses a 2x Barlow in the image train giving an effective focal ratio of f/14 to f/15. Another thing - I know this might sound odd - I've just noticed that I've managed to image Titan as well. Either that or I've got a smudge that appears in the same spot that Titan was in at that time!!

Very exciting to see Titan...

Cheers,
Mario

[midnight (Darrin)]

Once again, well done Mario. I wouldn't worry too much about what is "right" and what isn't. This is the learning and experimenting phase - you never know what might turn up - some of the world's most intriguing discoveries and learnings have been done by not 'following the book'.

Cheers,
Darrin...