Saturn
22nd March 2009
This is my best picture of Saturn so far. Note the difference in the tilt of the
rings compared to the (embarassing) pics I took back in 2006.Top right image is to
scale. Bottom right image is x2 enlargement in Registax. Most folks like to
say "resampled".
This image was taken in the Schmidt Newt with x5 Powermate barlow using the new DMK camera.
The image is a stack of 450 of the best from a stack of 640. .AVI file captured
live to laptop disk via USB.
Focus was on a bright star using Mr Bahtinov's
wonderful Mask. |
22 March 2009 (0130h 21Mar09 UTC) 
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Captured 1500 hrs UTC 21Jan06 Canberra Australia.
This is my first Saturn image unless you count the exasperation/desparation shot where I
caught 15 seconds of data through very heavy cloud. This image on this page was
captured on a clearer night and isn't too bad. It shows promise and leaves heaps of
room for improvement.... Focus may be an issue, although the Seeing
(atmospheric disturbance) was not all that good.
The data was acquired from color video camera to Mini-DV tape camcorder and then fed,
later, via firewire into my PC. Data captured on PC in Astrovideo and saved on-disk
to color .AVI video files. |
21 January 2006
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The .AVI files were edited and cut to 600 frames duration in Arcsoft
Showbiz (so as not to kill Registax, which dies if you give it an .AVI file with more than
600 frames).
The .AVI files were aligned and stacked in Registax. Mild wavelets were applied (in
layers 3 and 5 only - at increment of 1). The curves were adjusted in Photoshop to
bring out the color in the planet.
Focus was achieved visually by using a Hartmann
mask and then watching the focus adjustments on my TV.
The data was captured in a Meade SN-8" LXD-75 using Mintron 62V1P-Ex color video camera. An Orion
Shorty (x2) Barlow stacked into a Televue Powermate x4. Digital zoom off. Effective focal
length about f/35. Shutter was 1/100, AGC gain maximum, no filters.
Saturn was about 30 degrees (low) altitude above the horizon. Seeing was about
average (i.e. not good).
Here are some other poorer images from data collected on the same night
processed differently in Registax. Not sure what I was doing back then :o)
And two years later I'm probably still not doing it right...
See Other Planets
Also Check Out the Previous "What's New": Orion's
Sword
M42 The Great Orion Nebula and the Running Man
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