Saturn, Double Stacked. 2am April 4th 2013

[ArmyAirForce]

I got ten AVI's of Saturn around 2am on the morning of April 4th, and at the suggestion of another local imager, tried double stacking. Each AVI was stacked and the resulting Tiff saved. The ten Tiff's were then loaded into Registax v5.1 and they were stacked, followed by wavelets. I got a little more detail and slightly better definition in the Cassini Division with this method. Since Saturn is going to be getting lower and lower over the next few years, trying to get a good capture now near opposition, with the gear I have to hand, is important. Being 54 degrees North, Saturn is pretty low now, around 20 degrees above the horizon, and only a little way clear of my house roof.

[stargazerslivingroom]

I think that is wonderful and certainly what I would love to achieve.

Can you expand on the capture technique....How long were the AVI's, what capture software and the settings etc?

Would be very helpful.

Thanks

Steve

[ArmyAirForce]

The AVI's were four and six minutes long at 15fps. Using Sharpcap to run the camera. I used a number of different settings on Sharpcap. Exposure varied, Saturation was around 128, Contrast between 140 and 170, Brightness between 90 to 150. I can't recall the rest. Many of the settings will be dictated by the sensetivity of your camera.

I just kept making adjustments until the image on screen was the best for colour, sharpness, detail etc, and ran the capture from there. Because of the slower rotation of Saturn compared to Jupiter, and the lack of moving features, I went for longer captures than I have in the past. Previously just two to three minutes, but because it isn't as bright as Jupiter, I went for longer this time to try and capture more detail and colour, and to compensate for poor frames.

[stargazerslivingroom]

O thanks so much for that...Really helps me (I am finding AP very tricky!!)

Checked out those model planes...Now I really am envious!!

Thanks again and well done on Saturn.

Steve

[ArmyAirForce]

I've only had my scope a little over a year, and my images have rapidly improved in that time, both deep sky and planetary. You've just got to keep trying different settings and see what works. Same goes for the processing. I could do with a x3 barlow, but the piggy bank is a bit stretched having spend £600 on an off axis guider and guide camera!

[sologuitarist61]

Great image - well done!

[stellawolf]

Super image well done