I have just been working the most evil hellspawned shift pattern ever created. (5am wake up) and have actually been rather glad of the rubbish weather in the last few days.

I managed to pop out a few days ago and just have a play with my newly collimated scope and was satisfied that it was performing better. I also wanted to use Venus (about the only target up there at 9pm for me) to checkif i had improved the stability. By the time the clouds had moved, so had Venus...behind the hedge:/

Packed up annoyed and cold and totally failed to sleep, swearing loudly at the clock when it told me to get up.

Last night was better but not much. Again I was very tired but had the advantage of a minor lie in as I could stay in bed until 8am! The clouds where up but clearing nicely scope set up and... Bonsoir monseur cumulus. ARRRGH. So I sat on my cold slightly wet chair and waited...and waited...the Arcturus peeped up joining Vega in the sky. I quickly aligned and tried for Saturn, just visible through the clouds even though my eye couldn't see it i decided to try for some piccies and go for my bed as exhaustion was setting in. On the plus side this means the tripod stability WAS improved as it was very close on the goto slew.

I tried with the afocal rig this time and managed to get my first (to me) acceptable afocal shots of saturn. I suspect i also got titan though it may have been a hot pixel!

I have a couple of shots, ive tried registacking with little improvement and my best results so far have been with Lightroom.

1st is raw second is tweaked. Any suggestions on the best way to improve them?

On the minus side my interest in planetary work is peaking rather then abating at the moment. Maybe its stil the first flush of success but its nice to be able to see so vividly the target rather then the nebulous DSOs, especially as my new friend is pretty much floodlighting (or so it feels) my yard right now. http://stargazerslounge.com/astro-lounge/103053-my-new-friend.html

comparison with webcammed image (MS VX-1000 Lifecam)