Kon

I am using a Mac so kind of limited on asicap under Asistudio for my captures (firecapture does not recognise the camera for some reason although it runs and SharpCap does not run under crossover) so the values were: full capture resolution window, gain 200, exposure of 12ms for Saturn and ~6ms for Jupiter; I was aiming for 50-60% histogram. I shot at raw8 but I think I may need to go for raw16? (still trying to understand the difference in quality). I was using high USB traffic and I did not notice any dropped frames; i think the advantage of writing directly to the laptop ssd.

Enjoy it. It is a nice little camera and it got me hooked into lunar and planetary imaging.

Interesting on your capture settings; In my 8" Dob, i use 12-14ms exposures with a gain of 200 and I am already hitting ~60% in the histogram with the same camera (I use asicap since I am on a Mac, as most other programs do not work or recognise my camera even under crossover). Are you also shooting at full resolution?

Thanks Martyn. Yes first impressions are excellent, looking forward to capturing more images and playing with processing. Kon in my avatar is short for Konstantinos but in Greek we abbreviate it as Kostas. I am happy either way.

Thanks for the comments. I agree that the composite has brought out some nice details. (I was just impressed to see so much more detail on Jupiter than previous attempts). I think an IR composite might also help it but it was getting quite bright to do much more.

See in the imaging section 😊. According to the post office it should be 3-5 days, enough for the clouds to disappear when you get it 😉

Thanks for the camera, and yes I was itching to try it last night. All clouded now so I cannot complain with the first results.

I received my new asi426mc yesterday and surprisingly the skies were clear this morning for a test. With daylight coming up quickly, I messed up the Saturn fps but Jupiter is my best so far; loads of details and the GRS is just there. As others have mentioned the IR is bringing so much more on Saturn especially at the North pole. The seeing was pretty good this morning without much boiling effect. 8" Dob, manual tracking (drifting), 2x barlow. First two images are with UV/IR cut filter, the third one is IR pass and last is an IR-rgb mix in Gimp. I am really excited to get more familiar with this camera and it has already impressed me.

That's fantastic capture and processing.

I received my new planetary camera, ZWO ASI462mc from @johninderby ; it came super well packaged. It may receive first light tonight if the clouds hold on .

Another great effort despite the conditions. My feeling is that the atmosphere is having too much moisture rather than jetsam effect, i may be wrong. I think the hot day followed by cool nights is not helping, we are having huge temperature variation at the moment. . When I was up at 6 this morning i could see the grass soaking wet and as it was warming up haze was developing.

Thanks. Still learning the ropes, by IR filter, do you mean IR pass? If I understand, I need a UV/IR cut for colour captures and and IR pass well for ir.

Great capture!

Nice capture and the ir has brought out some nice ring separation/details.

Thanks Dave. It is on your way and I am sure you will manage some really nice captures. Looking forward to seeing your contribution here.

Thanks Neil. I am looking forward to use the new camera especially with its high IR sensitivity.

Nice captures. Your Jupiter has really nice details. I think i need to pick your brains at some point on wavelets since you seem to be pulling our great details always.

I was up at 230 to observe and image the planets and see the summer solstice sun rise. All planets were boiling in the dew but i could see some nice banding in Jupiter. Cassinini division was just about visible in Saturn. Mars only revelled its phase without much details. I was out until the sun came up. In my head this signifies that the days will be getting sorter from tomorrow and winter not far away 😢🌨️ but on the bright side I can soon start observing some nebulas.

I was up at 230 to capture some more Jupiter and Saturn pics and see the summer solstice sunrise. It did not disappoint being out that early. Weather was fairly warm with quit a lot of dew. The videos were simmering. These are my last pics with the asi120mc-s camera as I upgraded to the asi462mc (waiting to arrive). I think Jupiter came out the best with some of its equatorial features coming through nicely despite the conditions.

Great read and some great targets. Worth revisiting if you can when astrodarkness returns, you will be blown away from the several summer faint fuzzies.

Great animation Neil! I quite like how the sky is getting lighter and lighter. Somehow you have managed the colour balance very nicely and a lot of details as well.

Very nice images Martyn. The IR images are a totally different ball game, a lot more details.The rings from the IR 685 filter are coming alive with finer rings present and the Cassini division all the way around.

Some really nice details and banding there. Well done on another good capture. (I got up at 3 but it was too hazy and went back to bed).

What a capture, fantastic! I will give it a try on the weekend when it is supposed to cross my path.

I will pm you some photos when I am back home later, but nothing special; Skywatcher 8" Dob, same as your profile photo and an asi120-mc-s camera (with or without 2x barlow) in the focuser, and a laptop for the capture.