Getting there with Saturn at last!

[Rufusgj]

Hi All,

After some pretty dismal attempts at Saturn over the last few weeks I have been reading the forums on here and some tutorials over on Astronomy Shed for help and advice... it is amazing how much you can learn. I am almost getting there now...

Anyway here is my latest Saturn from 22nd April. Seeing was reasonable (even with a street light over my back garden) and it was very still for once, so tracking on the nexstar mount was brilliant for once.

This shot was 500 frames stacked the best 70% in Registax 6. Taken with my SPC900 through the SC6 OTA.

Any processing tips would be most welcome!

Hope you like it.

Simon

[red dwalf]

thats not at all bad Simon, did you give the wavelets a tweek in registaxs ?

these can sharpen it alittle

[cgarry]

That is a good capture Simon, though a little tweaking of the colour might help it a little.

Sorry, I could not resist:

I usually capture 4 minutes for Saturn and stack the best 1000 or so frames.

Cheers,

Chris

[Rufusgj]

Rob - I think the wavelets were all set to about maximum in Reg 6! The focuser i got from you is helping a lot as well!

Chris - I actually captured 5000 frames (just noticed the error in initial post!) - never quite sure what to do with the colour. I also tried capturing a larger Saturn using an old Barlow as an extension (lens removed) this has the same colour but is slightly less sharp (feel free to play with this one if you want!)

[cgarry]

Colour is a very personal thing when it comes to Saturn, no two people seem to agree on the best final colour balance. I usually try and make the rings white or a neutral grey, then live with the colours of the main disc. Because of Saturn is very dim it can be tricky to get a good white balance while capturing it, with auto white balance tending to have lots of problems.

I cannot offer you any advice with using Registax 6, I have tried it several times but find the resulting image much poorer than I can get out of Registax 5.1.

But back to your images, I think you have done a great job with capturing the data, with nice sharp focus. Once you have good data on your hard drive you can always perfect you processing skills on those cloudy nights that we don't seem to have any more.

Cheers,

Chris

[Rufusgj]

Thanks Chris,

I might have a go with the data in Registax 5.1 and see if there is much difference!

It's amazing how much you can learn in a short space of time! My first go at Saturn was a bit of anightmare but I was quite happy with it at the time!

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-planetary/136111-first-ever-saturn-25-03-2011-a.html

This one has come on a lot since then at that was only a month ago!

Saturn does seem to be a bit dim at the moment but I don't really have anyhting to compare it with having not had a scope last year!

I may post a R5.1 version later if I get the chance to play.

Long may the clear skies continue!

Simon

[Space Cowboy]

Nice image Simon. 5000 frames sounds a lot as using more than 10fps will produce compressed data. I normally take 6 min avi producing 3600 frames. Out of interest what were your gamma and gain settings?

[Rufusgj]

Hi Space Cowboy,

Settings as follows:

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-4

Brightness=127

Contrast=63

Saturation=100

Gamma=0

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=50

It's all a bit trial and error but seemed to get goodish results!

Simon

[Rufusgj]

Chris - Here is a Registax 5.1 version of the larger Saturn - this one was 2000 frames reduced to best 90% which was about 280 frames. It's not too bad for a quick 5minute play in registax!