Big 22/4 Saturn & 4 Moons.....

[Kokatha man]

Hi all - I've posted the other results of this particular imaging session in another thread current here but I thought I'd wrap this night's output up by posting the final rgb choice as a "Big Saturn" with all the moons that were in the actual fov and recorded.....not the cropped versions in the other thread!

I won't get into uber-superlatives like "superb seeing" re this particular night - and perhaps that's because I'm too much of a nit-picker who has been observing the night sky for 55 years now ) but it was pretty reasonable (seen better though...) - this last rgb I've posted was done without the cropping I did in ninox to the others before I realised there was a 4th moon (Enceladus) and I think it is at least as good as any of the others, particularly at this scale: the Cassini Division can be charted right across the visible ring system as well as the Encke Gap's appearance also, with some nice storm head definition....and with Enceladus, Dione, Rhea & Tethys in the frame as well I think it makes a nice composition.

As Rob (clayton) knows I've been burning the candle at both ends a bit with our imaging forays.....this night's late-nighter out in the Murray Mallee on Friday 22nd...another night imaging at home on Saturday...and then back out to the Mallee last night: we'd definitely have been giving it a rest soon even if the weather didn't look like it will turn for the worse in a couple of days.....at 62 sleep-deprivation isn't a good thing in large doses :eek: (heh-hee...but I have got the peltiers running on the scope outside as I write..!

After a lousy Jupiter apparition last year the number of hi-res images we've collected on Saturn has been both satisfying and maybe some sort of compensation for the Joop season.....particularly those such as this which help chart the Great Storm head's appearance over time.....but I'd better be carefull with what I utter re the "weather gods" - and I am aware that many folk are struggling under really adverse conditions lately - here's hoping that those of you who are get some good seeing soon to lift your imaging spirits..!

The old C11 is really singing lately as it awaits its demise at the hands of the VX16.....making me feel quite bad about eventually selling it....!

I have about 3/4 hour or more of rgb's with the 4 moons each displaying the storm head at similar resolution, so perhaps I really will sit down and make an effort to master animations: I like the thought of the 4 moons especially.....but that'll mean re vdubbing & ninoxing all the avi's etc, etc....!

And a big "thank you" to Freddy for sending me his ImagesPlus animation description.....I'll sit down sometime soon and tackle it Freddy..!

[AztecastroMcJ]

Quality result again KM

while u are moving on to larger, better scope

i would love C11 and result such as this, mayb one day i have some money lol

how long have u had C11 for out of interest ?

animations would be great esp with moons moving aswell as that storm,

well worth the, at times frustrating and lengthy processing

thx for posting

James

[Kokatha man]

Thanks James, yeah, I like the idea of an animation with the moons moving in it as much as anything!

In reality I've only had the C11 about 2 years, which is almost as long as I've been imaging the planets.

But I guess because I've made so many modifications to it as well as enjoyed some good imaging sessions.....it's also helped me learn a lot about equipment and software etc, etc.....and a lot of the trips we make away from home are enjoyable experiences in themselves; like the live band's music coming through the night last Friday as we imaged....!

And like you do so capably with your little mak, I take a sense of achievment (and a little pride) in matching it with those guys with really big scopes.....

And the only reason I can afford the new scope is because my Dad died last year and left me a few dollars - it was "now or never" to buy a new scope.....and the Oz $ is in great shape at the moment for overseas purchases..!

[Space Cowboy]

Great image yet again!

[brianb]

Really nice ... what sort of exposure time were you getting with the Flea?

[Kokatha man]

Really nice ... what sort of exposure time were you getting with the Flea?

Thanks Stuart and Brian.....we've settled on the regimen of roughly 85/110/165 seconds for each channel with a histogram marginally below 50% max, gain = 2938 for r& g and blue 3198.....gamma = 992 which will give us just over 3200 frames for each channel Brian.....around 19fps for blue, 29fps for green & 38fps for red.....we adjust the exposure values for these framerates: this time ratio seems to be a reasonable constant with diffferent setting values although of course it'll alter the number of frames collected with different other values - with FireCapture v1.2 there is virtuall no time lost between channel/filter changes..!

[oldfruit]

Stunning.

[banner001]

very nice!

[CamoCustom]

Wow, just perfect! Such awesome photography!

[Kokatha man]

Thanks once again for the generous comments.

[Clayton]

I have already said it elsewhere, but who cares? "This is a real Pearler" Darryl

[Kokatha man]

Thanks Rob.....we also tried last night but I reckon the transparency was down and we packed it in after looking at the onscreen image.:eek:

Re this image I've found a few more that could equal (or who knows?!?) this one even.....there are a number over an hour or more of time that really stand out - making me think I really should grapple the animation thingy...

There should be quite a few that have the same scale but I think I might have varied scale a little between the first and last of these avi's by sliding the ET out a bit between groups of avi's.....that would mean less for an animation unless I could find a way too (very) accurately resize some....!:)

And we are taking in some more sleep now....!

[bm1980]

WOW , top notch images

Regards

Ben

[Kokatha man]

Thanks Ben.....on this image and colour renderings I've commented at length over on CN: rather than cut & paste all the thoughts into this thread here on SGL I'll put a link to that thread.....but I'll post my re-rendered image here as well which I did after the "Colour Police" knocked on my door late last night..!:eek::) (using a total extra of 1200 frames - but without any real additional improvements imho)

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4544714/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1