colour Saturn 17th feb

[neil phillips]

The blue on this run was really bad. pulling the image down badly. But its my first colour shot of saturn. And on a high Note im convinced after fitting my new focusser. I have collimation pretty good. The scope seems to be perfoming lovely. Though the mirrors need a recoat a bit.

Not great. but certianly encouraging as i wasnt sure if saturn was going to be a complete waste of time. I will be doing plenty of red channels As it copes with the low elevation better than green. and far better than blue. Which might be useful if any storms happen.

Hopefully getting better colour quality as the season progresses. But it will be hard. and we will need some luck i think.

1.5x drizzle. winjupos. 30fps red and green 15fps blue

[si@nite]

You should be pleased with that Neil very nice considering the low alt, sending you this reply from a very cloudy Derby at such a stupid time in the morning, wanted to bag my first saturn this year but it wont be today!

[theo]

Considering all things Neil, that's very nice indeed. I think based on your results so far there is definitely the possibility of obtaining some great image's from the UK if all things come together at the right time. That's where we need that bit of good fortune!!

Pete

[SnakeyJ]

Neil,

Stunning image and excellent result from the Orion/DMK. What barlow/fl were you imaging at and please tell me this was taken from UK skies!

Seriously not far off what Kokatha man's producing with the C14/ASI120MM down under.

Jake

[JamesF]

Very nice start. If things are going to get better I'm looking forward to seeing the images.

James

[Stephen Green]

Very nice image Neil

Stephen

[Space Cowboy]

I'm amazed at the detail showing on the planet for such a low alt.

[neil phillips]

Neil,

Stunning image and excellent result from the Orion/DMK. What barlow/fl were you imaging at and please tell me this was taken from UK skies!

Seriously not far off what Kokatha man's producing with the C14/ASI120MM down under.

Jake

Hi Jake i used a 3x celestron. my scope is at f6.3 so around F19. though with the filter wheel in place it will be somewhat higher than that. F20 F23 somewhere around that figure. You dont want to push to high because saturn is so dim. The blue will be impossible. colour cams have a different set of rules. Just make sure its shy of full gain 85 90% max

Yes it was taken over heated house roofs in Essex

Though i will say its a far cry from Darryls great shots. The red monos are better in this regard. but still a far cry. Cheers for your comments. I am pleased its inspiring you guys. It encouraged me too. I didnt expect to get the reds i posted on the other page. So early and on my first attempt

[neil phillips]

Thanks guys. We will need luck. it will be a challenge. But things could actually get better. I will experiment with a slightly smaller f ratio. maybe around F18 so i can get better blues. Its all in the experimenting. My celestron 2 x with a short tube. might be the ticket. Work in progress. Bigger scopes will cope better in this regard on the blues

[neil phillips]

out of interest heres some that i was trying different things on. The colour seems a bit green heavy. But as soon as i do a reg RGB colour balance, it sends the rings more red. no doubt. the uneven histos causing this. But i had no choice. at this focal length and trans

[budski]

Hi Neil, nice one - as always.

Darryl's picture taken a couple of weeks ago was, in all respects, a benchmark. It's now our prerogative to match it if we can -and if anyone can ... you can.

I'm still faffing about with the engineering/technology/software side of things but hopefully will get down to some serious work before too long...

Bud

[Ewan]

Great pics to start with Neil, regards to Barlow & lengths, if you can take the main lens bit off the bootom & thread it onto somewhere else would this help ? after reading your above comment about using a 2 x i do have one but it's a cheapo £35.00 job whereas my 3 x Twistlock has been very good, yours is f6.3 mine f10 (but i also have a f6.3 FR i could use), your primary 245 mine is 200, so i'm just waondering what you would guess as my best option oh & ill have to use RGB as i have the DMK""618 & as such i will have to use my filter wheel ?

Keep going with it Neil as you are bound to get that lucky good seeing (maybe) sometime & your combination will be right, good luck & thanks for sharing.

Btw i can make out the Vortex on yours too

[beamish]

Credit is indeed due to you Neil, given the difficulties from our lattitudes this is very good

[neil phillips]

Hi Neil, nice one - as always.

Darryl's picture taken a couple of weeks ago was, in all respects, a benchmark. It's now our prerogative to match it if we can -and if anyone can ... you can.

I'm still faffing about with the engineering/technology/software side of things but hopefully will get down to some serious work before too long...

Bud

Hi Bud Many thanks for the comments. If anyone could fly me to oz and loan me a C14 getting images as good as Darryls might be possible. ( hold on for John Hs saturn images with hes 14" Orion they should be something too)

Seriously At this scope size and elevation it would be something if i could get 60% of darryls quality. You cant really beat the physics of bigger optics and much higher elevation. So no i dont think thats quite possible. But i certainly think at opposition with a bigger brighter saturn and careful power considerations ( focal length ) a much more vibrant colourful and possibly sharper image could obtained for sure. As mentioned Bud its tricky with saturn and smallish optics ( i do consider 245mm smallish ) because often the best seeing occurs with mist and dew. Those dont go hand in hand with Saturns low surface brightness. So what we need for that extra quality is fairly calm air with good transparency, preferably near opposition. Those conditions dont happen much for me. Though i had one or two nights last year on saturn that it did. Notice how the colours are a bit more vibrant here, With the cassini cleaner at the front, even though the angle was more closed.

Good seeing trans and collimation more blue in the mix

Sadly my collimation shfted a bit during this run. As can be seen by the slight indistinct cassini at the front. Seeing was excellent here with good trans. But was very short lived. one run if i remember. ( that magic saturn combination )

I did enhance the colours a lot as can be seen by the less than neutral rings. ( i did processes with more neutral rings ) But it shows the colours that can be got from dim saturn with only 245 mm quite well Bud.

[neil phillips]

Great pics to start with Neil, regards to Barlow & lengths, if you can take the main lens bit off the bootom & thread it onto somewhere else would this help ? after reading your above comment about using a 2 x i do have one but it's a cheapo £35.00 job whereas my 3 x Twistlock has been very good, yours is f6.3 mine f10 (but i also have a f6.3 FR i could use), your primary 245 mine is 200, so i'm just waondering what you would guess as my best option oh & ill have to use RGB as i have the DMK""618 & as such i will have to use my filter wheel ?

Keep going with it Neil as you are bound to get that lucky good seeing (maybe) sometime & your combination will be right, good luck & thanks for sharing.

Btw i can make out the Vortex on yours too

HI Ewan as long as the extra tube length is between the barlow and camera, you can do pretty much anything

200 mm Primary will be harder than the problems im getting Ewan. The same just slightly worse. I would start with a 2x and try different tube lengths. though your 3x might work under good transparency. Aim to get the red to 50% histogram fill. a little less will be fine 40% for example. Aim for this reading with the gain down just a bit from max about 85 90% most likely 90 you may have to go to 95% gain ? it depends i havent used 200mm primary

Green will be tough as soon as you go to green the histo will fall. The problem is you really want to be shooting at 30 fps on the green. So you may have to suffer the green a bit dim. 15 frames per sec is not fast enough in my opinion. Especially at 24 odd degrees. Its all a juggling act trading one evil for another. the advice i give is not a cure all solution, as there is none. its less of two evils i think. The dim histos are bad news. But so is 15 fps on saturn at 24 degrees. Some may not agree. But i have found better quality can come from slightly dimmer histos. rather than much slower exposures and half the frame counts if you get my drift.

Blue will be a nightmare. I am aiming to get blue at 1/15th secs exposure 15 fps but at the moment at about F22 with misty transparency. The histogram brightness is real bad, dim. Which is why i am mentioning about going down in focal lentgh a touch and or better transparency of the sky for myself to try and coax, a bit more signal strength. Start early and dont stop filming untill saturns at least at its max elevation and beyond. keep refocussing a lot. using the cassnin div, as a guide to sharpness on screen. i stand a couple of feet from the screen i find it helps see through the blur when focusing. Though my old eyes do work better at distance. still this rule should work for younger eyes.

Hope this all makes sense. let me know if you understand everything. hope im helping cheers

[neil phillips]

Cheers Karlo, your c11 should cope with the poor histograms we are discussing quite well. Are you going to be trying saturn ?

[beamish]

I very much doubt it Neil I've just yesterday taken the decision to dis assemble and pack away safely whilst a load of building work is being done around the house- just not too safe to be trying to get an 11" scope out to the pier or even on the tripod ATM at the end of the garden( which would be ideal for the early morning captures) so I'm generally both feeling pretty low and keeping low. That said there 's plenty of good images on nthe various sites to help keep my pekker up

[Ewan]

Thanks for the reply Neil, i doubt ill get a chance to even do Saturn tbh as i'm surrounded by houses on almost 3 sides, this is why i want to move house :-), i will end up investing in a powertank & travel cases me thinks. Your advice always helps Neil cheers, i do exaxctly the same for focus ie Jupiter i was going for the smallest moon possible & Lunar i try to find the smallest craters & zoom in to tweak the focus, i must admit the standard SCT focuser is very very twitchy, sneeze near it & your doomed :-(, the vibration from my hand without the 3x barlow is annoying & amplified even more so with it so ill be looking at a new focuser next, it never end's.

If & that's a big if,i do get a chance to try Saturn i would have gone for low frame rates anyway, judging by other's examples, just to get anything.

Keep posting Neil as i am learning a lot of tips every week on SGL & i love all the 'free' advice available, it's much appreciated thank you.

[johnh]

The open rings look so inviting like when I first started imaging in 2006 when Saturn was in Cancer. Have been out of the loop for 5 months with wild windy and stormy weather in Brisbane and only got a couple of goes at Jupiter. So can't wait for Saturn imaging to start but it may be some time - watching and waiting. Must be pretty low in the UK like Jupiter for us.

Regards, John.

[Pete Presland]

thats a pretty good image of a pretty tough target.i find saturn just so dim when imaging and obviously the low elevation does not help either.