Finally Some Better Seeing for Saturn

[SnakeyJ]

Oh Joy, after 7 pretty much wasted nights imaging Saturn, finally the seeing improves - a very quick stack and publish, but this beats everything I've managed for the last 2 months:

Still much to clean up and process, but at least I have some reasonable data

SW200P at F18, with Firefly MV Mono and Astronomiks 742 IR-PASS - Peltier cooling on the firefly giving -2C (14C below Ambient). 6 runs of IRLRGB taken at 2000 frames each - something to play with tomorrow evening.

Could be even better without an almost full moon, but I'm not complaining!

[neil phillips]

Nice shot shot Jake

[SnakeyJ]

Nice shot shot Jake

Thanks Neil - sure I can get a lot more out of the firefly/200P combination on Saturn (few days left before oppposition) - but unless the seeing dramatically improves I think getting above F20 is just not realistic. Though if we do get another fair night I will take the filter wheel out and make the attempt just with the IR-PASS or Luminance filters. Still it was a relief to get something reasonable given all the effort and lost sleep.

I should get to process and post the LRGBs later today, but think I can squeeze something half way reasonable from last nights data.

[Grotemobile]

Looks very good.Still not seen it this year.

I need to stay up a bit later.

Steve.

[SnakeyJ]

Looks very good.Still not seen it this year.

I need to stay up a bit later.

It's getting earlier and earlier for me - my viewing is a bit restricted in my garden (due to neighbours trees), but I started on this around 23:15hrs, though max declination is somewhere after 01:00hrs (without checking). From my site the seeing was better before 00:30hrs, the fog horns started sounding around 01:30hrs, which is usually a bad sign!

[andyboy1970]

Thats a nice image, not sure the focus is spot on though.

Keep at it.

[si@nite]

Very nice Jake well done!

[todd8137]

Very nice bit fluffy but am sure you can sort hat out

pat

[SnakeyJ]

Thanks Andy, Simon and Pat for the encouragement - results are certainly getting better, but the bar is ever being raised in this forum!

I've suffered a setback on Friday, killing my Synscan V2 controller which has kept me indoors and no doubt I've missed some great opputunities. I was already to start and even had the Bhatinov Mask ready to get the focus nailed, decent polar alignment and everything balanced - but when I went to do the alignment I realised I had no display on the handset. Four hours fiddling failed to get me back up and running, so I ordered a replacement from MA on Saturday morning. Whilst I was feeling frivolous I also lashed out on the QHY5L-II mono that I have been coverting for the last 6 weeks or so.

Entirely my own fault and an expensive lesson, but now looking forward to receiving the new toys and getting some much better images (hopefully) before Saturn becomes too distant/small.