My first Saturn 6/11/2013

[atmenterprises]

Picked up an illuminated eyepiece and put it to use tonight to get Saturn centered up and it worked well! Sadly I couldn't find the planet when trying to use a Barlow so this is straight from the SPC900 connected to the ED80. Will try the Barlow approach again this weekend if it's clear.

[Atlas]

It' a great start. Yes it can be tricky, did you try pushing up the exposure to brighten it? Barlows tend to dim objects quite a bit.

[atmenterprises]

I did not. I didn't do any alignment procedures so Saturn was drifting through the FOV so I was battling to keep it on the chip for 500 frames at 10 frames/sec.

Will try better alignment next time. I can't see Polaris from this particular spot in my yard so the alignment is rough at best but if I can keep it centered on the chip I can experiment more with the Barlow and exposure settings.

Thanks for the tip!

[jambouk]

Good shot.

Yes, if you could polar align by setting up in a slightly different place in the yard it would allow you to experiment with the various options more easily.

But a great start.

James

[atmenterprises]

I managed to get back out again tonight. I took a few Avis with varying degrees of magnification but this one is with 2, 2x Barlows. I didn't end up with any color though. Registax assumed it was a b&w avi. Maybe my SPC900 is acting wonky.

Got a decent alignment this time, at least enough to keep it on the chip for a while. This was 2000 framed stacked with 1400 kept.

Thanks everyone for their help and encouragement!

[Superdavo]

Wow!

[Atlas]

Very nice, well done.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very good shot for such a small scope!