My first saturn pic

[kentronix]

Second imaging session and first attempt at seeing saturn. About 15 frames stacked in k3ccd. And tweaked in photoshop.

I know its not much but its quite exciting for me, my very first view of saturn and I managed to get it snapped.

Using phillips spc900 and my meade ds114 goto. I havent got a barlow to fit the new scope yet

[Cloudwatcher]

Second imaging session and first attempt at seeing saturn. About 15 frames stacked in k3ccd. And tweaked in photoshop.

I know its not much but its quite exciting for me, my very first view of saturn and I managed to get it snapped.

Don't underate it. As a small scale image of Saturn it has potential that can be pulled out in Photoshop.

Increase the dpi size so you can see the 'fuzz' round the edge and burn it away for a more defind object to work on. Then a couple of sweeps with the burn tool again set at midtone and detail will begin to show.

Here's an example of a few minutes work which you will be able to improve on I'm sure.

Cheers

CW

[kentronix]

is there any kind of rule for how much image manipulation is acceptable ?

I know its only for fun but I like to feel my pics will be authentic without overdoing things. I did burn (well, paint over with black) round the edge but didnt want to go too far at the risk of it turning into a photo shop produced image of saturn

[barkis]

is there any kind of rule for how much image manipulation is acceptable ?

I know its only for fun but I like to feel my pics will be authentic without overdoing things. I did burn (well, paint over with black) round the edge but didnt want to go too far at the risk of it turning into a photo shop produced image of saturn

You are only manipulating the data you captured, you are not adding anything, so it's not cheating. Well, not much anyway.

As CW said, don't underate your effort, every image you capture contains information. The more you improve, the more you will get, and the work you do after that will turn out some great stuff. Practice makes perfect.

Now I may talk good, but you have a picture, I don't.

Ron.

[Cloudwatcher]

I feel that so long as one does not add anything to an image and sticks to refining what is already there then there should be no problem with improving an image as far as possible. It's just a question of deleting noise and enhancing the 'core image'.

Ron,you beat me to it again!

Cheers

CW

[saturn5]

Agree with Ron and CW,its not cheating,just enhancing,the digital camera i have is just a point a click job so i need all the help i can get,however a canon350d or 400d is on its way soon.

Below is a single shot taken with the point and click job just hand held at the eyepiece,its nothing great,ordinary in fact but you shuold have seen how bad it was before i fiddled with it. :oops:

[kentronix]

thanks for the kick up the harris guys, I re-grabbed frames being a tad more piccy. Then used registax instead of k3ccd (seems much better although harder to get used to).

Then a bit of time on photoshop, burnt off the haze and carefully tweaked the contrast/brightness until I managed to get the rings across the front of the planet visable.

I have checked, its not an illusion. Well chuffed, cant wait until its twisted more so I can get a better view of the rings.