Saturn take 2 and 8 moons- i think

[Stephen Aish]

had another go at saturn and some editing

the first image is the same as my original image and i think shows 8 moons - not counting the red pixel that appears - although these may be better seen in the larger original

i know its over-exposed and have now got a near perfect setting for the planet itself as seen in picture 2

if you click and enlarge it to full size there are 4 moons close proximity - 2 a few inches below left and right and a straggler far left and right in the picture.

(click to enlarge)

the second one is much better as i had the mirror lock going and worked out just the right exposure time after a few attempts and 2 minutes before the laptop died - this was 5 images stacked but i see no difference from the original to be honest-

(click to enlarge)

time for bed :wave:

Steve

[dogfish]

Hi Steve

Very nice shots and even a hint of the cassini division in the second one.

Cheers, Martin

[beamish]

That's a cracking effort Steve. You might find that you'll need a goodly few more pics to stack prior to seeing any real improvement.

Karlo

[Stephen Aish]

thanks Guys,

got to learn the trick for multiple imaging withing the scope moving too much - my alignments still leave a lot to be desired!

Steve

[David Galvin]

had another go at saturn and some editing

the first image is the same as my original image and i think shows 8 moons - not counting the red pixel that appears - although these may be better seen in the larger original

Excellent work Stephen, As before if you give the date and time then we can can identify those moons. They are a different configuration then the last one so I assume they are from another time or/and date.

[Stephen Aish]

5/5/2008 - 23:29 heading West

thanks again David!

Stephen

[beamer3.6m]

I think you even managed the plants shadow on the rings.

Nice.

Stacking is always good, and even though you may not htink it makes difference it allows you to tease our more detail in the processing stage.

Also, consider that the Saturn's you see on this forums and elsewhere often consist of a few thousand individial images, which is why a webcam is great for planetary work as you can grab a thousand frames in no time at all.

I would invest in a Toucam Pro II, or the SPC9000 etc.

Good image though.

[David Galvin]

I can only identify five 'moons' on that image Stephen but what the eck, you got five moons of Saturn :shock: 8)

The others appear to be background stars 11th to 13 mag on averge.

[David Galvin]

Apologies for the change in the sky background as I had fiddled in Photoshop to see if there was any faint satellites lurking in the background.

[Stephen Aish]

thanks again David,

thats a neat photoshop tweak! how was it done?

regards

Stephen

[Stephen Aish]

I think you even managed the plants shadow on the rings.

Nice.

Stacking is always good, and even though you may not htink it makes difference it allows you to tease our more detail in the processing stage.

Also, consider that the Saturn's you see on this forums and elsewhere often consist of a few thousand individial images, which is why a webcam is great for planetary work as you can grab a thousand frames in no time at all.

I would invest in a Toucam Pro II, or the SPC9000 etc.

Good image though.

thanks Beamer,

just looking at the toucam and trying to locate the newest mark 3 - is the celestron CCD any good? i may go the CCD route as its probably less fiddly initially than the camera and i would imagine less to setup and worry about while learning everything else.

Stephen

[beamer3.6m]

I am not too sure on the Celestron CCD front as I have not come across it.

I believe that a modded Toucam was for sale in the 'for sale' section. The modded version allows you to take long exposure shots also and can therefore be used to capture DSO's like the orion nebula etc.

I am aware that the Toucam can be easily modded if you are any good at soldering (which I am not) or you can buy a pre-modded one from Modern Astronomy I think.

[Stephen Aish]

thanks again,

i will do a bit of research on the webcam front and may go that route

Steve

[MartinB]

Cassini and banding on the disc. Great effort

[Stephen Aish]

thanks Martin,

that was 5 images - then i hear people do thousands

Steve

[David Galvin]

Apologies for the change in the sky background as I had fiddled in Photoshop to see if there was any faint satellites lurking in the background.

I only altered the sliders in 'levels' to brighten up the image so that I could 'see' the faint stars. This then showed up the reddish light pollution (I guess) so I then tried to decrease the red a little in colour adjustments. It looked dark om my screen!

[Stephen Aish]

thanks David - much appeciated!

i was amazed how you rendered the original- more to learn

Steve

[MrEd]

thanks Beamer,

just looking at the toucam and trying to locate the newest mark 3 - is the celestron CCD any good? i may go the CCD route as its probably less fiddly initially than the camera and i would imagine less to setup and worry about while learning everything else.

Stephen

Hi Stephen

The Celestron Nextimage is just a Toucam

pro 2 in a Celestron case it behaves exactly the same

its just a tad pricey. There are plenty of used Pro 2 out there

much cheaper.

The SPC 9000 is essentially still the same device in the latest Phillips housing.

I hope that helps.

Ed

[Stephen Aish]

thanks Ed,

i have heard they are good for deep space and thats where im heading

added to list

Steve

[MrEd]

Hi Steve

Make sure it has the SC1 to SC3 mods on it then or it will be no use at all.

The Toucam without the mods are not good for DSOs.

The better choice to cover both will be the new DMKs.

Hope that helps

Ed

[David Galvin]

thanks David - much appeciated!

i was amazed how you rendered the original- more to learn

Steve

I am sorrry Stephen regarding the rendering of your 'original', I should have said that the 'cartoon' image that I have attached is a simulation of the sky as seen in the Starry Night pro software that has been set at the same time as your observation. For another example I have attached the view for tonight at 23:30 BST. So go out, later, and record an image and see if you see the same.

[Stephen Aish]

now i understand - i thought you had brought the full image to life with editing

i will be out tonight as at last it is supposed to be cloud free!

thanks

Stephen

[Stephen Aish]

Hi Steve

Make sure it has the SC1 to SC3 mods on it then or it will be no use at all.

The Toucam without the mods are not good for DSOs.

The better choice to cover both will be the new DMKs.

Hope that helps

Ed

thanks again Ed,

im sure this all gets easier as you get some light years under your belt. i will see what the next 2 days reveal with clear skies and then work out the next turning point for progress.

Steve

[Sam]

Excellent image Steve - you're getting the hang of it!

[Stephen Aish]

cheers,

its uphill but great fun!

and David - got the saturn image for you in the planetary section and i think i done the job

Steve