Saturn - 9th Feb 06

[russ]

Hi all,

Myself and Rob met up for a backgarden observing session last night. For 3 hours we froze, with only a brief Tea break to warm up. Flippin heck it was cold.

Seeing wasn't good, as already highlighted on James's Saturn thread. Visually we couldn't crack the 200x barrier with any of the scopes (we had 4 in action) and really 150x was the limit of a decent image. We had good fun comparing the 4 scopes though.

We finished off with an hour long imaging session, Saturn being the main target, although we gave the Moon a try too.

Only managed to look at one AVI so far. 1500 frames, 400 used for stacking. Taken through the Celestron C8 with Moonfish 2x barlow and Toucam Pro II. Approx 80% gain, 35% brightness, 0% gamma, 30% saturation, 1/25th sec. Corrector on the C8 was 25% dewed up.

Perhaps have another to post later

Russ

[Rob]

That came out great

It was very cold!!

Rob

[OXO]

Sounds like you Chaps had fun if frozen hehe it was blumming cold last night my fingers were numb :shock:. Saturn looks ok considering

[MartinB]

That is a superb effort esp given the conditions. If I try those setting Saturn seems way over exposed :?

Martin

[russ]

Thanks Martin.

I don't normally have the settings that high. But last night we could barely see Saturn on the screen. There was some high cloud by the time we started imaging, plus the corrector plate was partly dewed up. Perhaps that may explain it.

I'm happy though, it comes out quite well.

And here's another from last night

Russ

[OXO]

Oooo thats nice Russ matey well done!

Could you please post a raw frame from the AVI matey may help myself and others as to what we should be looking for as a setting for the Avi..

Thanks

James

[russ]

Hi James,

Here's a single frame from the AVI. Looks bleddy awful!

I think my biggest problem last night was the dew on the corrector and the fact i couldn't find the 8" dew strap. Had to use the 6" jobby. Could see the dew spread out across the corrector plate.

Russ

[OXO]

Hi Russ,

Thanks for that mate, you can see the Cassini division clearly enough and hints of surface details in that frame. Your settings look very much like my own it has to be said maybe the saturation is a little higher though.

Dew yeah the weather of late certainly creates it russ, a Dew zapper Zaps in 1min mate i use a hair dryer myself . Once the corrector plate is free from dew you can then lower ya gain levels

You got a good image Russ from that..

James

[OXO]

Single Frame..

[russ]

You have a smoother single image than I have. What sort of settings did you use?

Looks nice James.

Mine is overrun with dew.

I've combined 2 avi's, see if i could smooth it out a little:

Russ

[OXO]

Hi Russ,

I used brightness 70% Gamma 0% Gain 25% Saturation 25% and 5FPS mate.

That image looks a little smoother Russ..

James

[GazOC]

Nice pics considering the conditions you guys had last night.

The single RAW made me chuckle, my first Saturn a couple of weeks ago I only processed 'cos I had nothing better to do, All my frames looked like Russ' and I couldn't see how the hell they were going to make an image!!

[OXO]

Gaz,

If you still have the AVI's send em on disc to me matey i'll process em for you

[Rob]

Again nice work matey!!

[GazOC]

Gaz,

If you still have the AVI's send em on disc to me matey i'll process em for you

I had to delete thenm James, both my HDs are packed with films/TV series etc. I need one of these USB jobbies so I can free up some space.

[radioactive]

Must Say you guys certainly know what you are doing I have a great admiration for your efforts and these cracxking results you can achieve I have been jotting down some settings you chaps had mentioned on the thread thanks for that very much also

[OXO]

Like all things Radio, It's down to experience mate, if we can help you avoid the pitfalls we once fell in then thats great..

James