Saturn - 7th December 2008

[dweller25]

Here it is - edge on.

(click to enlarge)

[beamish]

That's nice, what time this am was it taken ?

Karlo

[dweller25]

Thanks Beamish,

The image was taken around 5:30am - just before the fog rolled in with a SPC900 webcam and a C9.25.

Visually Saturn looked stunning and I could see as much detail as I have imaged - I think I need to check my imaging setup.

[beamish]

Cheers, I would have loved to have stayed up for it but cold by 4:15am & been out since 9pm- still wish I had , I bet this really did look nice last night.

[russ]

Nice image indeed

I stayed up especially to view Saturn....well worth it!

[Brinders]

Hi Dave great image. You do seem to do well with Saturn.

I too was up between 3.30 and 6.00 am. On low powers with both the C9.25 and the WO Megrez 72 APO, Saturn looked fine, but with no detail visible, just three satellites. Ramped up the power and it became a diffuse white blob, nothing like your excellent image. I had a go at imaging it with the C9.25 and it was no better. I noticed seeing wasn't too good with an unusual (from my location) orange skyglow and general murk to the south east (I usually only see that to the north and west). I had tried imaging the moon with the Megrez last night and the images with that were not too good either, certainly not as good as I have achieved in the past. I'm not going to bother posting any from last night, they are just too bad.

Checked the collimation on both scopes and both are spot on (not that I could have done anything about it on the refractor if it hadn't have been). Just got to put it down to poor seeing.

Got a Skywatched LP filter on order form FLO, maybe that will help to improve things.

Still, glad you had more success, well done!

Brinders

P.S. One compensation last night was a very bright meteor at about 4.00 am streaking across the eastern sky.

[dweller25]

Hello Brinders,

Thanks for the kind words.

I was a bit disappointed with the images I took as they where all underexposed and I did not shoot for long enough - all part of the learning curve.

A couple of ideas with the 9.25 :-

1. I collimate at x783 power with the help of my wife - that's a x3 barlow with a 9mm eyepiece, since doing this I have seen much better star and planet images.

2. I bought a Lymax cat cooler from the states and it's really helped settle the scope down as I store it indoors.

Last night it was optically very sharp on Saturn - I could see banding on the surface quite easily. It was bl**dy cold though. I've had the scope a year now and am still learning about it !!

My seeing was very poor too and I did not go out until 4:30 so missed the meteor

I will learn from my mistakes and post some more images asap.

Regards.

[Brinders]

Yes, you are right it was bl**dy cold. I collimated early on Saturday evening on Vega using my 8mm hyperion. A slight tweak on one of Bob's knobs (ooh er) and the diffraction pattern both intra and extra focal were text book. Checked again on (I think) Capella prior to looking at Saturn and still perfect. The fact that the little Megrez was no better (it's a brilliant scope for its size) leads me to think it was atmospheric conditions that spoilt things. Heavy dew and frost together with worse than usual light pollution do not make for good observing or imaging.

Can't imagine my wife would be as helpful as yours in the early hours - I have to collimate on my own which with the long tube of the C9.25 can be quite a task!

I'm worried though, if you are still learning and can get images like that above, there's no hope for me!

Hope you are keeping well,

Brinders

[gary1968]

Very nice, I cant wait utnil it is visible from my garden to have another go myself.

Gary

[Doc]

Not seen it yet this year.

I can't stay up that late start falling asleep

Great photo, it's weird to see the rings edge on.

[davo]

Thats a genuine WOW! from me too.

I haven't observed it like this yet due to my view. What an angle!!!