Saturn 24th June 2020

[si@nite]

My last run on Saturn seems to be the best of the runs from this morning! Ive pushed the processing as much as I dare but all in all pleased with the result at this low elevation!

[morimarty]

Excellent Simon especially at such low elevation.

[russ]

That's excellent.

[geoflewis]

That’s a cracking result imaging at such a low altitude.

[kev]

great shot

[theropod]

Magazine cover quality!

 

 

[si@nite]

Thanks everyone for the generous comments, much appreciated!

[si@nite]

Ive reprocessed the Saturn image above, think this ive squeezed a little more detail out on the bands!

 

[knobby]

That's excellent 👍 what scope etc ?

[si@nite]

1 hour ago, knobby said:

That's excellent 👍 what scope etc ?

Hi knobby 

C 9.25  skyris 236m camera  × 1.5  amplifier !

 

[knobby]

Interesting, i read somewhere that 5 X pixel size is optimum f no for planetary, you're at about f 15 which is bang on ( ish 😁) 2.9 pixels X 5 = 14.5.

I'm at around f25 with a ZWO224 really need to get it down to under f20.

[geoflewis]

44 minutes ago, knobby said:

Interesting, i read somewhere that 5 X pixel size is optimum f no for planetary, you're at about f 15 which is bang on ( ish 😁) 2.9 pixels X 5 = 14.5.

I'm at around f25 with a ZWO224 really need to get it down to under f20.

x5 px size is a good sampling rule of thumb for planetary imaging. Jerry Lodriguss covers the reasons for this on his website 'catching the light' http://www.astropix.com/html/i_astrop/Planetary_Imaging.html

In summary it boils down to having sufficient magnification, as allowed by the seeing conditions, so that small/fine details are spread over more than one pixel. The more pixels covered by an item of detail the greater is the potential for those details to be resolved by your optical system. As a minimum you want x3 px, but in superb seeing you can probably push to x7 px, though that is unlikely to be of benefit on Saturn and Jupiter at their current low elevation as seen from the UK. With the ASI224 px at 3.75 micron then x7 puts you at ~F26, so in superb seeing you may just tease out that little bit extra, but I tend to agree that at F25 you are probably oversampled most of the time. That said, I'd definitely be wanting to try pushing up there for Mars later in the year just in case you can really nail it. C8 (F10) + ASI224 (3.75 micron) + x2 Powermate gives around F20, so that's were I'd want to be most of the time.

[des anderson]

Both great images. Des

[si@nite]

Cheers for that info Knobby, & cheers for the link Geof!

Ive always had greater sucsess with the C9 on planets, I was over sampling too with the big meade at over 3 m fl with the skyris 326 & less favourable outcomes, so the C 9 is what im sticking with now! But as we all know seeing is everything in this game and makes all the difference if we get that lucky break! 😉

[si@nite]

Can not edit my post should have said skyris 236!

[maw lod qan]

That is an excellent image of Saturn!

[Pete Presland]

Superb capture!