Jupiter & Saturn (6th September 2021)

[rob_r]

Hi,
Here is Jupiter and Saturn imaged on Monday evening, the first captures of the new season, on the 6th September just outside the small village of Talley in Carmarthenshire, about 30 miles west from Brecon Beacons National Park. The skies are remarkable at Talley and a huge change from my home skies near Preston. Talley is estimated at Bortle 3 (according to Clear Outside) plus the faint wisp of the Milky Way is visible without any other visual aids.
All imaged with SkyWatcher SkyMax 127; TeleVue Powermate 2.5x; ASI ZWO 224MC and an IR-cut filter on the AZ-GTI mount (due to it's portability over my EQ-5 mount). No ADC used (it's on the list), just manual focus which may be slightly out and I'll have to add the exposure, frame rates and gain settings used. They look a little fuzzy perhaps but have some details coming through. Very impressed with the Powermate though for both imaging and observing.

We were lucky with the weather there, 3 clear nights over the past week and I gathered more data on the gas giants on the following night but have yet to process them but I suspect due to it being more breezy then plus having a lighter tripod, the data may not be as good. I may try adding 1.5x drizzle to enlarge them further too.

Jupiter:

• 15 x 60 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 4ms; Gain 450)
• Stacked best 20% frames in AS!3
• Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos
• Final level and curve adjustments in Photoshop.

Saturn:

• 15 x 120 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 500)
• Stacked best 20% frames
• Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos
• Final level and curve adjustments in Photoshop.

My best planetary captures yet in any case and thanks for looking.

Edited September 22, 2021 by rob_r
Added exposure settings

[Pete Presland]

Nice pair of images there, some decent detail visible on both.

[rob_r]

A couple more from the following night 7th September, at Talley, Carmarthenshire.

Jupiter:

• 15 x 60 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 350)
• Stacked best 15% frames in AS!3
• Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos
• Final level and curve adjustments, unsharp mask in Photoshop.

Saturn:

• 15 x 120 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 500)
• Stacked best 15% frames
• Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos
• Final level and curve adjustments, unsharp mask in Photoshop.

Jupiter looks better despite no GRS. Saturn looks a little worse as it was getting fairly breezy during the capture process, I honestly thought the whole rig was going to topple over. Thanks again.

[BillH]

Good shots from the 127 there Rob. I plan to use a similar set up this month for the same targets. What capture software do you prefer for the ASI camera?