Saturn Oct 15th 2023

[Space Cowboy]

I make this my first Saturn image for 8 years. Sadly thin cloud almost totally blanked out the planet but seeing was quite stable. Very noisey image but better than I expected.

[Kon]

Nice capture. Cassini division is nearly all the way around.  Nice banding on the planet.

[Space Cowboy]

34 minutes ago, Kon said:

Nice capture. Cassini division is nearly all the way around.  Nice banding on the planet.

Thanks Kostas. I nearly didn't bother setting up as the forecast showed high cloud but looking at the rest of the week it's now showing cloud every night!

Frame rate was only 11fps but the on-screen view looked decent. Couldn't properly align the ADC for some reason and decided to try the mono but by then the cloud was so thick I lost sight of Saturn completely! 

Only managed the one 6 min colour  capture. Quite impressed by the sensitivity of the QHY585 on Saturn. In good conditions it could produce a very nice image.

[morimarty]

That looks like a very clean tidy Image/capture Stuart. Colour balance. The banding and Cassini all look very well defined. if only we could get some decent weather.

[Space Cowboy]

24 minutes ago, morimarty said:

That looks like a very clean tidy Image/capture Stuart. Colour balance. The banding and Cassini all look very well defined. if only we could get some decent weather.

Cheers Martyn! It was nice to see the ringed wonder after so many years. My first view of a planet through the eyepiece in 2009 was Saturn and I still felt that buzz from seeing this magical planet that appears as a faint point of light to the naked eye.

I should mention this image is downsized 75%.

[Kon]

6 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Thanks Kostas. I nearly didn't bother setting up as the forecast showed high cloud but looking at the rest of the week it's now showing cloud every night!

Frame rate was only 11fps but the on-screen view looked decent. Couldn't properly align the ADC for some reason and decided to try the mono but by then the cloud was so thick I lost sight of Saturn completely! 

Only managed the one 6 min colour  capture. Quite impressed by the sensitivity of the QHY585 on Saturn. In good conditions it could produce a very nice image.

Any opportunities these days are worth taking.

It seems the 585 is working nicely for you. Where your Jupiter images with it as well?

[Space Cowboy]

3 hours ago, Kon said:

Any opportunities these days are worth taking.

It seems the 585 is working nicely for you. Where your Jupiter images with it as well?

Yes Jupiter with the 585 also. I was going to take a R filter mono shot with the qhy462 but the cloud had other ideas. 😛

[Pete Presland]

8 years ! mind you Saturn has not exactly been nicely positioned in the sky in recent years. 

A very good image to return with though, a little noise but nothing to bad

[MartianHill]

That looks just like I saw Saturn for the first time - amazing