1st attempt at Saturn with a Webcam

[rikyuu]

hi,

I've been desperate to grab a shot of Saturn since getting my webcam a couple of weeks ago, I think I've left it too late, but just managed last night.

Unfortunately, just as it's getting dark enough to do a quick alignment on Arturus, Saturn has almost set behind my house. Last night, I just managed 2 AVI captures of 600 frames each (1 min, 10fps) before it vanished out of sight so the results aren't spectacular, particularly as the sun had been shining on the house roof in the evening, it was giving off a lot of thermal currents.

Anyway here's my attempt after stacking and tweaking, maybe a little over processed, so I will reprocess it. Taken with my Mak 127 and Quickcam on the SLT mount, no barlow as by the time I had attached it, it was too late!

stacked v1.bmp

[rikyuu]

Perhaps this one is a little better....

stacked v2 - PS.bmp

[Psychobilly]

looks good considering the conditions

[Milamber]

It may be a bit of a [removed word] to find it, but why are you waiting for it to get dark?

Arthur

[rikyuu]

It may be a bit of a [removed word] to find it, but why are you waiting for it to get dark?

Arthur

Arthur,

well, I need to find at least one star to do an alignment with the SLT mount so it will track it. Arcturus is about the only one I can see, which is around 10pm. Finding after this is quite easy, because even witht he 1 star alignment, the GOTO is quite accurate. But by the time I got the webcam in, fiddled with the focusing and settings, it was getting past 10:30.

Can't think of any way to get an alignment earlier on, any ideas?

I may be able to pick out Arcturus a little earlier on and next time I'll have more of an idea what I'm doing, but Saturn is getting lower and lower in the sky, so the moon and Jupiter (around August) will need to be my next webcam targets.

Cheers

[Milamber]

Ah, I see. Hadn't noticed the SLT-ness of your mount. Only ways to ease set up are getting a perfectly level and North start, or going EQ. That means a wedge... or. Hmm. got me thinking now...

[Milamber]

So, I realise hacking tripod legs is a bit radical, but... if you shorten leg B, and lengthen spreader part A, your tripod would allow polar-aligning as if you were on a wedge? You would have a certain amount of instability, but shorter legs and so on would help. Adjusting for lattitude would be a case of adjusting the length of A, making sure the end of leg B was always far enough away for the CofG to stop things falling in that direction.

Arthur

[Psychobilly]

Does the SLT mount support EQ mode though is it one of the "alignment" options?

If it does and you didn't want to hack the tripod then you could make an angled platform out of ply... with a couple of drilled blocks to locate the tripod legs ... would need to strap it down as well to stop it topling...

Peter....

[rikyuu]

arghh, my beautifull SLT mount hacked to bits!!

Actually, I did look into the EQ menu function on the SLT and when selected it does rotate in RA, however when a 'virtual' one star alignment is done, it always seems to revert to ALT/AZ. Anyway, I just got rid of my EQ mount to use this instead! I think I'll just wait until Joop' comes up in the evening.

ooh....just thought, does the SLT do aligment on the sun....I think it does......but that just gets messy with solar film etc.....think I'll wait for Joop'

.....oh, and then there's the whole looking after kids and moving house thing that prevents me from chopping bits of wood and metal into pretty shapes....shame!!

[brianb]

Perhaps this one is a little better....

It's excellent, well done!

[MeerkatinBKK]

ooh....just thought, does the SLT do aligment on the sun....I think it does......but that just gets messy with solar film etc.....think I'll wait for Joop'

According to the SLT manual (page 17), you can just do a Solar System alignment on Saturn itself! I've used it on the SE before (similar but not identical controls) and it does a fairly good job until more stars become visible. I'm assuming there's only one type of "SLT" mount of course...

If you don't have the manual, it's available on Celestron's website. Link (warning 2MB file)

Nick

[rikyuu]

thanks Nick, I was thinking of the sun as it's easy to find (well sometimes!). You're right though, if I could find Saturn I could align on it, it should be possible with a 25mm eyepiece, and perhaps the focal reducer too. Cheers.

[Psychobilly]

Id you solar system align on an extended object you will have to try and approximate the "center" of the object ... Can be fun with the moon...

So use a long FL EP when you slew to your much smaller target or theres a fair chance you wont have it in the FOV... center it, change to a shorter length EP re-center then using you shortes FL EP or a barlow do another alignment on the "target"...

Peter...

[rikyuu]

Thanks, got some good ideas to try there.

This also might work, taken from the Nexstarsite;

Point the telescope in the general direction of Polaris (the North Star). Remember that Polaris is straight north and is the same number of degrees above the horizon as your latitude on Earth. In other words, if you live at 45 degrees north latitude, you would point the scope north and up at a 45 degree angle. Start an Auto Two Star Alignment and use Polaris as the first alignment star, pressing ENTER and ALIGN to accept the current position of the scope. When the scope finishes the slew to the second star, press ENTER and ALIGN to accept this position as well. The scope is now aligned and tracking.

[rikyuu]

oh, I forgot to mention in my first post that the whole scope and mount were standing on top of 3 large plastic tubs of paint with plywood on top ! It was the only way I could get enough height!!

I'm determined to try daytime alignment next time and catch it a bit earlier .

[brianb]

I forgot to mention in my first post that the whole scope and mount were standing on top of 3 large plastic tubs of paint with plywood on top

Eeek, not surprising it was a bit wobbly then!

[ashenlight]

What an excellent first attempt at Saturn, the second processing is great. Follow the advice from the guys and you can't go wrong. Looking forward to more from you, maybe have a go at Jupiter soon?

Amanda