First Saturn afocal photo with Celestron Astromaster 130EQ

[Porl]

Hi everyone,

As soon as the clouds cleared on sunday night where I live I was out with the Astromaster on the hunt to see Saturn. Set myself up to stay awake for a long night hunting it out as I'd never seen it before. I was really pleased that I pretty much targetted it straight away with the RD Finder after wandering around the garden with the Planosphere learning where some of the constellations were. I was so happy I actually figured out the location and which one was saturn before putting my eye to the lense haha I didnt expect to see it in such detail at all!

As I went through my Lense kit getting progressively more magnification the more awestruck I was. Both me and my girlfriend took it in turns observing it for an hour and a half with the 4mm and it was nice and sharp. I was so happy my scope and lenses could see it and we could see the rings! No Cassini division but, man seeing the rings and the gap between saturn and the rings was more than enough awesome!!

Monday night was even more clear and armed with the digital camera and a knowledge of knowing where to look I set about trying to photo Saturn. This was the best I could get but Im stoked with it! This is afocal with my 6mm non-barlowed plossl. I couldnt find saturn in the 4mm.

This is non edited other than shrunk and sharpened with auto-sharpen in photoshop.

To ramble a little longer I managed to find a few more new sights for me over the 2 nights. Andromeda galaxy but it was in the light pollution band (got my LP filter today though so going to try that) and did some of the Leo Sky at Night tour and saw the Beehive cluster and a really old small one I cant remember the name of. Really happy!

Clear skies everyone, here's hoping they stay.

Paul''

[bigal1]

Great first attempt , sure is tricky doing it afocal well done .

[themos]

Great result! fancy getting a webcam and shooting thousands of these?

[Porl]

Thanks guys yep it was a challenge to get it set so saturn would drift into view during the 10second timer count down, and trying to get it focused too haha. I really wish i could get it as sharp as it was through the lense but hey.

thermos, I've thought of giving the webcam a go, i tried modifying an old webcam but didnt get too far so I went back to the afocal technique. Would I need a motor drive for using the webcam? Saturn really shifts in my eyepeice because of the magnification.

Paul''

[themos]

You don't NEED a motor drive, I did my first few planetary sessions without one, either letting Saturn drift past the sensor or by using the slow-motion controls ever so gently. But it definitely helps!

[Skillganon]

I saw Saturn with my 10mm EP and through my glass window.

Few question:

Is it better to see it from outside?

What is the highest EP can be used without losing clearity and sharpness?

What you recommend to invest in.

Also what else can I point see with my 10mm EP since moon is out of the question at the moment.

[themos]

1. yes

2. On most nights 200x power is the highest useful. If your scope has a focal length of 1000mm, that would be a 5mm EP.

3. Orthoscopic EPs are quite cheap but a bit tricky for eye placement. They give excellent high power views.

4. The moon is a great target at the moment as it's still quite a thin crescent but very high up at sunset (the ecliptic rises sharply in the west).

[Karlos]

This is a great post as I was planning on buying this telescope but was unsure of its capabilities, in particular I wanted to see the beautiful rings of Saturn. So thanks for this picture is really encouraging, happy star gazing :-)!

[bm1980]

nice first image of saturn, very similar to mine which i also got afocally with a point and shoot, trust me this is the start of the astrophotograrphy bug get urself an spc 880 from morgans you wont regret it

[Porl]

I keep getting tempted by the SPC880's I know i will end up getting one sooner or later. From what im hearing though sooner is probably better as they are getting harder to find?

Paul''