Saturn March 18th flex dob (even better seeing)

[Space Cowboy]

Seeing was even better last night, 8/10 very consistent. Couple of early processed pics here. Frustratingly all avis came out yellow so having trouble getting a decent colour balance. Storm was on show this time which was a bonus!

First image is b&w 6 min avi spc 900 10 fps.

Second image is a weird colour but shows storm detail better.

[neil phillips]

I prefer the BW image Stuart, you darkened the colour one so much, its starting to clip the rings, BW image looks good. was freezing last night after about 1 am. seeing at my location again looked good, but on screen, many many distortions, again i reckon its heat from houses and the cold combining. but im not certain ?

[Space Cowboy]

Yep second one is too dark here is another :

[Clayton]

Nice image Stuart.

I hope you don't mind me playing with the levels

[AztecastroMcJ]

Good result Stuart, nice scale image size

and good detail showing

[cgarry]

Hi Stuart,

That is a nice image, I could not resist a play with the colours either!

Cheers,

Chris

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks Clayton, I use 2 different monitors, 3 including my netbook, all have different brightness levels...its tough getting the right level...often if processed at night they look too dark in daylight. Now if you had removed the yellow I would have bought you a drink! Yellow is driving me nuts can't get rid of it without getting red or blue. Auto RGB balance wont touch it.

Cheers James! Good seeing makes such a difference.

[astroman001]

Good effort, looks like focus or collimation may be an issue, although it could be just poor seeing. Like the colours in the last one best.

Try to get the B ring a grey colour.

regards

Peter

[Space Cowboy]

Hi Stuart,

That is a nice image, I could not resist a play with the colours either!

Chris

Thanks Chris that's a better colour for sure how did you process that?

[Space Cowboy]

Good effort, looks like focus or collimation may be an issue, although it could be just poor seeing. Like the colours in the last one best.

Try to get the B ring a grey colour.

regards

Peter

You could be right about focus/Collimation Peter.

The seeing was good and live capture looked great but I think this was deceiving me. Tracking has been a big problem lately losing alt, have tightened axis some but obviously needs more. This makes focussing very difficult so when it looked good on screen I decided to leave it rather than struggle some more. Unfortunately it looks like another tweak with the focuser may have been needed. The same with collimation, I did this before the scope had properly cooled and was going to check again later but as view looked good on screen left it alone.

I will put this down to experience and be more diligent next time.

[cgarry]

Thanks Chris that's a better colour for sure how did you process that?

Using Gimp:

* Stretched the entire histogram using the levels tool.

* Stretched just the blue channel a lot using the levels tool.

* Stretched just the red channel a little.

* Lowered the saturation (Hue-Saturation control) to tone down the yellow further.

* A quick tweak with the curves to bring out a little more detail - not sure that this was really required.

Cheers,

Chris

[bigal1]

Great images Stuart well done

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks for your info Chris!

Cheers Alan!

[bigal1]

Here is another reprocess couldnt resist having a go

[Space Cowboy]

You've gotta tell me how you did that Alan!