902 replies to this topic

[Wdh]

I had a few minutes of OK seeing last night in between areas of drifting wildfire smoke. I haven't messed around with this one yet, other than white balance and wavelets in AstroSurface. 20% of 4 minutes at 20 milliseconds exposure to keep the gain reasonable. It's a little sharper than the last one I posted. C6, 1.99X Barlow, ASI585MC.

 

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•  2023-10-03-0143_1-WDH-L-Sat_lapl6_ap34.tiff   91.78KB   24 downloads

Edited by Wdh, 03 October 2023 - 06:48 PM.

[ETXer]

Last night's effort with my circa-1965 Quartz Questar 3.5" Standard in slightly above average seeing. The best of 10824 frames with a classic Celestron SV-Series 2x Barlow, ZWO ASI224MC, SharpCap 4, AS!3, Registax 6 and denoise in Topaz. 640x480 capture area, 30.5ms exposure for 5.5 minutes (average around 31.2 fps), gain 416.

 

 

Cheers, Allan

Edited by ETXer, 16 October 2023 - 06:18 PM.

[jmviper]

Saturn with Mak 127 mm. 5 videos 1 min length with SVBony 305pro. 30 ms exposure + 231 gain. Stacked with AS3 (60% stacking). Wavelets Registax + Astrosurface. Derotation with Winjupos. No RGB Aligment... I like the planet's yellowish look as seen in reality 

[Opticsjunkie]

We had a night of excellent seeing in the Northeast on Oct 4th. Saturn was an absolute treat, both visually and on camera. Here is the best out of four imaging sequences: 30% stacked frames out of 40,000, taken with a QHYIII462C through a 5.5 inch F6.5 iStar APO and Baader FFC at 4x. Derotated in Windjupos, stacked in AS3!, sharpened and noise reduction in Pixinsight, and final assembly of moons (Enceladus and Thethys) and Saturn in Photoshop. Processing these images is always a delicate balancing exercise between revealing as much detail as the optics allow without going overboard and keeping a natural look. Colors are a bit muted, but otherwise pretty happy with this result.

 

 

 

CS

-Jeroen

[james7ca]

We had a night of excellent seeing in the Northeast on Oct 4th. Saturn was an absolute treat, both visually and on camera. Here is the best out of four imaging sequences: 30% stacked frames out of 40,000, taken with a QHYIII462C through a 5.5 inch F6.5 iStar APO and Baader FFC at 4x. Derotated in Windjupos, stacked in AS3!, sharpened and noise reduction in Pixinsight, and final assembly of moons (Enceladus and Thethys) and Saturn in Photoshop. Processing these images is always a delicate balancing exercise between revealing as much detail as the optics allow without going overboard and keeping a natural look. Colors are a bit muted, but otherwise pretty happy with this result.

 

  2023-10-04-0231_8-Saturn and Moons.jpg

 

CS

-Jeroen

That's a nicely balanced image and I like the way you've rendered the moons. However, are you sure this was taken on October 4? I can't find a time on that date when Enceladus and Tethys were aligned in that manner.

[Opticsjunkie]

That's a nicely balanced image and I like the way you've rendered the moons. However, are you sure this was taken on October 4? I can't find a time on that date when Enceladus and Tethys were aligned in that manner.

Just checked the Winjupos file which is stamped on Oct 4, 2:31 am UTC. So you're correct, the image was taken on Oct 3rd, 10:31 pm EST. Thanks for pointing this out!

Edited by Opticsjunkie, 19 October 2023 - 09:09 AM.

[james7ca]

Just checked the Winjupos file which is stamped on Oct 4, 2:31 am UTC. So you're correct, the image was taken on Oct 3rd, 10:31 pm EST. Thanks for pointing this out!

Okay, but I think those two moons would then be Dione and Tethys, not Enceladus and Tethys. The moon Enceladus is moderately difficult to image and it always stays fairly close to Saturn, except when at maximum elongation.

 

Check out this graphic from the Saturn Viewer website (   https://pds-rings.se...ewer3_sat.shtml )

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Edited by james7ca, 19 October 2023 - 09:42 AM.

[Opticsjunkie]

I had similar thoughts initially, however, Dion's magnitude is 10.9, similar to Thethys (m=10.7). Yet, the moon that is imaged seems top be much fainter, which is why I identified it as Enceladus (m=12.3). Having this said, the graphic you pulled up indicates that it must be Dione. I'll double check in Winjupos tonight, but I wasn't aware of the Saturn Viewer website, which looks like a great resource, so thanks for sharing! 

Edited by Opticsjunkie, 19 October 2023 - 11:26 AM.

[gstrumol]

I tried again to see what I could get with the Orion Apex 90mm Mak and the Canon T7 DSLR. Seeing was, as usual, below average-poor and Saturn was around 28^o alt. Trying to achieve focus was a challenge as the image would fluctuate in size and in-out frequently.

 

I know, just go back inside and watch some Netflix!    But all of you understand the obsession when the sky is at least clear and the planet is visible. So here is the result:

 

 

Enlarged on top, original on bottom. 26s video, 50% stack. Postprocessed with GIMP but no adjustments were made to the color.

 

How I wish for a clear night with above average seeing! 

[Jupiterastro]

Some good seeing this morning as Saturn crossed the meridian at 31 degrees. 8 image derotation, 200% capture scale:

 

Saturn_2023-08-04-1027_8 UTC.jpg

L-R Tethys, Enceladus, Dione

 

NexStar 6SE, ZWO ADC, UV/IR-cut, ASI678MC

FC, AS!3, waveSharp, WinJUPOS, GIMP

moons are very bright.

[Jupiterastro]

These are my Saturns,from August to October.

The ring is getting wider and wider.

[dalbert02]

My first attempt.  Celestron Evolution 6, Tele Vue Power Mate, Sony A7Siii, 3 minute 1080 video stacked and best 33% 

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[Toddeo]

Finally took the trusty C6 Sct out -  before the clouds rolled in.

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[dalbert02]

Finally took the trusty C6 Sct out -  before the clouds rolled in.

May you post more details please?  What equipment did you use and exposure and all the other secret sauce please! 

[Toddeo]

May you post more details please?  What equipment did you use and exposure and all the other secret sauce please! 

Thankyou!  The C6 Sct is from the Evolution package. The camera is a ZWOASI178MC. Each video capture consisted of 4500 frames. Mount is a Celestron Evolution. No diagonal used. Captured using SharpCap3, stacked using AS3! and sharpened using Registax6. Seeing could of been better but I'll take what I can get!

[orbman]

Just learned about this thread. I tried imaging Saturn with a Canon 7DII plus a 2x teleconverter attached to my MAK102mm optics, and used 5x LiveView to capture video streams. The first two are using the Windows screen record function, and the last two are using BYEOS. All are a big improvement over what I was able to accomplish in the late 1980s.

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[orbman]

Question for those who use WinJUPOS on small bore images of Saturn. While I have found WinJUPOS helpful when processing images of Jupiter, none of my Saturnian images taken with a 102mm MAK show any details in the vertical direction that are affected by Saturnian rotation. I have stacked up to an hour's worth of video frames in order to get the best possible image of Saturn. Why would WinJUPOS be any better if there are no details that change with rotation at this scale?

[orbman]

Now I am really confused. I wanted to compare my Saturn results without WinJUPOS and with WinJUPOS, so I measured five Saturnian images and created *.ims measurement files for each of them.

 

In the tools section of WinJUPOS for de-rotation, it wants *.icm files. I checked when I used WinJUPOS on some images of Jupiter a few months ago, and those were also *.ims files.

 

WinJUPOS won't accept the *.ims files of Saturn. What am I doing wrong?

[orbman]

Now I am really confused. I wanted to compare my Saturn results without WinJUPOS and with WinJUPOS, so I measured five Saturnian images and created *.ims measurement files for each of them.

 

In the tools section of WinJUPOS for de-rotation, it wants *.icm files. I checked when I used WinJUPOS on some images of Jupiter a few months ago, and those were also *.ims files.

 

WinJUPOS won't accept the *.ims files of Saturn. What am I doing wrong?

Figure it out - needed to click on edit and then add photos.
 

[orbman]

Question for those who use WinJUPOS on small bore images of Saturn. While I have found WinJUPOS helpful when processing images of Jupiter, none of my Saturnian images taken with a 102mm MAK show any details in the vertical direction that are affected by Saturnian rotation. I have stacked up to an hour's worth of video frames in order to get the best possible image of Saturn. Why would WinJUPOS be any better if there are no details that change with rotation at this scale?

I did a test of this. I had 5 video streams consisting of 24,000 frames taken over a one hour period. I had previously joined them in PIPP, and then let AutoStakkert do all the work on the entire hour's worth on frames.

 

I just did a WinJUPOS run on the AutoStakkert separate 5 video stream images to compare. Perhaps it is my inability to outline the individual images with precision, but letting AutoStakkert do all the work when there's no variation in latitudinal detail seemed to give a better result.

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[Kross01]

Hi I want to dive into some planetary imaging with my astrotech at130edt. Would like some input on what Barlow or powermate and zwo camera everyone would recommend. The scope is a 130mm f7. Thanks

[Kokatha man]

Question for those who use WinJUPOS on small bore images of Saturn. While I have found WinJUPOS helpful when processing images of Jupiter, none of my Saturnian images taken with a 102mm MAK show any details in the vertical direction that are affected by Saturnian rotation. I have stacked up to an hour's worth of video frames in order to get the best possible image of Saturn. Why would WinJUPOS be any better if there are no details that change with rotation at this scale?

"Small bore" images of Saturn rarely resolve features in Saturn's cloud bands...and an old "trick" (with any aperture scope tbh) when imaging Saturn was to let the capture run for a very long time - it will define the different cloud belts very well, but because of such lengthy captures reveal no cloud features nor any irregularity in the belt boundaries, detail which is evinced in captures of 6 minutes or less in larger scopes at specific image scales, or when utilising WinJUPOS.

 

Be aware that WJ can assist although it can often be the case that a single capture will evince better details...

[TristanE]

The early morning Saturn imaging have begun for me...  

Celestron Nexstar 4se, svbony sv305

best 20% of 2000 frame stack

SharpCap AS! rgstx

 

 

oiii filter

 

I took this wider photo of Saturn and I'm not sure if this is a background star or a moon of Saturn

 

[Winteria]

The early morning Saturn imaging have begun for me...  

Celestron Nexstar 4se, svbony sv305

best 20% of 2000 frame stack

SharpCap AS! rgstx

1.jpg

 

 

oiii filter

6.jpg

 

I took this wider photo of Saturn and I'm not sure if this is a background star or a moon of Saturn

7.jpg

Really nice work!

 

That's a star in your third image, the moons this year will not get that far above/below Saturn because it isn't tilted very much relative to Earth.

[TristanE]

Really nice work!

 

That's a star in your third image, the moons this year will not get that far above/below Saturn because it isn't tilted very much relative to Earth.

Thank You!

 

I figured it was a star but I wasn't completely sure.