Saturn photos and info
Saturn Photos and Info
- 2005-Apr-05 - ToUcam image
of Saturn Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 (with
4X Powermate), Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing
IV-III). A stack of the top 200 of 600 frames. Saturn:
mag. 0.1, diameter 18.5". Processing: K3CCD (capture,
1/25th second exp., 5 fps, gain 60%, brightness 50%,
saturation 50%, gamma 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter
??), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing).
- 2004-Jan-14 - ToUcam image
of Saturn Meade LX10 OTA at f/26 (with
4X Powermate and f/6.3 reducer (too lazy to take it off when
switching from deep sky imaging :)), Philips ToUcam, from
Oceanside (seeing III-II). A stack of the top 500 of 2500
frames. Saturn: mag. -0.4, diameter 20.5". Processing:
K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 5 fps, gain 20%,
brightness 50%, saturation 40%, gamma 50%, "raw/full frame",
brightness meter 90), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet
processing).
- 2003-Sep-22 - ToUcam image of Saturn Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 (with
4X Powermate), Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing IV). A stack
of the top 500 of 1500 frames. Saturn: mag. 0.1, diameter
18.4". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 5
fps, gain 10%, brightness 50%, saturation 40%, gamma 25%,
"raw/full frame", brightness meter 40-45), Registax
(alignment, stacking, wavelet processing, color channel
alignment), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments).
- 2003-Jan-04 - HX916 image of
Saturn occulting M1 toward the end
of the occultation (f/10, Meade LX10, stack of 30 30 second
images through an OIII filter, binned 2x2, STV guided, from
Anza (seeing 8, transp 5, tracking 0.8X, 0.9Y @ 1.0
sec)). Processing: AIP (dark and flat calibration,
stacking), MaxIm (DDP:LowPass-Hard, linear brightness and
contrast stretch). Sorry about all the reflection artifacts.
- 2003-Jan-04 - HX916 image of
Saturn (f/40, Meade LX10, a stack
of 10 LRGB images (0.40 second luminance, 0.50 second RGBs),
unbinned, STV guided, from Anza (seeing 9, transp 5,
tracking 0.8X, 0.9Y @ 1.0 sec)). Processing: AIP (dark
calibration, unsharp masking (radius 6.0, contrast 10.0),
stacking), MaxIm (default color combination, linear
brightness and contrast stretch).
- 2003-Jan-04 - HX916 image of Saturn (f/40, Meade LX10, a stack
of 10 LRGB images (0.40 second luminance, 0.50 second RGBs),
unbinned, STV guided, from Anza (seeing 9, transp 5,
tracking 0.8X, 0.9Y @ 1.0 sec)). Processing: AIP (dark
calibration, unsharp masking (radius 6.0, contrast 10.0),
stacking), MaxIm (default color combination, linear
brightness and contrast stretch).
- 2003-Jan-02 - HX916 image of
M1 and Saturn 2 days prior to
Saturn's occultation of M1 (f/4.6, Meade LX10, LRGB
composite of 5:5:5:5 minutes of exposure (all 5x1 minutes
binned 2x2), STV guided, from Anza (seeing 4, transp 9,
tracking 2.3X, 2.8Y @ 1.0 sec with 10-15 mph
winds)). Processing: AIP (dark calibration, stacking, color
registration, color balanced using G2V and then Black
Sky). The same image but with Saturn exposed correctly
composited with the above image to show Saturn's true size.
- 2002-Oct-05 - HX916 shot of Saturn
(f/40, unbinned, 0.2 second exposures, stack of 37 individual
images, from Benson, AZ). Processing: AIP (manually cropped,
unsharp masked (4, 4)), MaxIm (aligned and stacked, mild unsharp
masked, linear brightness scaled).
- 2002-Sept-09 - HX916 shot
of Saturn
(f/20, unbinned, 0.2 second exposures, stack of 13 individual
images, from Anza). Processing: AIP (2X resampled, unsharp masked
(2, 4), stacked, unsharp masked again (2, 4), linear brightness
scaled).
- 12/03/2001 - HX916 shot of Saturn
(f/20, unbinned, 0.02 second exposures, individual images
processed by 2X resampling and unsharp masking, followed by
stacking and then brightness scaled, from home).
- Sept 30,
2000 Another great seeing night. Shot at f20 this time
though, which makes taking shots more difficult but removes the
strange image artifacts created during drastic image resizing.
(f/20, best-sharp for a few minutes w/ 0.015 second exposures in
STV "zoom" mode and then I expanded it 2X with Paint Shop Pro,
Sept. 30, 2000).
- Three shots of Saturn the
morning of September 24rd, 2000 (Image 1,
Image
2, Image
3), all at f/10 (prime focus) using the STV's "best-sharp"
feature for a few minutes w/ 0.020 second exposures in STV "zoom"
mode and then I expanded them 4X with Paint Shop Pro to increase
the scale to something more easily viewable. All three of them
are much better than the August 26th shot, with the second image
being my favorite. Visually, Saturn was outstanding just
before dawn on the 24th. The Cassini division was stable and
easily visible all the way around the ring and the crepe ring was
distinctly visible!
- August 26,
2000 (f/10 (prime focus), best-sharp for a few minutes w/
0.010 second exposures in STV "zoom" mode and then I expanded it
4X with Paint Shop Pro, Aug 26, 2000).
- Saturn Prime focus of LX10 with 2X
barlow and eyepiece projection adapter as extender. It was REALLY
hard to focus and get anything even close to this photo. (0.5
second exposure (grossly overexposing Saturn), July 25, 2000)
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