Hi all

Here's an image I captured at the IISAC2007 star party at Lostock, NSW on the 19th January 2007.

I was imaging next to Anthony (Bird) and Markus, and it was great to actually be sitting next to someone while imaging, comparing the views on the two laptops, and both of us commenting when we noticed good patches of seeing. Imaging can be a fairly lonely exercise, so it was great to be able to share it with someone.

We did an all-nighter that night, capturing Jupiter before dawn (yet to process).

The dark skies and great transparency at Lostock helped me to get my best image of Saturn ever, as I was finally able to capture the crepe ring which had alluded me in the hazy skies we've had back home for the past 2 months.

This image is also my first using my 10" newt on the EQ6 mount.. I didn't take the 12" to IISAC2007 as it wouldn't fit in the car with everything else. It was much much easier to sit down and press buttons on the hand-controller to keep the planet in the FOV, rather than crouching down at the platform, nudging the dob etc. This is definitely something i'm happy to get used to.

Anthony also got his best image of Saturn from IISAC2007, but on the Friday night when seeing was better. Unfortunately I didn't image that night, I was just too tired from the night and days before.

Details:
- Captured for 90 seconds on each colour channel at 15fps (1/15s exposure).
- Stacked 900 frames from each channel in registax
- Rings and globe processed separately and combined in photoshop
- AstraImage used for LR deconvolution and RGB combine.
- Photoshop for final gamma, levels and curves adjustments.

Thanks for looking.

Attached Images

20070119-saturn-MikeSalway.jpg (85.9 KB, 35 views)

__________________
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Mike,

This is an unbelievable image! Must be very satisfying seeing this result after a whole night's work.
Tried 2 night's ago with my afocal method but the seeing was so poor that I gave up. I will wait for it to become an "evening planet" and try again. It should be easier on my rheumatism.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Phil

__________________
If at first you fail, you're running average