My first OK-ish Saturn image

[Daniel]

Ok, this is the first image of saturn i've been able to take which wasn't just a saturn shaped cutout, im learning to be ok with underexposure and let the stacking software do it's magic to bring out the detail.

there's a bit of banding on the actual planet iteslf in this one, but still no sign of the cassini division, i guess this is partly because of the fact the rings are quite edge on now.

Anyway, i took this with my Celestron Neximage camera 1000F stacked in regiStax 4

:O)

[MarkS]

Were you able to see the Cassini division through the eyepiece?  How was the seeing?  If you can't see it visually there is less chance of successfully imaging it.

[JohnP]

I would say seeing Cassinni visually would be tough now given the angle of the rings.... John

[Daniel]

Admitedly, I couldn't see the Cassini division through the eyepiece either, although, I've just stacked another image, this was taken through prime focus, the 40D seems to have picked up a lot more detail even though the subject was much smaller in the frame. I might be seeing things, but on this one i can swear i can see a faint bit of banding wroughly where the Cassini division should be!



Seeing wasn't great on either of the days i took these, a lot of moisture in the air too!

[Carole]

You said you would be well please if you had an image that looked like my little Saturn, you must be ecstatic with this one.

Carole

[Mike]

That's very good Carole. Some detail there. Just need to practice getting pin sharp focus and then get LOTS of pics using the webcam to stack them.

[Daniel]

Definetly happier with this image, I ended up using 7 out of 11 images I had and stacking them in K3CCDtools, the focus was about as good as it'd let me get it (viewing 10X through live view on my camera) but im hoping on a day with better seeing I'll be able to get it into focus a little better!