First Saturn

I am giving web cam and planetary imaging a try. Attached is first light with the SPC900 through my 5.5" refractor. It was taken at f30 with 4x powermate. The only adjustment I could find on the Vdub software was frame rate which I set to 5. It was a stack of about 400 frames from Registax. Background was darkened in PS as it was greyish from the stack. Small adjustment in layer 6 with wavelets but any more and it seemed to accentuate horizontal bands accross the frame. This was especially true at any frame rate other than 5. I don't know what that is.

Any comments or tips would be greatly appreciated. I guess I will need more focal length and aperture in the long run.

Clear skies,
Kevin

Attached Image:

Nice job Kevin (especially for your first Saturn!) Your shot shows that the rings have opened up a little bit since opposition. The color seems good too.

Here's one I posted right after opposition (using a 6" newtonian, shot afocally using a Canon A540 that I picked up for $50)

http://setisociety.org/MVI_0288MODTRIMREGPUSHFIFTYROX.jpg

when comparing to your very similar scale shot, one can see that the rings have opened a little (as they were predicted to do before resuming the march toward being edge-on next year.)

Good job, Jason



Jason Higley

Kevin Brennan said:

I am giving web cam and planetary imaging a try. Attached is first light with the SPC900 through my 5.5" refractor. It was taken at f30 with 4x powermate. The only adjustment I could find on the Vdub software was frame rate which I set to 5. It was a stack of about 400 frames from Registax. Background was darkened in PS as it was greyish from the stack. Small adjustment in layer 6 with wavelets but any more and it seemed to accentuate horizontal bands accross the frame. This was especially true at any frame rate other than 5. I don't know what that is.

Any comments or tips would be greatly appreciated. I guess I will need more focal length and aperture in the long run.

Clear skies,
Kevin

Attached Image:

Very good Saturn, Kevin! Congrats!!!