First image of Saturn

Now while this isn't much better than what I see in the eyepiece, it is my first ever pic through the scope.

Bare in mind that I haven't gotten to grips with polar alignment of the platform, stiction still appears to be a problem for me so getting Saturn on the chip was a chore. I didn't intend to image at all, I was really just out tonight to test some of my mods out, and figured I'd give it a go without Rtfm. Well I thought I had set the 900nc settings right in k3ccd tools. 10 and 15 fps with captures of 3 minutes a piece. I should have ended up with over a thousand frames. how come, when I came inside I found each avi had only 10 frames a piece!!??

Well I decided to run them through registax. First time I ever opened the program too. Didn;'t know what the hell I doing. Clicked auto everything. The following image was the result.

Can someone please point me in the direction of a tutorial for planetary imaging using a webcam, K3ccdtools and registax....a tutorial for morons like me. Anything I have found thus far seems to assume some knowledge on the part of the reader.

Hi Calibos.

Thats a terriffic first effort, much better than my first effort ( maby even my last few efforts also!). THB, im roughly at the same level of expertise as you, my only benifit is ive had a few more attempts at imaging. Il list a few things Ive learned, but there will be guys on this forum much better equipt to advise you.

1. It doesnt look like you have an infrared blocking filter on between the scope and the camera. I find this essential to get anywhere near the "natural" brown and creamy colors expected from saturn. It is also needed when imaging mars.

2. I dont use K3ccdtools but from what i understand its just a video capture tool with a few extra bits and bobs for astrophotography. I am still using AMCAP, that came with my nexImage. AMCAP is free to download online, and If you cant find it, Il send you on a copy.

In AMCAP, ive found, atleast with the nexImage in AMCAP , for saturn that the following settings work pretty well, but expirementation is required as other settings have not been fully tried and also your system is different to mine.

FrameRate: 15
Gain Slider : half
Brightness slider: 3/4


Play around with these as you can see the effects in realtime in AMCAP.
I would advise trying AMCAP as it has all you need to image, with no frills, so it might simplify the process until you find you need some of the more advanced functions of K3ccdtools.

As for registax, its very hit and miss with me still. Dave Lillis has a terriffic Registax tutorial on these boards. Also, this is not a bad tutorial , but i think its for the previous version. it still will be quite accurate though:

www.threebuttes.com/RegistaxTutorial.htm


4. Are you using a barlow? barlows are really useful in planetry imaging as they increase the focal length and focal ratio of your scope further. the longer the better for planetry imaging. you have quite a big scope so im unsure if something over 2x will be any use to you, but i could be wrong there. also, with a barlow, you will doubble the size of that image, which can be increased in registax again making it huge!



Again, great image. Keep'em comming.

I have a question on your setup, is DSO imaging possible with your setup? Can you autoguide your mount/tracking system? i understand rotation might be an issue but can you get wedge for that system ( im sure you could make a wedge). Just interested if DSO imaging can be achieved with an altazimuth mount.

First image! That is WAY better than anything I managed for my first few attempts.

I'd stick with K3CCDTools. It's an excellent capture program and can also use long exposures if you have a modified webcam. It's integrated focussing tool is the best I've come across.

I did a quick planetary imaging tutorial a while back using a neximage and registax - I must update it with a better saturn image though as I used a NexImage with the RAW firmware upgrade at the time but ended up killing the colours by accident. Anyway, the article is here:

thelunarscape.com/Joomla/content/view/31/48/

By the way, one important thing I've noticed since then is to try and keep the gain down as much as possible and change the exposure time instead. My gain is usually 25% or under unless I'm using really really high magnifications.

Cheers,

Trev

I used an antares 3 element cheap 2x barlow for this. I've also got a 3x and a 5x. Might give the 3x a try next time. Think I will follow fintans advice and use amcap. It looks a lot simpler than k3ccd tools. Saturn was over the roof of my house and sinking fast so I was in a rush to capture something. Hadn't a clue what I was doing. All I remembered was that with Saturn, that about 3 minutes is the max and to use 5 or 10 FPS depending on the seeing Disgusted to find out inside that k3ccdtools had only captured 10 frames in the 3 minutes when I was expecting over 1800. So that was a stack of all 10 frames, good or bad in registax. I just set the alignment box and auto everything and thats what came out the other end of the programme

I did use an IRcut filter on the 900nc btw fintan. Maybe there is little to no colour because its only 10 frames ??

As for autoguiding the EQ platform of my DOB? Not sure. There is a spare phonejack type port on the hand controller. While field rotation is not an issue with a platform the max exposure is limited to a little less than a minute. You have to spend big money on a dual axis platform with better motors etc to be able to do longer exposures. The platforms in this price bracket are primarily aimed at visual or planetary/lunar imaging. Even with the 1 minute exposures, polar alignment must be spot on. I still haven't got a handle on that yet. Saturn was drifting on me.

That is a fantastic Saturn. It is as good (if not better) then most 1st images of Saturn i have seen. It would look better if it was centred in the image.......but that is purely cosmetic.

GREAT image.

Thanks for the advice and words of support guys.

Thinkin' I might try again tonight. Forecast was for clear.

WRONG!!!

I AM SICK TO $%#@$# DEATH OF THE $$#%@#$# WEATHER IN THIS $%$#$%% COUNTRY!!

Appolgies, I had to get it out of my system! :oops:

Clear in the midlands. Cloudy in the east. Got a few sucker patches and through the eyepiece Satrun is as rock steady as last night, despite the NE wind. Looking good seeing wise. Transparency???? A big fat Zero.

might clear later in the am but Saturn will be below my roof then and too low in the sky anyway.

Why couldn't I have gotten into astronomy and gotten my scope and started dipping my toes into planetary imaging back in the Summer. That way I would have been at the stage I am now back in December when I actually got my scope.....when the skies were clearer....when Saturn was at zenith during the night....when Mars was ripe for imaging.

Now its all too late. Saturn will barely be worth imaging next opposition next year without the rings. No Mars for another 20 months, Jupiter is too low till 2010.

I am so frustrated now its just not funny :evil: :evil: