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Saturn
Mar 30, 2009 8:13:31 GMT
Post by brianb on Mar 30, 2009 8:13:31 GMT
That's really nice ... Yes, Saturday night was good, excellent transparency but I was sufferring from poor seeing all night.
The high cloud came & mostly went later, here at Portballintrae it didn't become impossible until after dawn.
Didn't image as I was trying to catch up on my variable star programme, also getting to grips with operating my new Celestron 11" SCT.
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Saturn
Mar 30, 2009 14:44:17 GMT
Post by virgo on Mar 30, 2009 14:44:17 GMT
Hello Brian, Good luck with your new scope.
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Saturn
Apr 14, 2009 8:11:49 GMT
Post by brianb on Apr 14, 2009 8:11:49 GMT
Really nice - what scope are you using?
The rings are now open 3.6 degrees - up from 0.7 degrees in December - & continue to open to 4.1 degrees in early May before closing rapidly as Saturn begins to vanish into the twilight.
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Saturn
Apr 14, 2009 10:29:08 GMT
Post by virgo on Apr 14, 2009 10:29:08 GMT
Hello Brian, Thanks. My gear is very basic. The scope is a Beacon Hill 130mm F9 on a 25 year old Vixen SP mount all sitting on a homemade tripod. I have a Philips SPC900 webcam with a 4X barlow. I don't even bother with polar alignment, I just ensure that Polaris is centered in the polar alignment scope on the Vixen SPmount.Drive is on RA only and this is enough to keep the image on the laptop screen for up to 3 minutes without adjustment.In this climate of ours, speed is of the essence and every opportunity to image has to be taken. Regards, John
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Saturn
Apr 14, 2009 11:41:18 GMT
Post by brianb on Apr 14, 2009 11:41:18 GMT
Thanks - even more impressive, I got a good view of Saturn on Saturday night but the seeing wasn't very good, I can't find my colour seperation filter set & I had difficulty getting an accurate focus, mostly because of the poor seeing. Anyway this is what I got at 2223 UT with a 11" SCT and a 2x barlow: I also tried overexposing hugely to see if I could record some of the satellites. Success:
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Saturn
Apr 16, 2009 14:27:08 GMT
Post by virgo on Apr 16, 2009 14:27:08 GMT
Hello Brian, Good image, lots of disk detail. It would seem that image quality is restricted mostly by sky conditions. I got a short AVI on the 14th April. The sky was intermittently cloudy, with the arrival of rain immenent.
Virgo
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Saturn
Jun 4, 2009 13:53:13 GMT
Post by virgo on Jun 4, 2009 13:53:13 GMT
Hello, Saturn is a difficult object now, when the sky is as dark as it gets at this time of year the planet is too low for any useful observation. However, I picked it up at around 9.20 ut on 4th June and made a short AVI. The image shows the atmospheric prism effect. along with the very bad seeing.
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Saturn
Jun 4, 2009 14:05:24 GMT
Post by brianb on Jun 4, 2009 14:05:24 GMT
Good effort for low altitude in bright twilight! I actually had rather good seeing last night but "wasted" the Saturn imaging time doing outreach with my neighbours - who were suitably "wowed" by Saturn and the Moon. Needless to say I do not consider this a "waste" at all! In any case with the recent run of good weather my disk space is just about filled with AVIs I haven't had the chance to process yet.
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Saturn
Aug 25, 2009 10:07:44 GMT
Post by virgo on Aug 25, 2009 10:07:44 GMT
Hello, My best pic of Saturn. Taken on 26th April. Attachments:
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Saturn
Aug 26, 2009 18:10:22 GMT
Post by Paul Evans on Aug 26, 2009 18:10:22 GMT
That's very nice wit the rings almost square on - good banding visible too!
Paul.
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