Thought I would get out for another evenings observing. Visibility appeared to be good around 8pm and improved as the evening went on. Still finding it challenging with the very side on nature of Saturns tilt with respect to viewing from Earth.
Still seeing a hint of the Cassini division but also now seeing a slight shadow of the face of the planet caused by the rings.
I hadn’t been too excited to image Saturn this season due to the angle on which we will be observing. But I thought as we approach opposition on 8th September that i should get the telescope out and give it a go. In the end I was pretty happy with the result after post processing in Autostakkert and waveSharp.
I am sure that I can see a hint of the Cassini division.
Off the back of last Saturday nights success with imaging I thought I would give it another go. The astronomy forecast for seeing/visibility was very promising so after setting up and getting my first views of Saturn in I knew that the results were going to be far better.
I am very happy with the processing and getting the clarity in the Cassini division. Just so tricky with the side on view of the rings that we are having this season. Can’t wait for a couple of years from know when we have better visibility on the ring plane.
Didn’t have much luck observing Saturn around opposition and when I did my dedicated astro-pc (Intel-NUC) decicde to burn itself out. After purchasing a second hand Dell OptiPlex Mini I am back in the game. Actually I think this is going to work out even better as it has 6 USB ports over the Intel-NUC’s 4 USB ports.
Now in terms of doing some observations I thought that it might be challenging with all the heat that Sydney has been experiencing. But in the end it didn’t turn out too badly in the end. Cassini Division definitely noticable still given the angle we are currently seeing Saturn at.
Another night of good observations with Saturn. Just love the shadow projecting onto the rings at the back of Saturn.
One of my best nights observing Saturn. Fanastic definition in the Cassini division. This is certainly one of the best images that I’ve taken of Saturn.
After the Saturn occultation of May 2014 I was excited about the prospect of seeing another so soon. The weather during the day was perfect but it wasn’t until I got off the train later that evening that I notice quite a bit of cloud cover and the prospects didn’t look good. I started setting up though just in case the skies had cleared. I popped my head out every 20-30 mins in the lead up to first contact and with a few minutes to go the clouds had parted. This gave me a couple of minutes to align the scope for visual observation only. It was a spectacular site as the shadowed side of the moon started passing in front of Saturn. Once Saturn had fully disappeared, which took no time at all, I setup the scope with the webcam and waited for it to reappear on the other side approximately 50 minutes later.
Here are some pictures that I took of the setup on the night. Once again such a pleasure to see this rare astronomical event.
Here are some pictures of the setup on the night.
2014 is a great year for observations of objects in the solar system. There ends up being 3 occultations of the Saturn by the Moon. This was the first time that I had observed one through a telescope. The night was perfectly clear and so I headed home early to setup and get ready. It ended up being the first time that I was setup to take photos through prime focus so was a little uncertain how my images were going to turn out.
I knew that trying to take photos using the same shutter speed with the different brightness levels between the full Moon and that of dimmly lit Saturn would end in disaster. So after experimenting I found a balance between the two and was going to alternate between the two so that I could create a composite imagery/video.
System setup for the night is as follows :
Canon EOS 7D camera settings :
Here are some pictures of the setup on the night.
