I know these Saturns all pretty much look alike but this one is a little different. I shot it with my C9.25 at F/20, a focal length of 4700mm. It turned out fairly well considering how bad the shakes were. I’m not sure why that was but I did have a dew shield to catch the wind and was using a barlow to magnify the image and the shakes. I think I’ll leave the dew shield off next time. Best 20% of 1000 40ms frames.
Saturn and Venus Saturday 7/11/2015
This Saturn was taken at f20 with a 9.25” SCT. Best 20% of 1000 100ms frames. It is softer than I would like but I cranked up the scale from prime focus. Shimmers were pretty bad.
Before Saturn there was Venus. This was best 20% of 1000 1ms frames. One percent of the exposure length of Saturn but it was f10 rather than f20. Shimmers were worse and there was some chromatic aberration due to the sky that I removed.
Saturn 6/27/2015
I took my new 9.25″ SCT to the RRO last night for my first attempt at imaging with it and my first attempt at Saturn in a long time. The results are encouraging. The image below is the best 20% of 1000 frames of 40 milliseconds each (click for larger view). I have checked the collimation of the scope each time I’ve taken it out but have not felt a need to adjust it. The out of focus star could be used as an image of how it should be.
I do need to work on a few things. My tracking has been off lately, I think a mount setting got changed and I just need to get the manual out and review. I also need to get or make a dew shield, maybe a focusing mask.
