Saturn Test - 08/07/2024

Hello!

So uhh.. I started writing this about a month ago 😅 but stuff kept getting in the way.. Basically treat this as if it was about 30 days ago haha

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The other day I was taking exposures of the Whirlpool galaxy all night - trying out the new astrocam still :p

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulties with the stacking.. Deep Sky Stacker insists on only stacking at most like 9 subs out of the over 200 that I've taken.. I'm not sure if anything will come out of that or if it's toast.. that happens sometimes! We go next :p

However, at the end of the night - I noticed my favorite planet, Saturn, peeking over the line of trees! 

I hastily moved my whole setup around a few meters, without polar aligning or anything..

There was a problem though.. of course, I wanted to use my astrocam.. but I had the guidescope mounted! This meant that I had to either switch the astrocam places between the main scope and the guidescope, or hit it blind.. I tried the switching approach at first, but no luck.. I just couldn't hit it..

So I tried just pretty much waving the telescope roughly in the direction of Saturn until I got something on screen.. and after a little bit of trial and error, I managed to hit it!

Now, I haven't imaged planets for more than 8 years.. so I didn't quite get things right haha

It seems my focus may have been off a bit.. I don't have a motorized focuser (though am planning to design and build one myself soon!!) so that was that issue.. I also feel like the seeing wasn't quite great that night, I honestly should have probably waited about an hour or so more so that the planet can get a bit higher in the sky.. but oh well, first test in 8 years, first time ever on a dedicated astrocam! Last time I used a modified Logitech C270 haha

Another problem was that I didn't even try to use the 2x barlow that I have.. I decided the chances of me hitting the planet like that are gonna be super slim, and I didn't trust myself with not losing the planet either (I only pointed the mount roughly north.. no polar aligning to speak of!)

I am also not entirely sure if I did the processing right.. I used PIPP, AutoStakkert!4 and WaveSharp

Here is two versions of the processing:

a less heavy one:

a heavier one, but with slightly more apparent detail:

I also took a few different exposures with my DSLR to get the moons of Saturn and combined those pictures into this composite:

I think the biggest improvement to be had will be from using the barlow (once my OnStep upgrade kit arrives eventually.. [at the time of posting this, IT'S HERE!!] ) and from motorizing my focuser