October 6th, 2020, 9:09 p.m. local time
Shortly after my Jupiter imaging on the 6th, I easily turned my attention to Saturn. A splattering of clouds arrived though, so after my first image set, I took a break (knowing the forecast was clear skies all night). Thirty minutes later and I was back at the telescope.
The four sets I took of Saturn were not as good as many of my prior sessions, but one set was serviceable enough to post. Like Jupiter, Saturn is now smaller through the telescope than it was mid-Summer. But you can still make out the major cloud bands and inner and outer rings. My favorite part of these Saturn images is always the planet’s shadow on the back of the rings. For whatever reason, I enjoy that that immense shadow is made from the same Sun that makes all of our terrestrial shadows on Earth.
As with Jupiter, I now rely heavily on my paper log book for all my prior ISO and exposure settings. Flipping the pages back a few months, sometimes years, helps immensely and saves time at the telescope, so I can focus primarily on, well, focus.
If you have been following along and/or know what’s up in the sky right now, you can guess the subject of my next post.
Summary of my equipment, settings, and software used:
- Telescope: Dobsonian reflector 254mm / 10″ (homemade)
- Camera: Canon EOS Rebel SL3
- Barlow: TeleVue Powermate x5 1.25″
- Filter: Baader Neodymium 1.25″
- Canon T ring and adapter
- Relevant camera settings:
- ISO 1600
- Exposure: 30
- HD video at 60fps
- Created from three videos of about 25s each, best 25-35% of frames
- Software for post-processing:
- PIPP
- Autostakkert
- Registax 6
- PaintShop Pro for minor touch-ups
