copyright StarlightCascade Observatory
Saturn is now an evening object, and since I have been using my time for the morning imaging of Jupiter, Saturn has been awhile.
Wow.. a cold cold night! was -5C and a bit more at various times.
So.. This is Saturn from just after the CFL West semifinal where Sask prevailed over BC. Yay!
This is the best 10% of 10K frames of 20ms exposures with Saturn very near the meridian. Earlier that day I also did a firmware upgrade of the skywatcher synscan hand controller… jumped up three versions and the upgrade process went well. Always a dicey decision.. firmwares have been known to brick items.
The dew strap around the corrector and the dew shield worked well. no fogging or condensation of frost on the glass all night (I packed it in around 1am.. more on that in the next note about Jupiter and the Ganymede shadow transit). This processed image was taken around 2146 EDT. The altitude was fairly low at 36 degree but I did not really see any atmospheric dispersion effects. The rings are getting dimmer and harder to make out. The moon Titan was well out of frame last night as well..
autostakkert! registax and gimp processed.