HOME Best Lunar Planets Deepsky Equipment Techniques Links
Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Occultation
Here are my various pictures of Saturn from the winter 2003-2004 apparition.
Click the pictures to see full-sized ones.
22 March 2004: One of my best My daughter helped me with this one, and it turned out to be one of my best Saturn pictures. 900 frames were captured for 180 seconds at 5fps. The best 640 were aligned and stacked in K3CCDTools, wavelets applied in Registax 2, then colour curves tweaked and unsharp mask applied with The Gimp. Camera settings: Brightness and Gamma both at the mid point, saturation was at maximum, shutter speed 1/33, gain 40%, white balance was set on auto.
to top home
13 March 2004: Saturn with satellites My first attempt at Saturn's moons resulted in this image showing three of them. Although the images captured were detailed enough to show the Cassini division, in the final image the planet and rings are "burned out" due to the processing required to show the satellites, and even now Dione is faint enough not to show up on all monitors (hint: it's to the lower left of the 'D'). 260 frames were stacked in Registax 2, and slight adjustments applied in the GIMP. Camera settings: Brightness and Gamma both about 60%, saturation 40%, shutter speed 1/25, gain 80%, auto white balance.
to top home
13 March 2004: Saturn Not as good as the previous image of Saturn, but I am fairly pleased with this. Details: 10 fps, brightness 60%, gamma 50%, saturation max, shutter 1/50, gain 45%. 1075 frames automatically aligned, stacked, and wavelets applied in Registax 2, USM and slight colour adjustment with The Gimp.
to top home
6 March 2004: The best so far Excellent seeing despite (because of?) a cloudy night resulted in this image. Details: 10 fps, brightness 60%, gamma 50%, saturation max, shutter 1/25, gain 40%. 387 frames automatically aligned and stacked in Registax 2, USM applied in The Gimp and colours aligned with AstroAlign.
to top home
29 Feb 2004: Saturn Aligned and stacked in K3CCDTools, wavelets in Registax 2 then colour tweaks and unsharp mask using The Gimp.
to top home
22 Feb 2004: Saturn 1 Best 50% of 294 frames chosen, aligned and stacked with K3CCDTools then processed with Registax 2, The Gimp, and NeatImage.
to top home
22 Feb 2004: Saturn 2 Best 50% of 591 frames chosen, aligned and stacked with K3CCDTools then processed with Registax 2, The Gimp.
to top home
Daves Astronomy Pictures
All text and images copyright and may not be used without permission

Saturn visitors by WebCounter: