Saturn 2005

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Here are my pictures of Saturn from 2005. Click the pictures to see full-sized ones.

31 January, 2005: My best yet!	This picture was taken at the same time as the previous one, also in colour RAW mode and with the same optics, but for some reason the colours turned out completely different, much yellower all over...this one had slightly less gain, and perhaps the auto white balance had something to do with it. This picture is a combination of both, although mostly using frames from the newer, better AVI. 1496 frames were stacked in total. I was very pleased with the detail on this one, the Cassini division is fairly sharp and is just visible all the way round, and there is good detail in the bands on the globe. As before, stacked in K3CCDTools, wavelets applied in Registax 3. Final sharpening/de-noising/colour tweaks in The Gimp 2. This is slightly bigger too, as K3CCDTools resampled to 2x in the stacking and I left it like that. Camera settings: Colour RAW mode. Brightness 50%, contrast 50%, Gamma 0%. Saturation was at maximum, white balance auto, and again the gain wasn't recorded although it was around 30% and the K3CCDTools level meter was showing 114.
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31 January, 2005: A pleasing image	Finally, I was able to get an image of Saturn with my new telescope, that I am pleased with. I started by collimating the telescope and the focussing carefully on a bright star using a Hartmann mask. Then moved the scope to Saturn. I used the ToUCam Pro in colour raw mode, which may have helped with the sharpness. I also used a Baader UV-IR blocker, 2x Barlow+extension tube for extra magnification, on the Europa 250 f/4.8 Newtonian. The raw frames were debayered in Aviraw, Stacked in K3CCDTools, wavelets in Registax 2, further processing in The Gimp. Camera settings: Colour RAW mode. Brightness 50%, contrast 50%, Gamma 0%. Saturation was at maximum, white balance auto, shutter speed 1/25, gain wasn't recorded although it was around 30-40% and the K3CCDTools level meter was showing 135.
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26 January, 2005: A tough one!	Bad seeing hampered this image, and as a result I am still struggling to get a sharp image of Saturn, particularly the Cassini division, with the Europa 250 telescope. This image was taken using a 2x Barlow lens plus an extension tube to further increase the magnification. A Baader UV-IR filter was also used. 1700 frames were aligned and stacked in K3CCDTools, saved as FITS, imported into Registax 3 where wavelets were applied. Finally the image was sharpened in The Gimp 2. Camera settings: Brightness 50%, contrast 50%, Gamma 0%. Saturation was at maximum, shutter speed 1/33, gain 40%, white balance auto.
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