Saturn imaging (12th April 2009)

One image from the archives... I shot Saturn -at Vesanto in central Finland- with my C8 OTA & 2x Barlow lens. Used camera type was Philips SPC900NC. I had a lot of interference lines visible in stacked image. Periodic noise was needed to be removed with IRIS, postprocessing was done at Photoshop CS2.

Saturn imaging at Nuuksio

After a long time waiting, finally skies cleared. Thanks to my work colleague for the car ride... Expectations were high, but I was disappointed with the results. Seeing was very bad, it caused lot of disturbance in the atmosphere. After stacking I also noticed some "stripes" in the image. Got to find out where they are coming from...

C8 image details:
Location: Nuuksio (Espoo, Finland)
Date: 15th February 2008
Time: 23:43 UTC
Telescope: C8 XLT (2032mm f/10)
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ-5
Barlow: TeleVue 3x
Webcam: Philips SPC900NC
Stacking: Registax v4, 952 frames

It was approximately one year (!) after my last Saturn imaging session (too long time to speak). I made a comparison image pair about Saturn rings. They look more and more narrow each time. Within one or two year, the rings should "disappear", since the plane is pointing towards earth.