anil.ketkar
2022 10-18 Saturn 21_29_55_AS_F3200_ap304_R6J
Saturn was closest to earth on August 14, 2022 when it was in opposition. Saturn appears brightest near its opposition every year. We captured this image of Saturn on October 18, 2022 using our newly acquired ZWO-ASI 178MC color camera. Our gear included the Celestron HD800 (C8 Edge) telescope at native focal length (No Barlows or Powermates). The effective focal length was a 2032mm which allows us to focus on tiny objects (like planets in our skies).
The small 2.4 micron pixel size of the ASI178 sensor helped us keep image scale to the right level even at the native f10. Rule of thumb for Planetary imaging is focal ratio of an optical system (including Barlow or Powermate) should be 5 times the pixel size in microns. This meant that for our set-up, optimal F-ratio of 12 vs what we used was f10 (native Focal Ratio of C8 Edge telescope).
We used the "Lucky Imaging" technique for our image. In Lucky Imaging of planets, a short video with high frame rates is used to "freeze" the individual images to minimize the blurring caused by turbulence in the air column above us. We captured a short video of 5000 frames using SharpCap capture software.
The video mode used an exposure of 30 ms (milliseconds), and a gain of 303 and at 33 fps (frames per second) shooting speed. We then stacked the best 3200 frames in AutoStakkert3 and then did wavelet sharpening in Registax to get the final image. Enjoy!
2022 10-18 Saturn 21_29_55_AS_F3200_ap304_R6J
Saturn was closest to earth on August 14, 2022 when it was in opposition. Saturn appears brightest near its opposition every year. We captured this image of Saturn on October 18, 2022 using our newly acquired ZWO-ASI 178MC color camera. Our gear included the Celestron HD800 (C8 Edge) telescope at native focal length (No Barlows or Powermates). The effective focal length was a 2032mm which allows us to focus on tiny objects (like planets in our skies).
The small 2.4 micron pixel size of the ASI178 sensor helped us keep image scale to the right level even at the native f10. Rule of thumb for Planetary imaging is focal ratio of an optical system (including Barlow or Powermate) should be 5 times the pixel size in microns. This meant that for our set-up, optimal F-ratio of 12 vs what we used was f10 (native Focal Ratio of C8 Edge telescope).
We used the "Lucky Imaging" technique for our image. In Lucky Imaging of planets, a short video with high frame rates is used to "freeze" the individual images to minimize the blurring caused by turbulence in the air column above us. We captured a short video of 5000 frames using SharpCap capture software.
The video mode used an exposure of 30 ms (milliseconds), and a gain of 303 and at 33 fps (frames per second) shooting speed. We then stacked the best 3200 frames in AutoStakkert3 and then did wavelet sharpening in Registax to get the final image. Enjoy!