saturn 28/12/2004 first attempt wth lpi

Hi All,

New to astronomy and this Board. Here's my first attempt at astrophotography, taken on 12/01/05. Equipment Meade ETX-105 and LPI. Autostacked abt 25 images with LPI software, minor processing in Photoshop (sharpened, cropped and enlarged).

I was pretty impressed as I managed to catch 4 of the moons as well

Some other photos came out better i.e. no blue tinge, but this one showed the moons best.

I think I will have to make a Hartmann Mask as I found it almost impossible to focus properly.

(alt+p)[/img]

ei7ix,
that's very good for a first attempt. Well done on capturing the casssini division and the moons. Personally, I find focusing THE most difficult part of astrophotography. With experience it'll get easier, but will always remain a challange.
Clear skies,

Oooops :oops:

I forgot to put my name on my previous post !

Thanks for the words of encouragement Michael.

Hi Dermot,
Do you have control over the white balance in the LPI, this might be why the colour tone is abit skewed.
Focusing is the scourge of astrophotography, and many a great photo has been deestroyed by not having this bang on.
All the same, you have a sharp enough image there, maybe stacking more frames will take away the blockiness of the image ??

Keep it up, practice makes perfect !

Had my first attempt at Saturn with the webcam earlier tonight. The seeing was terrible with lots of turbulence and visually I could not make out the Cassini division, but as I was set up anyway, I gave it a go and was supprised by the result.



I am always amazed what Registax can do...

I also got an image of Machholz near Algol with the Canon and of the sunspot 10720 with both the Canon and the webcam. These can be seen on the gallery page of the Kerry Astronomy Club website. All in all not a bad days imaging!

Michael Scully KAC/ SAC

mjs,

What a difference a "few miles up the road" makes. I was clouded over with rain even though MetCheck told me that I would only have 21% cloud.

I like your Saturn picture. Was that with a Canon or LPI? I intended going out with the intention of photographing Saturn. I did get an early chance at the moon with an old 500mm mirror lens but at F8 the definition was awful. I bought it in '99 to photograph clouds during the solar eclipse!