Saturn 2026-08-26

[j...@tomney.com]

Did a Saturn imaging session in the wee hours of this morning – started off with about 15 minutes of some great, steady seeing that resulted in the image below which I put through very basic sharpening. Always a treat when we get those sort of conditions (doesn’t happen too often here in the mid-Atlantic)

 

Jim

 

[James Willinghan]

Nice one Jim! Looking good!!! Was out there this morning myself. Will see what I got later tonight after work.

James

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone posting topics not related to astronomy or the Howard Astronomical League will be moderated immediately and without notice. Obvious spammers will be banned.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Howard Astronomical League" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to howardastro...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/000e01dd353f%24efe77c80%24cfb67580%24%40tomney.com.

[A. Michael Phipps]

Outstanding.  Can you tell us avout your setup?  I do a lot of DSO imaging, but would like to try planatary.

Thanks

Mike

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAAaXfmMV1Jb8_m4tLTzajdGjDu%2BewrM0Brx1kc622C-YBK9UeQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Nagy]

Excellent image Jim. Any more details to share like scope and camera. 

--

[James Willinghan]

Michael - I believe Jim uses a color ZWO camera (not sure which one) with a 10 inch SCT scope. I use a ZWO ASI585MM camera with rgb filters. AVI's are stacked and then combined into a color image and then further processing done in programs like Registax, PS, Pixinsight, ect....

James

[Dietmar Tietz]

Is there a reason for imaging in green color?

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 26, 2026, at 11:44 AM, James Willinghan <jpwil...@gmail.com> wrote:



Michael - I believe Jim uses a color ZWO camera (not sure which one) with a 10 inch SCT scope. I use a ZWO ASI585MM camera with rgb filters. AVI's are stacked and then combined into a color image and then further processing done in programs like Registax, PS, Pixinsight, ect....

James

On Wed, Aug 26, 2026 at 10:53 AM A. Michael Phipps <ami...@gmail.com> wrote:

Outstanding.  Can you tell us avout your setup?  I do a lot of DSO imaging, but would like to try planatary.

Thanks

Mike

On Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 8:03 AM James Willinghan <jpwil...@gmail.com> wrote:

Nice one Jim! Looking good!!! Was out there this morning myself. Will see what I got later tonight after work.

James

On Wed, Aug 26, 2026 at 5:49 AM <j...@tomney.com> wrote:

Did a Saturn imaging session in the wee hours of this morning – started off with about 15 minutes of some great, steady seeing that resulted in the image below which I put through very basic sharpening. Always a treat when we get those sort of conditions (doesn’t happen too often here in the mid-Atlantic)

 

Jim

 

<image001.jpg>

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone posting topics not related to astronomy or the Howard Astronomical League will be moderated immediately and without notice. Obvious spammers will be banned.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Howard Astronomical League" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to howardastro...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/000e01dd353f%24efe77c80%24cfb67580%24%40tomney.com.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone posting topics not related to astronomy or the Howard Astronomical League will be moderated immediately and without notice. Obvious spammers will be banned.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Howard Astronomical League" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to howardastro...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAAaXfmMV1Jb8_m4tLTzajdGjDu%2BewrM0Brx1kc622C-YBK9UeQ%40mail.gmail.com.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone posting topics not related to astronomy or the Howard Astronomical League will be moderated immediately and without notice. Obvious spammers will be banned.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Howard Astronomical League" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to howardastro...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAAaXfmM6uqsMzA__YMkghNOx7FVKN_hxz7q2mD%3DS-wd7Vegkmw%40mail.gmail.com.

[j...@tomney.com]

First, thanks everybody for the positive comments, much appreciated!

 

I am using A10-inch f/6 Newtonian (I inherited the mirror from Charlie Cyrus of the old BAS; very fortunate to have such a nice ATM mirror to work with). I add a 2.5x Barlow in the imaging train, so effective focal length of 3750 mm. The OTA which I constructed around the mirror is pretty heavy, sitting atop a Celestron CGX-L that I have on a dolly so it can easily be rolled out from the garage to the driveway for a session. I also know exactly how to drop it into position on the driveway so that it has good polar alignment for adequate tracking at high power. I use a Moonlight electronic focuser and a laser collimator to help get the sharpest image possible.

 

My current video camera of choice is a QHY5III462 one-shot color camera with the newer Starvis sensor (I do not do the more advanced shooting in monochrome with red-green-blue filters that then get combined into a final product like James Willingham does). I basically do 2-minute video captures in SharpCap, balancing the gain and shutter speed to get a balanced histogram reading, ideally with at least 60 frames per second. That raw video is then culled for about 2,500 of the sharpest frames for stacking (PIPP, Autostakkert) and sharpening (Registax, WaveSharp, Lucky Stack Worker, Astrosurface are all freeware and useful). Other techniques can come into play such as derotation and refining in Photoshop – but that image this morning was a quick stack & sharpen effort.

 

A couple other points:

 

• The October issue of S&T has a nice article about the basics of planetary imaging
  
  
• The ALPO is developing a program to help mentor new planetary imagers that should launch in early 2027; information here.

 

Cheers,

 

Jim

[j...@tomney.com]

Red, green, blue are your primary colors – so if your have a monochrome camera you can do 3 captures – one each in R, G, B filter – and then combine that into a color image. The only other reason for a green filter in imaging that I am aware of is to standardize brightness when making photometry measurements (but I’m not a variable star guy so do not quote me on that…)

 

Jim

 

From: 'Dietmar Tietz' via Howard Astronomical League <howar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 12:05 PM
To: James Willinghan <jpwil...@gmail.com>
Cc: A. Michael Phipps <ami...@gmail.com>; j...@tomney.com; HAL Group <howar...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [howardastro] Saturn 2026-08-26

 

Is there a reason for imaging in green color?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/76A52E61-E160-42BB-87A1-3876BA2C2BC8%40his.com.