First time I pointed my camera at Saturn

[heldGaze]

Finally got a break in the weather, so I busted out my new 7mm Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece only to find that the glass had been shattered in shipping. Trying to find some way to get over the frustration, I grabbed my 2x barlow with a t-mount and decided to try it out for the first time.

This image is nothing spectacular, but you can tell it's Saturn. I will definitely need to work on how to focus on things while using my camera and shooting through my telescope via prime focus. But I'm happy I got something out of tonight.



I had the exposure set too high, in Photoshop I actually slid the exposure all the way negative in the RAW open dialog, and even backed off the brightness a bit, pushed the contrast all the way to the max to recover separation between the planet and its rings. Touched up the levels a touch, and then cropped this 200x200 image out of my 10 MP capture. No tracking on this single exposure.

[victorelessar]

very nice capture

[rick_reno]

stunning shot, i like it

[Toxic Coolaid]

Very good for your first try at it!

[heldGaze]

Thanks for the feedback. I just realized the cropped image doesn't show the exposure settings in its properties, so just FYI, it was 1/8 second and I had my camera at ISO 3200 (which is the extended ISO on the 40D). F-stop and focal length in my sig for the telescope. This image is collecting likes on FB

[butcherman]

Great shot!

[MidnightSun]

Well done...

[Jericobot]

you can add some POTN 'likes' with that great pic too

[e92m3]

Nice capture... If u are into planets, u might wanna give registax a try. I had great results with it!

[Celestron]

Very nice for a first image of saturn ! What scope did you use ?

[heldGaze]

Gonna have to dig in and give registax a look. I took some shots of Saturn again last night but realized if I want to get something significantly better I'm going to have to stack. I also need to set up the motor and alignment on my scope to have it track rather than freehanding it. Basically I just pulled the decade old telescope out of my parents' garage in February and starting getting back together. I will likely be moving from the city to a more rural location this Summer, so just trying get things greased so to speak.

The Saturn image was shot using the LXD55 6" Schmidt-Newtonian in my sig with my 40D using a 2x barlow T-mount. The finder scope isn't even aligned properly yet so finding Saturn in my LCD liveview proves to be something of a trick, and I found focusing to be a bit difficult as well. Last night I aimed at the Moon, focused, then turned to Saturn. That worked pretty well, but it also made me shoot the moon as 800 ISO because I wasn't thinking enough. Though I got a touch better focus on Saturn, the image wasn't drastically better so I didn't bother posting it.

[Celestron]

Focus on a bright star not the moon . Moon is so close that when you turn to saturn it will be off focus . When i focus on saturn i pay attention the the dark ring . It only shows up properly when focus is near right on .

[heldGaze]

I can't even see stars in my LCD live view. Oh, well, maybe if I point at Arcturus or Vega or something like that. Something to try next visit as I return to the city tomorrow and we may not have clear skies tonight.

I appreciate all the guidance and feedback!

[Celestron]

Yeah any bright star will work . Aim at the star, center with a 2xbarlow and a crosshair EP if you have one and do a fine focus then attach your camera and refocus if needed after you can see it in the Viewer than use liveview . If your using liveview first then yes i can see why you have a hard time finding it .