Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Saturn 22nd March

Wow! it's clear... well clear'ish, first time for bleeding ages. I took about half a dozen videos of Saturn, but when I processed them, they all exhibited a strange mis-align on one side of the rings.
I went out 2 hours later and them imaged these. Not that great, but it was very misty and the gain had to be increased quite a bit on the Toucam. These are all 2 x barlow, I couldn't use anything higher because it wasn't bright enough... Saturn that is.
I think the scope needed time to cool down. I normally have the scope covered by a blanket and a nylon cover. When I took it off, I don't think the scope was fully cooled down for the earlier images. During the day, the 'shed' observatory seems to heat up a lot. I may need to spray/paint the clear roof :-( more expense.

Here's a picture of the scope in action on the night (we don't need no stinking dew shield). As you can see from the scope position, Saturn was just coming up to the Meridian and running up against the buffers so to speak, doh! as per normal, switch the scope over.