Saturn Near Opposition on June 29, 2018 (JDJ)

Saturn Near Opposition on June 29, 2018

We had some of the best seeing in months in the DC area on the evenings of June 29 and 30th, so I imaged Jupiter and Saturn both nights. Seeing was 4 or 5 according to Clear Dark Sky and the stability of the planets was the best I've seen all year. Luckily for me this was close to the date of opposition for Saturn in 2018 (which occurred on June 27th). This is my best Saturn image to date.

Imaged with a C8 Evo, custom Siebert 2x barlow, ZWO ADC, Baader UV-IRcut filter, and ZWO ASI224MC. This imaging train gives me ~F/20. Image capture using Firecapture. Stacking in AutoStakkert3. Deconvolved in Fitswork4. Color balancing and Wavelet sharpening in Registax6. Lastly, derotated and combined 6 frames in WinJupos10.9 to generate the final image. Each of the individual images is a stack of the best 25% of ~8000 frames captured over 240 seconds.

FireCapture v2.5 Settings

------------------------------------

Camera=ZWO ASI224MC

Filter=RGB

Profile=Saturn

Diameter=18.28"

Magnitude=0.02

CMI=263.3° CMIII=229.0° (during mid of capture)

FocalLength=5400mm (F/27)

Resolution=0.14"

Filename=2018-06-29-0303_0-J-RGB.avi

Date=2018_06_29

Start=030104.311

Mid=030304.314

End=030504.318

Start(UT)=030104.311

Mid(UT)=030304.314

End(UT)=030504.318

Duration=240.007s

Date_format=yyyy_MM_dd

Time_format=HHmmss

LT=UT -5h

Frames captured=7999

File type=AVI

Extended AVI mode=true

Compressed AVI=false

Binning=no

ROI=388x326

ROI(Offset)=0x0

FPS (avg.)=33

Shutter=30.00ms

Gain=325 (54%)

HighSpeed=on

WRed=52

SoftwareGain=10 (off)

AutoHisto=75 (off)

USBTraffic=100

Gamma=50

Brightness=1

AutoExposure=off

HardwareBin=off

WBlue=95

Histogramm(min)=0

Histogramm(max)=171

Histogramm=67%

Solar System Imaging
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Saturn

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