Saturn on August 24, 2018 (JDJ)

Saturn on August 24, 2018

Imaged Saturn and Mars on the evening of August 24, 2018 under the best seeing conditions I've experienced all year (CDS focast of 5/5). Even with the great seeing, the transparancy was about average so exposure times were longer than usual for m. Saturn was rock-steady and ring gaps were nicely visibly in the Firecapture preview. This might be my best Saturn image this year. If only we could have more nights like these...

Imaged with a C8 Evo, custom Siebert 2x barlow, ZWO ADC, Baader IR 685nm pass filter, and ZWO ASI224MC. Imaging train was configured to give me ~F/25. Image capture using Firecapture and Sharpcap. Gain set at 350 and exposure was 40 ms. Stacking in AutoStakkert3 (best 25% of ~7500 frames captured over 300 seconds.). Color balancing and Wavelet sharpening in Registax6. Derotated and combined five images in WinJUPOS.

FireCapture v2.5 Settings

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

Observer=JDJ

Scope=Celestron Nextstar Evolution 8

Camera=ZWO ASI224MC

Filter=RGB

Profile=Saturn

Diameter=17.43"

Magnitude=0.36

CMI=331.6° CMIII=223.2° (during mid of capture)

FocalLength=4950mm (F/24)

Resolution=0.16"

Filename=2018-08-24-0131_5-J-RGB.avi

Date=2018_08_24

Start=012904.229

Mid=013134.235

End=013404.242

Start(UT)=012904.229

Mid(UT)=013134.235

End(UT)=013404.242

Duration=300.013s

Date_format=yyyy_MM_dd

Time_format=HHmmss

LT=UT -5h

Frames captured=7502

File type=AVI

Extended AVI mode=true

Compressed AVI=false

Binning=no

ROI=388x326

ROI(Offset)=0x0

FPS (avg.)=25

Shutter=40.00ms

Gain=350 (58%)

HighSpeed=on

SoftwareGain=10 (off)

Brightness=1

Gamma=50

WBlue=95

HardwareBin=off

USBTraffic=100

WRed=52

AutoExposure=off

AutoHisto=75 (off)

Histogramm(min)=0

Histogramm(max)=142

Histogramm=55%

Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a

Limit=300 Seconds

Sensor temperature=26.6 °C

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