Saturn photo

Aryanto · Post by **Aryanto** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 10:05 am

WOW!

Nice picture. BTW, just asking, why usually the picture is B/W and not colour? Are all astrophoto in books usually heavily processed so they look like that of startrek?

Post by **weixing** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:19 am

Hi,

BTW, just asking, why usually the picture is B/W and not colour?

The Saturn image is not in B/W, it is in colour. I think the colour is depend on the type of instrument used to capture the image and the method that used to proccess the image.

Have a nice day.

wAi_kiT · Post by **wAi_kiT** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:59 am

Is there any way to take astro pictures without proper equipments? Like just a camera and a telescope.

Post by **weixing** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:27 pm

Hi,

Like just a camera and a telescope.

That's consider proper equipment... I thought you are going to say without a camera... ha ha ha =P =P =P Only thing is how much manual work and time are you willing to put in???

Remember, not too long ago, people use totally manual tracking... not even RA motor drive to take astrophoto.

As long as you got a camera, you can take astro photo.

Have a nice day.

starfinder · Post by **starfinder** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:19 pm

Hi Aryanto,

Well, my photo of Saturn was taken in colour, with no tinkering of the colour in post-processing, either hue or saturation. Maybe I should increase the saturation just a bit. As an aside, i had made 10 other recordings of Saturn that night, and this was the best. I had quite a bit of problems with white balance and hue with the others. Another aside: it's vital to sharpen the image after the stacking, as it makes a world (planet) of a difference.

As for its real colours, here is a natural colour photo of Saturn taken last year by NASA/JPL's Cassini orbiter.

The caption says: "Saturn and its rings completely fill the field of view of Cassini's narrow angle camera in this natural color image taken on March 27, 2004"

Read more about this image here:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05389

From what I see, whilst Saturn has a light cream-yellow-pink cast, its rings are just white and grey, with a hint of brown.

The strange thing is, Saturn looks very deep yellow both to the naked eye from Earth, and in my telescope eyepiece (rings included). I wonder why that is so. Anyone got the answer? Is it the concentration of light?

starfinder · Post by **starfinder** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:33 pm

Hey, I've just done something:

Look at the Cassini photo above (bottom of page 1 of this thread), up close to the monitor, and put your hands around your eyes to block off everything else.

Then,

(1) Imagine you are looking at Saturn through a 100 inch Astro-Physics APO-flourite triplet costing $10 million, with perfect seeing conditions. Fantastic! What more could you ask for?

And

(2) Imagine you are in the Cassini orbiter looking out of a window at Saturn with your naked eyes. Awesome!!

I think Saturn is one of the most beautiful objects in all of nature, whether on Earth or in space. The more I look at it, the more splendid and surreal it seems. Breathtaking....

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:51 pm

Hi Gavin
Have to agree Saturn is one of the most beautiful objects around, and especially very nice to first timers.
The first time I saw Jupiter through Remus' FC60 @ 300x was great ! But several days later, I was rushing to a wedding dinner , saw a strange dot, suspected it was Saturn, went back to get y ex-ETX90 and wow! Saw Saturn for the very first time on my scope (or any scope for that matter) and is simply breath taking...

btw, do check out the latest info on the rings of Saturn revealed...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... onday.html

Post by **weixing** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 12:36 am

Hi,

The strange thing is, Saturn looks very deep yellow both to the naked eye from Earth, and in my telescope eyepiece (rings included). I wonder why that is so. Anyone got the answer? Is it the concentration of light?

From my previous observation, I think the Saturn seem to look whiter in Newtonian than in SCT... I still didn't had the chance to view Saturn through my refractor at high magnification, but it seem that it is also more yellowish than in Newtonian in medium magnification... may be is the lens in SCT and Refractor??

Imagine you are looking at Saturn through a 100 inch Astro-Physics APO-flourite triplet costing $10 million, with perfect seeing conditions. Fantastic! What more could you ask for?

With that, I think you can see the Spoke on the Saturn Ring... Hmm.. just wondering how Stephen James O'Meara can see the Spoke on the Ring with only a 15" and a 9" refractor?? :k-?: :k-?:

Have a nice day.

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:56 am

If you haven't seen it before, there are some really large pictures of Saturn out there. Check out:

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004 ... ll_jpg.jpg

and

http://www.planetary.org/saturn/images_saturn.html

Full res (8888x4544, 1.5MB)!

qu1xs1lv3r · Post by **qu1xs1lv3r** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 12:39 pm

i cannot wait to see saturn!!!! will the sky ever clear up?!?