Pictures of Saturn

[itsneedtokno]

@naiku @Lets Fly

I know there is other astronomy nuts among us but those are the two I know off hand lol.

Anybody got any good pictures of Saturn recently?

Inverse: You need to see Saturn in the night sky this week.

You need to see Saturn in the night sky this week

Saturn will be at opposition, and visible to night sky gazers throughout August where they will be able to marvel at its rings.

www.inverse.com

 

[samt2]

I got these pictures with my Nikon Coolpix P1000. (Raw, unstacked)

 

[itsneedtokno]

When I was young I saw Saturn through a surveyor scope. It was my first experience seeing another planet with my naked eye.

I'll never forget everything about the experience. My mindset, my surroundings, just all of it... I can re-live it anytime I want to in my mind.

 

[dronerdave]

Saturn is a head turner for many who have never seen it through the EP of a good scope and Jupiter is right behind it. Capturing a planetary image is more challenging and I prefer to visually take in objects like Saturn, Jupiter and Mars with a nice telescope. A nice bino viewer is amazing on a good night of viewing.

 

[naiku]

No good pictures here, it's been cloudy the last week or so, could not even get any additional pictures of comet Neowise before it disappeared, missed the meteor showers last week as well. Started looking into some better equipment for astrophotography, after some major sticker shock ($1,200+ just for a decent goto mount), put that on the back burner for now. Although I may pick up a new prime lens soon to try and get some pictures of the Helix nebula, or at least see what I can do with the equipment I have.

 

[Beet]

I got these pictures with my Nikon Coolpix P1000. (Raw, unstacked)

Where are the stars?

 

[samt2]

They don't show up with short exposures.

The Saturn pic was taken with the following settings: f/8.0 1/30 1940mm ISO 100

The Jupiter pic settings were f/8.0 1/60 2156mm ISO 100

If you use settings to capture more starlight, it washes out the details of the planets. Notice how you can barely see the Galileo moons of Jupiter.

I'm still learning on how to take better astrophotography pics. It would help if I had a star-tracker.

 

[naiku]

It would help if I had a star-tracker.

Picking up an iOptron really helped me get some better shots.

Any of you capture any images of the perseids meteor shower? I had the camera set up, but the entire time I was outside only saw 2 meteors and none on camera.

 

[zeusfl]

That is really nice. I am have been tented to buy that camera. What tripod are you using? at 1/30 the image stabilizer is doing a great job.

 

[samt2]

That is really nice. I am have been tented to buy that camera. What tripod are you using? at 1/30 the image stabilizer is doing a great job.

Actually, they recommend to turn the image stabilizer off so that it won't induce unwanted movement while taking the picture.

The tripod is a Phopik with a Simmons head. It's an OK tripod. When taking those shots, any, any, did I say any.?, slightest touch would cause image shaking which took about 2 seconds to settle. I used the 3 second timer to get around this. As far as getting the image in the field of view, had to get the subject just on the outside of the FOV and let its natural movement travel across the view finder to take the picture. Lots of trial and error just to get a few pics. A star tracker with a better counter balance tripod head (with the zoom extended, it gets really nose heavy) would help tremendously.