Saturn May 23
This shot was taken from my Driveway Observatory in Mason Sunday night, using my homebuilt 12.5" f8 reflector with 2x Barlow to extend the focal length to about 5500 mm. The atmosphere was shifting between almost calm to rippling but I was able to capture enough good frames for a decent shot. Camera used was a DMK21 with Astronomik LRGB filters. About 1500 frames stacked in Registax and final processing in Photoshop.
Edit 5-31-10: The top photo, just added, was processed using John Graham's suggested LRGB technique. This method brings out more detail and shows better color. The purple band in the upper hemisphere I thought at first was an artifact of processing but after studying other Saturn photos I believe it is a true feature. Thanks John!
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Actually, LRGBs are easy in
Actually, LRGBs are easy in PS7 (which is what I use). Edit your lum and RGB as needed. Set the mode for each as 8 bit RGB. Copy the RGB over the lum (it will copy over as a layer on top of the lum). Set the blending mode of the RGB layer to color. You may want to increase the saturation of the RGB layer. Sometimes it helps to flatten the image and then increase the saturation.
-John
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If 50 years of amateur astronomy and space exploration has taught me anything it is that the Earth is a very special place. It would be nice to protect it like it’s the only Earth we’re ever going to have.
Wow, wonderful detail and
Wow, wonderful detail and color in both the rings and the planet. Capturing detail on the planet is tough enough, but given the shallow angle of the rings the detail in these is really neat.
-John
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If 50 years of amateur astronomy and space exploration has taught me anything it is that the Earth is a very special place. It would be nice to protect it like it’s the only Earth we’re ever going to have.
Great Job Dave, Very nice
Great Job Dave,
Very nice image!
Thanks for the comments,
Thanks for the comments, guys. All the detail is coming from the green and red channels. I had trouble getting focused on the blue channel and that added some fuzz to the final image.
Dave
A silly thought... you could
A silly thought... you could use the green and/or red channels as the luminance and then use all three channels for the color.
-John
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If 50 years of amateur astronomy and space exploration has taught me anything it is that the Earth is a very special place. It would be nice to protect it like it’s the only Earth we’re ever going to have.
Well I would like to try this
Well I would like to try this but my Photoshop 7 only supports RGB, not LRGB. I heard (from John Chumack I think) that there is an LRGB plug-in for PS7, but I haven't been able to find it. Do either of you know?
Dave