How to Photograph Saturn Using Your Telescope

This is how I photograph the planet Saturn (and any other planet) using my telescope and several different software products.
Software Used:
SharpCap Pro ... www.sharpcap.co.uk/
AutoStakkert! ... www.autostakkert.com/
RegiStax6 ... www.astronomie.be/registax/
Camera used: ZWO ASI 071mc OSC
Filter: IR cut
No Barlow used (I am planning on using a 2.5x Barlow in an upcoming video)
No Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) was used, but again, perhaps in an upcoming video.
My weather and nature website: www.savannahpat.name
My Astronomy website: heavenlybackyardastro.com/
My Astronomy Facebook page: Heavenly-Backyard-339391973366228
My Weather and Nature Facebook page: Pat-Prokops-Weather-and-Nature-Page-134392193239081/
Music used is from the KZbin music library ... "Love_Letters"
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:18 Software Used
2:13 Using SharpCap
7:47 Using AutoStakkert
10:57 Using RegiStax
15:06 Using Photoshop
25:00 Comparing the different Frame Rates
26:37 Closing and Final Image of Saturn
#Saturn,#Ringsofsaturn,#imageprocessing

[@misaelescobarruiz3107]

Very good

[@douglasfleming1]

Really great to see your entire process from start to finish. Learned alot! Thx

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I am glad I am able to help you, Douglas

[@rjhanby]

Found your channel due to your recent collaboration project. I added you to my subscriptions and have been strolling through your content. Thanks for all the great work!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you sooo much, RJ. I think you will enjoy my channel

[@the-alchemist159]

Brilliant tutorial. Exactly what I need. Making something complex look so easy.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Great. I hope you get much sucess. I am still waiting out the clouds for this season of plantet shopping.

[@CosmuzzAstro]

Great video Pat. Something I'm wanting to do in the future so it was nice to see how you do this. A fantastic final image I love it. My 5 YO Daughter thought it was "realy cool" too, She is a fan of everything Solar System. Thanks for sharing!!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, "Cosmuzz". It is refreshing to hear about the youth being excited about astronomy

[@siegfriednoet]

That final image is superb Pat, those bandings are so clear, and also a very nice video to watch Looking forward to a video where you use a Barlow

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Siegfried. I just pulled the Explore Scientific 3x Focal Extender (which is suppose to be better than a Barlow lens) out of storage to get ready to start testing but now a thunderstorm is moving into the area. No testing tonight, except for the rain gauge.

[@jeffreyvictor3678]

TY for taking the time to show post processing! Great info!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I hope this helps you. The planets are all in the morning sky now (except for Uranus) and will become more dominate this summer into the winter

[@jeffreyvictor3678]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Pat…saving my Pennie’s now, as I have my eye on the EON 130 and reducer/flattener. Will be contacting you shortly after for sim much needed tips/tricks once it arrives.

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Thanks so much for the great tutorial Pat, I'll have to give it a shot as I've never done planetary before, and you make it look so easy. Great images!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

You should get great results with your Celestron. Better yet if you have a Barlow or a Focus Extender. Once my sky clears, I am hoping to make a video showing the difference using a 2X Barlow and 3x Focus extender. I have read that the "Extender is better than a Barlow. Obviously, with the magnifiers, you need a good guide scope and precise star alignment.

[@conradsanders8475]

Which camera did you use? I know your first capture you only had 13 fps. Which one did you land up stacking the lower or higher FPS video ?

[@rckuhmann]

I too have been using NINA. :) Nicely done VID - very thorough... THANK YOU for sharing!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Robert. I just Love NINA 1.11 with all the new bells and whistles

[@tribble1027]

Superb overview...thank you!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you,m Tribble

[@ma-fi1nu]

Good stuff..

[@SharpStarAstro]

Great tutorial!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, SSA

[@FlightNSurf]

Must watch for any photographer.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Iaxsan

[@refetastro]

Excellent work

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thkank you

[@robmailconway]

Thanks Pat, i also came across your channel recently due to the recent collaboration project you done. I hope to get a clear night here in Ireland to get a picture of Saturn at opposition. I have ordered a 2inch 2.5x barlow.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Rob. Wow, at your latitude, you will be looking low in the southern sky to get it. You might want to invest in an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) to help with the jittery effect of looking through all that atmosphere. I'm much further south at latitude 32°N so the planet at zenith here is about 40° above the horizon, so I am guessing it will be less than 20° above the horizon at zenith at your location. BTW, my maternal grandparents were from County Kerry and Cork

[@robmailconway]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy I knew with a name like Pat you had an Irish background. County Cork and Kerry are in the south / south west. Kerry is nice for hiking in the mountains. I am further north in Dublin at 53 degrees north so Saturn is not very high in the sky so i will have to wait until about 2am for it to rise enough to be above the tree at the end of my garden. I got an ok picture of Mars last year in a similar position. I have never used or seen an ADC so i will have to do some research. I have a very old 8 inch meade sct that i will use to try get Saturn picture. I recently bought a TS 140mm super apo triplet which i am hoping to use this weekend for the first time if the weather is ok. Talk to you soon, clear sky, Rob.

[@peterkudzinowski1274]

Thanks Pat. Would like to take Saturn but sitting behind trees at the moment. Hopefully it will clear them in the next few weeks. Nice video

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Peter. It sounds like you have the same situation that I have. I have to wait 3 hours after it rises to clear the trees at my location.

[@astroinvestor1887]

thx man

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

You're welcome

[@MarvelousLXVII]

Excellent, as usual. A few questions: do you auto guide when you image planets? Also--what do you think that max image time is for Jupiter and Saturn taking into account the rotation of the planets?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you. Yes, Jupiter rotates just under 10 hrs (9hr 56mn) and Saturn a bit longer (10hr 34mn) you will certainly begin to see blurring of the features on the planet(s). However, most of the features on Saturn are the horizontal atmospheric bands, but on Jupiter, there are many oval and circular features that will show blurring over time. I suppose there could be some mathematical equation, but I would keep it under 3 minutes ... nothing scientific about that, just from my observations.

[@roymixon]

Great video Pat! One thing I noticed, in Sharpcap when you captured the 25ms, it was actually 35ms. I had to rewind the video footage just to make sure. other than that, I appreciate you sharing your expertise ! I will have to wait for Saturn tonight, rise time 10:48 pm, Houston, Texas time....

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you for viewing my video. I remember when I made that video, over a year ago, the I wanted to record at 25ms, but I had a typo when I set up the recording in SharpCap. However, the results turned out well. I am planning to start chasing Saturn soon. Notice how the rings are tilting more torward becoming edge-on.

[@roymixon]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Hey Pat! Thanks for clarifying. This will be my first image capture of Saturn last night. But I was wondering what is the difference between an AVI and SER format? Would AVI suffice? Thanks! And yes, I noticed Saturn rings are becoming edge-on. I had my 10" DOB out last night on the pad. Lot of humidity in the air here in Houston, Tx.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

@@roymixon AVI is for RGB images while SER is for FIT images. You should try to record in SER files which is higher resolution. But, AVI will work too, particularly if you want to use the movie file for viewing the live recording.

[@roymixon]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Pat, ok I understand now. I have recently started Astrophotography with my Celestron nextstar 130SLT, and my 10" DOB. More or less stacking and processing is a huge learning curve for me. I have ZWO ASI120MC-S Camera, which has a very small sensor about 1/3". Also what is your advice if I were to try and use a Barlow X2 with the ZWO camera I have. My Celestron is FL=650mm and my 10" DOB FL= 1270mm. Last night I managed to capture some images of Saturn, but they are rather small images. If I were to increase the zoom to say.... 250 or even 300 x (SharpCap) would that decrease the image quality if I were to capture in SER or AVI? I appreciate your feedback and advice sir!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

@@roymixon The Celestron with that FL of only 650mm is too much of a wide field view for planetary. You are better off with the DOB at the longer FL. Even that at 1270 is marginal for planetary. I have the Celestron Edge HD 11" with a FL of 2800 mm and even with that, the planet appears quite small. (I enlarge them in post-processing in Photoshop). I do encourage using the 2X Barlow. Keep in mind that the image will be a bit dimmer looking through the Barlow. Zooming in SharpCap has no effect on the output. However, I strongly encourage you to use the smallest capture area otherwise, your movie file will be HUGE, plus, the smaller the capture area, the more frames per second you will achieve, resulting in better post-processing in AutoStakkert and RegiStax 6.

[@vytecdiver]

Loved the video..I have a older meade LX200gps (10") love to get a camera to do this type of photography.. Which camera would you suggerst..? also what else would I need? just a laptop ?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

For planetary, I would suggest a camera with a smaller pixel size ... less athan 3 microns. However, you can get away with the large pixel size cameras which are great for deep space photography. There are so many great cameras out there and I would stick with the CMOS type. A good in-between camera would be the 294. or 1600. You would see those numbers in the CMOS description, such as the ZWO ASI 294 mc pro or Altar Hypercam 294 c

[@jonathanlorenzi1077]

Liked and subscribed because this video is perfect and exactly what I needed. I have one request, please stop saying micro seconds instead of milli ;)

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Oh my ... Thank you Jonathan for that Heads-Up. You are most correct, it is milli-second. Must have been a Freudian slip I suppose from my meteorology days talking about thunderstorms with 'micro-bursts'. Otherwise, I am glad to be able to help.

[@JonnyBravo0311]

I haven't done any planetary imaging other than some very poor single shots I took with my Lumix G9 last summer. That's actually what got me into DSO astrophotography. I was sitting outside after taking some images of different birds around my yard and saw the moon was out. So, I asked myself, "Huh, I wonder if I can get a picture of that?". Played with some different exposure settings and took some moon pictures. I kept at it until one night I saw that Jupiter and Saturn were lined up pretty nicely with the moon. I asked myself, "I wonder if I can get a picture of that?" and pointed my camera. Imagine my shock and surprise when I saw that not only had I captured Jupiter, but also its moons. I got Saturn, too. Both were awful, but I took pictures of other planets using nothing more than my camera, lens and a tripod. Naturally, I asked myself, "what other objects up there can I image?" Well, I knew the Andromeda Galaxy and roughly where it was. So, I pointed the camera up and started taking pictures. I was jumping up and down for joy when I saw that little smudge on the camera's LCD! Fast forward a year. I've now got dedicated equipment and my latest project is the Eagle Nebula. I realize that I also want to do some planetary imaging, but I know I don't have the proper equipment. I'm starting my research into scopes/cameras. I'm leaning towards something like the EdgeHD 8" because I could use it not only for planetary, but also as a long-reach scope for DSO. It's also about the limit I'd comfortably put on my mount (I have an iOptron CEM40). I'm glad I subscribed to your channel after your collaboration with Joe and Glenn. This video has the kind of information that I find extremely helpful in my research. Thanks!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Jonny, I can feel your joy as similar when I first started in astrophotography several years ago. Those first pictures were awe-inspiring to me, as crude as they were. Well, what seems like several thousand dollars later, I am where I am now with much room for more improvement. I love this hobby. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

Well presented video, thanks. What mount were you using? I noticed that your tracking held Saturn steady in one position for the duration of your video capture. Clear skies!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you for watching my video. I used the Celestron CGX mount. I found it is extremely important to be properly polar aligned to track accurately.

[@leoncorns1450]

Excellent work Pat. You really captured that Cassini division so sharp. Did you use any of the following, Barlow lens, IR cut filter or the ZWO ADC? Another question, do you think a faster frame rate during capture is better. I leave mine as fastest.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

HI Leon. All great questions that I failed to include in the video. I will add the answers in the description section. I did use an IR cut filter but did not use a Barlow (That will be used in an upcoming video) and I did not use an ADC (but I do have the Altair version of one). Until I did this comparison, I was sceptical of capturing at super-high frame rates, but I am now giving it second thoughts. For focusing, I think using a longer capture speed with a lower frame rate is beneficial to achieve that best focus.

[@Astronurd]

The fastest frame rate is the best for planets

[@Astronurd]

I reckon that Firecapture is the best capture software for everything planetary

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Yes, it is free, but I prefer SharpCap, even though I do have to pay yearly for it.

[@Astronurd]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Yes Pat, Sharpcap is another excellent piece of software. The main reason why I use Firecapture is that I cut my teeth in planetary while using it and have just stuck with it. Clear skies my friend

[@notangel.zenith5934]

Do you recommend using a 3x barlow lens and a 10x mag lens for jupiter and saturn through the celestron astro fi for taking photographs of it.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

That would greatly amplify the image but ... at the same time greatly amplify the noise and all the movements. I would use with caution.

[@notangel.zenith5934]

Ok, thanks for the information 👍

[@orionnebula3487]

Can I focus a star with a bahtinov mask and use this focus for the planets?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

You could, and you will be close but with the planets, due to atmospheric issues, "bobble" through the focus. You might have to play around with the focus once youget centered on the planet.

[@markmayer9290]

Your exposures are in milliseconds not microseconds, as shown in the Sharpcap camera control.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Yep, I was painfully aware of that after the fact. But, I thank you for the heads up. Now, if I do that again, then certainly, shame on me.

[@markmayer9290]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Great results though and better than mine last night on a 9.25 SCT. Why did you use ASI 071 and not a high speed camera like ASI 462 which would allow much higher frame rates? I'm clueless about the frequency of atmopheric distortion and the best sampling frequency to maximize luck imaging capture.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

@@markmayer9290 Well, it's working with the equipment you have at hand. I desire to try my Altair Astro 183 on the target. It has a much smaller pixel size of 2.4 microns, versus the ZWO ASI 071 which is at 4.8 microns. That is if the sky EVER clears here! I've been cloudy for over a week now ... more like 10 days with more clouds on the way.