My Astro Images

About My Astro Images...

These are some of my Astronomical images taken using my FireWire cameras with my New Celestron 8" or my older Orion StarMax 127 mm MAK (Maksutov-Cassegrain) scope on a Sky-Watcher HEQ5 mount.

I mainly use a G4/1.25 Ghz Mac Powerbook primarily with my UniBrain and Flea FireWire Cameras to record uncompressed 640x480 to 1032x768 QuickTime movies at up to 60 fps to exposures of 1 frame per hour. I also have an assortment of second hand Pentax M-42 screw mount lenses of 50, 100, 150 and 200 mm focal lengths and F ratios of F1.8 to F4 that I can use with the cameras too. The 50 mm lens delivers approximately a 4 degrees by 3 degree field of view, which is good for M31, the North American nebula and other wide field Deep Space Objects (DSO's) too.

I have been trying my hand at imaging DSO's and for that you need a good accurate mount, good guiding and a cooled camera capable of making longer exposures.

Now that I have the SkyWatcher HEQ5 mount with GoTo SynScan hand controller, I purchased a GPSUB Auto Guider and used it with an inexpensive Apogee Inc 80 mm aperture F/4 refractor and the Unibrain color camera for sub pixel guiding. However due to erratic flexure issues, I have never been able to get great images over about 2 minute exposures. So I have recently switched over to using a Celestron Radial Off Axis Guider (OAG) with the C8 scope. With a "The Imaging Source" 640x480 monochrome 8 bit camera, I can now reliably guide off Mag 8 to 9th stars with 1 second exposures in 4x4 binned modes.

For the cooled camera, I'm using the Flea FireWire camera with an inexpensive peltier cooler that I built. The part list and instructions to build the cooler are available in a .pdf document. I have since modified the original design to use a larger heat sink and now use springs to attach the heat sink to the camera instead of rubber bands. I have also been wrapping the insulation around the camera in saran wrap, which keeps the camera body and insulation dry from condensation too.

The one remaining challenge has been that downtown Calgary has severe light pollution and on most clear nights limiting visual magnitude is around 0.0 to 2.0, so my exposures have to be less than 4 minutes or they get completely light fogged. This issue has now largely been addressed by using a IDAS Light Pollution Reducing filter, and I can now image to around 7 minutes before light pollution really begins to hurt. I use "Astro IIDC" for guiding, image acquisition, alignment, stacking, sharpening, and image processing in 8 or 16 bit depths. For composites of Luna I simply drag the resulting images into my "My Compositor" application (still in alpha development), overlap them, apply "level expansion" to maximize image dynamics and use it's "Auto Blend" feature to adjust the image brightness and micro blend the images together to create the composited images.

Note: All images are oriented with North up and East to the right.

Enjoy the Images and Movies...

Milton Aupperle

2007 Images and Movies

All the 2007 images have pertinent information (i.e. date, location, camera, telescope and processing) embedded in the image.

M15 20070910	Best M27	M13 20070808	M57 20070808
M51 20070817 (Poor)	M101 20070821 (barely)	Best M11	Clouds of Venus in UV	Saturn	Saturn, Tethys, Dionne & Rhea
Luna 20070104 EastTerminator	Luna 20070123	Best Color Luna Ever 20070224	M46 20070218	NGC2024 HorseHead Nebula	Saturn W 4 Moons 20070121

2006 Images and Movies

All the 2006 images have pertinent information (i.e. date, location, camera, telescope and processing) embedded in the image.

Uranus & 3 Moons 10/22	Pluto's motion over 6 days	Saturn 04/11	Comet S-W 73P "B" 04/18
M13 Globular Cluster	M15 Globular Cluster	M16 Eagle Nebula	M17 Omega Nebula
M27 Dumb Bell Nebula	M57 Ring Nebula	M11 - Wild Duck Cluster	M10 Globular Cluster	M5 Globular Cluster
Mare Crisium & Details 10/09	8.4 Day Moon	10.6 Day Moon	Mare Nectarus 05/04	5.7 Day Moon & Details	9.2 Day Moon & Details 02/06

2005 Images and Movies

All the 2005 images have pertinent information (i.e. date, location, camera, telescope and processing) embedded in the image.

Sinus Irudum	Aristarchus	Copernicus	Schiller	Tycho to Clavius	Luna First	Luna Second	Luna Third
Mars Oct 12 to Nov 18th MP4 Movie	Mars Dust Storm MP4 Movie	Mars Sequence Oct 23	Mars Sequence Oct 22	Mars Sequence Oct 21	Mars Series Oct 12	Mars Series Oct 8
Jupiter Io & Europa MP4 movie	Jupiter, Io & Europa	Jupiter, GSR and Io	Saturn	Comet Machholz	SunSpots
M1 Crab Nebula	M5 Globular Cluster	M27 Dumb Bell Nebula	M31 Andromeda Galaxy	M31 Andromeda Core	M35 Open Cluster
M42 Orion Nebula	M46 & NGC 2438	M57 Ring Nebula	M67 King Cobra	NGC2244 Rosetta

2004 Images and Movies

M31_300S128B213G.jpg

NGC869w884_180S149B221G.jpg

M16wNGC6604_90S151B221G.jpg

M27_180S149B221G.jpg

M11_90S151B221G.jpg

All of the above DSO images were taken with a cheap ($50 CDN) second hand 50 mm focal length F1.8 (stopped down to F2.8) 27 mm aperture M42 screw mount SLR lens on a Color CrystalCam camera piggy back mounted on a crudely polar aligned Orion EQ3 mount. I also used an IR Blocking filter (15mm square 1.1 mm thick) purchased from Edmund Industrial Optics, which starts cutting off all light above 650 nm - which in retrospect was probably not a good idea for emission nebulas like Veil or North American Nebula. The site (village of Mistusinne in Saskatchewan Canada) is at magnitude 6.5/7.0 visually and is about 100Km / 60 miles away from the nearest town with more than 500 people in it - really dark spectacular skies. Due to extreme smoke drifting down from the fires burning in Alaska, Yukon and Northern British Columbia and then some major cloud systems moving in, I did not get time to go back and image some other objects with the 100 mm and 200 mm lenses - especially M31 which would have filled the 640x480 frame with a 200 mm lens. Processing on these images is minimal and they are almost the same as what comes out of the camera.

"M31_300S128B213G.jpg 76Kb" Taken on August 20th, 2004 Stack of five 300 second exposures, dark frame subtracted with minor level adjustment and cropped. Field of view 2.5 degrees by 2.0 degrees covering the Andromeda galaxy and it's satellite galaxies M110 and M32. Note the dust lanes just appearing in the Andromeda galaxy.

"NGC869w884_180S149B221G.jpg 76Kb" Taken on August 20th, 2004. Stack of six 90 second exposures, dark frame subtracted with minor level adjustment and cropped. Field of view 2.5 degrees by 2.8 degrees covering the Perseus NGC 869 and NGC 884 open double clusters.

"M16wNGC6604_90S151B221G.jpg 76Kb". Taken on August 19th, 2004. Stack of six 90 second exposures, dark frame subtracted with minor level adjustment, rotated and cropped. Field of view 2.8 degrees by 4.0 degrees covering the Eagle Nebula and the NGC 6604 open cluster.

"M27_180S149B221G.jpg 76Kb" Taken on August 20th, 2004. Stack of four 180 second exposures, dark frame subtracted with minor level adjustment, rotated and cropped. Field of view 2.8 degrees by 3.1 degrees covering the Dumbbell Nebula and surrounding area.

"M11_90S151B221G.jpg 76Kb" Taken on August 19th, 2004. Stack of six 90 second exposures, dark frame subtracted with minor level adjustment and rotated. Field of view 3.0 degrees by 4.0 degrees covering the Wild Duck Cluster and surrounding area.

Luna_04_05_30_rills2xl.jpg

Luna_04_05_30_rills3x.jpg

Jupiter_040501_000112.jpg

Luna_040430_2340.jpg

Luna_040430_2330.jpg

Luna_040430_2300.jpg

"Luna_04_05_30_rills2xl.jpg 76Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using CrystalCam Color at 15 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit 5x5 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on May 1st, 2004. Composite of three images. Note intricate lava flow maria ridges and rings along the terminator from Mons Romker at the north, to Schoteri Valley and ending near Marius Crater.

"Luna_04_05_30_rills3x.jpg 112Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Barlow, using CrystalCam Color at 7.5fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit 5x5 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on May 1st, 2004. Composite of eight images. Note intricate lava flow maria ridges and rings along the terminator from Mons Romker at the north, to Schoteri Valley and ending near Marius Crater.

"Jupiter_040501_000112.jpg 12Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using CrystalCam Color at 7.5fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit 5x5 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on May 01th, 2004. Probably my best Jupiter image for 2004, which shows exceptional details in Jupiters atmosphere in the white spot vortexes and thin bands.

"Luna_040430_2340.jpg 208Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using an CrystalCam Color at 15.00 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 30th, 2004 23:40 MST. Composited sequence along southern Lunar Terminator. Exceptionally low turbulence produces an incredible amount of detail along the lunar terminator.

"Luna_040430_2330.jpg 172KB". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 4.9 meters with Antares Barlow, using an CrystalCam Monochrome at 30.00 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 30th, 2004 23:30 MST. Composited sequence along southern Lunar Terminator. Exceptionally low turbulence produces an incredible amount of detail along the lunar terminator. Note the intricate series of rills and fault zones to the west of and on the crater floor of Gassendi.

"Jup_04_04_02_2326MST 432Kb - 1702x4603 pixels". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using an CrystalCam Monochrome at 15.00 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 30th, 2004 23:00 MST. Composited sequence along southern Lunar Terminator. Exceptionally low turbulence produces an incredible amount of detail along the lunar terminator from North to South poles.

Luna_040426_2225.jpg

Luna_040425_234151.jpg

Luna_040403.jpg

Luna_040328.jpg

"Luna_040426_2225.jpg 104Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using CrystalCam Monochrome at 30.0 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 26th, 2004. Exceptionally low turbulence allowed a lot of fine detail to be captured near Cassini and the Alpine Valley.

"Luna_040425_234151.jpg 56Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using CrystalCam Monochrome at 30.0 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 25th, 2004. Notable features include Poisidonius and ridges to the west.

"Luna_040403.jpg 208Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using an CrystalCam Monochrome at 15.0 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 30th, 2004 23:30 MST. Composited sequence along southern Lunar Terminator, most interesting feature is Schroter's Valley. Seeing conditions were average, but still a fair amount of detail was captured.

"Luna_040328.jpg 52Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 4.9 meters with Antares Barlow, using an iRez Stealth color at 7.50 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on March 28th, 2004. Composited sequence of Rills near Triesnecker and Hyginus grabbens to the north. Seeing conditions were average, but still a fair amount of detail was captured.

Triple Shadows QuickTime Movie 888.0 Kb

Triple Shadows AVI 1.2 Mb

"Triple Shadows QuickTime Movies and AVI - 640x480 size" On March 27, 2004 I recorded most of the 5.5 hour triple passage of Io, Ganymde and Callisto's shadows as they crossed the face of Jupiter. Unfortunately an adjacent high rise apartment building blocked out approximately 65 minutes of the event, but luckily this happened just after the triple shadow occured. Additionally air turbulence increased as time progressed, so the last few seconds of the video are suffered for it. The movies are time compressed, so each frame in the movie represents 1 minute of actual time and the 15.74 second movie (excluding notations and transitions) represents 4.2 hours of real time. Each frame in the movie is a composite of up to 230 captured frames which were stacked using Keith's Image Stacker and a total of 59,000 frames were processed. The final 236 frames in the movie were sequenced into a movie, then imported and aligned with Sharpest Frame to create the raw video footage. After that I used ReelEdit to add the titles/graphics and then compress the final movies in QuickTime movie format with the Sorenson 3 Codec and a Windows AVI with using the DIVX 5.1 codec.

Double Shadow QuickTime Movie 496Kb

Double Shadow AVI 520Kb

"Double Shadow Movies and AVI" - 640x480 size On March 20, 2004 I recorded the 3 hour double passage of the Moons Io and Ganymede as their shadows crossed the face of Jupiter. At the end I also managed to capture the emergence of Europa from Jupiter's shadow. During the recording of the video footage, thin wispy clouds moved through the area and darkened the video - which I compensated for by increasing the brightness. However when the clouds thinned, the image of Jupiter brightened up and as a result was too bright for several frames during that period. The movies are time compressed, so each frame in the movie represents 1 minute of actual time and the 11.5 second movie represents 2.9 hours. Each frame in the movie is a composite of up to 230 captured frames which were stacked using Keith's Image Stacker and a total of 39,000 frames were processed. The final 172 frames in the movie were sequenced into a movie, then imported and aligned with Sharpest Frame to create the raw video footage. After that I used ReelEdit to add the titles/graphics and then compress the final movies in QuickTime movie format with the Sorenson 3 Codec and a Windows AVI with the DIVX 5.1 codec.

Sat_04_03_13_2108MST 12Kb

Jup_04_03_27_2011MST 12Kb

MVMJS_04_03_28 20Kb

Jup_04_04_02_2326MST 12Kb

"Sat_04_03_13_2108 12Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on March 13th, 2004 21:08MST. Low turbulence allowed a good capture of Saturn's A and B rings, cassini division, some faint banding in the atmosphere and the darker polar regions.

"Jup_04_03_27_2011MST 12Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 3.0 meters with 2X M42 converter, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 7.5 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on March 27th, 2004 20:11 MST. This image was taken 1.5 hours before the triple shadow event, just as the Great Red (Orange) spot was rapidly rotating towards the east edge of Jupiter. From left (west) to right (east) we have Io, Ganymede and Europa, with Callisto just barely visible as a faint smudge on the north eastern edge of Jupiter.

"MVMJS_04_03_28 20Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 4.9 meters with Antares Barlow, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 30 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 2th, 2004 23:26 MST.This single composite images shows Mercury, Venus, Mars ,Jupiter and Saturn as they appear with the same focal length and camera, taken within a 1 hour period. Viewing conditions were "bad" with abundant air turbulence to the west.

"Jup_04_04_02_2326MST 12Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 4.9 meters with Antares Barlow, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 3.75 fps in 640x480 Bayer 8 bit mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on April 2nd, 2004 23:26MST. Calm skies and low turbulence allowed good capture of Jovian atmospheric detail including the Great Red (Orange)Spot

Luna_04_02_22_1905MST 80Kb

Luna_04_02_24_2050MST 168Kb

Luna_04_02_29_2055MST 172Kb

Clavius_04_02_29_2100MST 128K

Copernicus_04_02_29_2059 56K

"Luna_04_02_22_1905MST 80Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 1.54 meters at prime focus, using a PC182XS MonoChrome Analog Camera with a FW DFG/1394 Converter at 29.97 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 22 between 1900 to 1910 MST. The 2.75 day old Crescent moon was 14 degrees above the horizon and was "dancing" a lot due to unstable air. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame", stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker" and then the final 13 640x480 frames were compositted and blended using "MyCompositor" app.

"Luna_04_02_24_2050MST 168Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 1.54 meters at prime focus, using a iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15.0 fps in RGB24 color mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 24 between 2045 to 2050 MST. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame", stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker" and then the final 13 640x480 frames were compositted and blended using "MyCompositor" app.

"Luna_04_02_29_2055MST". Taken with MAK 127mm, focal length 1.5 meters at prime focus, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 29th, 2004 from 2050 to 2055 MST. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame", stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker" and then the final 11 640x480 frames were compositted and blended using "MyCompositor" app.

"Clavius_04_02_29_2100MST 128Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, effective focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Antares Barlow, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 29th, 2004 at 2100 MST. Seeing was clear, the atmosphere was very stable. The three 640x480 frame composite are of the Moons teminator around Clavius near the south pole. Smallest resolvable feature is 1.0 kilometer (each pixel is approximately 500 meters). Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame", stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker" and then the final three 640x480 frames were compositted and blended using "MyCompositor" app.

"Copernicus_04_02_29_2059 56Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, effective focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Antares Barlow, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 29th, 2004 at 2059 MST. Seeing was clear, the air was very stable. Smallest resolvable feature is 1.0 kilometer (each pixel is approximately 500 meters). Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

Jup_IO_Gan_04_02_21_2055MST 8Kb

Jupiter_02_02_21_2211MST 4Kb

Saturn_04_02_21_2046MST 8Kb

Saturn_2004_02_24 12Kb

Saturn_Titan_2004_02_24 20Kb

"Jup_IO_Gan_04_02_21_2055MST 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, effective focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Antares Barlow, using a PC182XS MonoChrome Analog Camera with a FW DFG/1394 Converter at 29.97 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 21,2004 at 20:55 MST. Seeing was clear, the atmosphere was reasonably stable considering Jupiter, Io and Ganymede (from left to right) were 16 degrees above the horizon. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

"Jupiter_02_02_21_2211MST 4Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, using an UniBrain FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 21, 2004 at 2211 MST. A small amount of detail is visible in the cloud bands and intermediate white areas between them. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

"Saturn_04_02_21_2046MST 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, effective focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Antares Barlow, using a PC182XS MonoChrome Analog Camera with a FW DFG/1394 Converter at 29.97 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada aon February 21, 2046MST. Seeing was generally good with short burst of very stable air. The A Ring, Cassini break and B ring are easily visible and some faint cloud banding is visible in the planets atmosphere. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

"Saturn_2004_02_24 12Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, effective focal length 4.9 meters with 2X Antares Barlow, using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 24,2004 at 2059 MST. Seeing was clear, the atmosphere was reasonably stable. The A Ring, Cassini break and B ring are easily visible. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

"Saturn_Titan_2004_02_24 20Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus using an iREZ Stealth FW Camera at 15 fps in 640x480 RGB24 mode from Calgary Alberta Canada on February 29,2004 at 2100 MST. Seeing was clear, the atmosphere was reasonably stable. Titan (magnitude 8.2) is present as a small "dot" 4 ring diameters to the left of Saturn and was very visible in real time display on the laptop. The iRez cameras are considerably more light sensitive than the ADS Pyro or the UniBrain FW cameras, which is surprising considering they are all based off the same basic camera design and use the same Sony color CCD. Sharpest frames were picked via "Sharpest Frame" and stacked in "Keiths Image Stacker".

2003 Images

Luna 2003_11_29 40Kb

Lunar Sunrise2003_11_30 236Kb

Luna 2003_12_28 104Kb

Luna 2003_12_31 116Kb

Luna 2003_12_31 120Kb

"Luna 2003_11_29 28Kb" Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, RA Motor Driven but only crudely polar aligned, using FW DFG/1394 Converter and PC182XS camera at 29.97 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada. Air was quite turbulent and this was my second attempt at doing digital astrophotography.

"Luna 2003_11_30 368Kb" Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, RA Motor Driven but only crudely polar aligned, using FW DFG/1394 Converter and PC182XS camera at 29.97 fps from Calgary Alberta Canada. Three composited sequences of images showing sunrise on the Moon over a 2 hour period (6:55 PM, 8:15 PM, 9:10PM MST). Sky was very transparent, but turbulence increased over time and the last set (9:10 PM) is noticeably more blurry than the others.

"Luna 2003_12_28 184Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using FW DFG/1394 Converter and PC182XS camera at 29.97 fps from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada. Taken through a thin cloud layer with very stable air conditions, light surface wind at -14Centigrade.

"Luna 2003_12_31 292Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using FW Unibrain Camera at 30.00 fps in monochrome mode from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 18:45 CST. Seeing was excelent with no wind and was -20C.

"Luna 2003_12_31 208Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using FW DFG/1394 Converter and PC182XS camera at 29.97 fps from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 21:45 CST. Seeing was excelent with no wind and was -23C.

Mars 2003_11_30 8Kb

Saturn Color 2003_12_31 8Kb

Saturn Mono 2003_12_31 12Kb

Saturn Moons 2003_12_31 84Kb

Uranus 2003_08_23 16Kb

"Mars 2003_11_30 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, RA Motor Driven but only crudely polar aligned, using FW Unibrain Camera at 15.0 fps in RGB24 color mode from Calgary Alberta Canada at 19:17 MST. Seeing was clear, but skies very turbulent (boiling Mars with jumps of up to 10 arc seconds) and temperature was -1C. I used AstroYacker to align the "boiling" Mars images, extracted the best 40 frames using "Sharpest Frame" and then stacked them using "Keiths' Image Stacker". The small whitish patch is not Mars's polar ice cap (it's in the wrong hemisphere) and is a processing artifact.

"Saturn Color 2003_12_31 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using FW Unibrain Camera at 15.0 fps in RGB24 color mode from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 20:32 CST. Seeing was clear, the sky was very stable, the temperature was -24C, and ice crystals had begun to coat the lens and my Laptop LCD was freezing up. I used AstroYacker to align the Saturn frames images as it takes 30 seconds for Saturn to drift across the field of view without a motor drive and the images are actually a bit blurred due to the earth's rotation. I then extracted the best 50 frames using "Sharpest Frame", then stacked, color adjusted it using "Keiths' Image Stacker". Note the faint redish cloud bands on Saturn and the darkened south pole.

"Saturn Mono 2003_12_31 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using FW Unibrain Camera at 30.00 fps in MonoChrome 8 bit mode from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 20:37 CST. Same conditions as "Saturn 2003_12_31 8Kb", but no additional image processing was done except to expand the monochrome image levels. Note the faint cloud bands on Saturn and the darkened south pole.

"Saturn Moons 2003_12_31 8Kb". Taken with MAK 127mm, 1540mm prime focus, no motor Drive (the Hand Controller died so these were taken unguided), using a FW DFG/1394 Converter and PC182XS camera at 29.97 fps from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 21:50 CST. Seeing was clear, the atmosphere was very stable, the temperature was -24C and ice crystals had begun to seriously coat the lens. I used AstroYacker to align the Saturn frames images as it takes 30 seconds for Saturn to drift across the field of view without a motor drive. I then extracted the best 50 frames using "Sharpest Frame", then stacked them and level adjusted it using "Keiths' Image Stacker". The image on the left is brightened by about 40% to enhance the moons appearance, where as the right side is the original image. The four brighter moons of Titan, Rhea, Tethys and Dione are visible.

"Uranus 2003_08_23 16Kb". Taken with a tripod mounted, unguided 50mm F1.8 M42 screw mount lens on PC182XS MonoChrome Analog Camera with a FW DFG/1394 Converter at 29.97 fps from Mistusinne Saskatchewan Canada at 22:46 CST. I stacked about 200 frames, subtracted an averaged 50 frame dark frame and level adjusted it using "Keiths' Image Stacker".

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