Saturn

I'm really pleased with this image!

A crisp and frosty night, just right for having a go at Saturn.

Last night I attempted to fit my Skywatcher 130 tube to the SLT mount by changing the fittings. My biggest problem was getting the dovetail to tighten up in the SLT clamp, when I had finally managed this I tried to align the computerised mount with three stars. What a mess! Kept refusing to acknowledge the settings...it seems that the batteries are going. So not really a successful night!

Tonight, I re-mounted the 130 again and bought new batteries for the mount in an attempt to image Saturn. The alignment was a bit out, even though the computer locked onto the settings, but I was able to image Saturn with the SLT mount. Once the mount had locked, tracking was very good, even with the 2x Barlow. Tonight I went to Maplin to buy a mains PSU for the mount, but it not work??? (why??) I will investigate this further.

The image above is 2000 frames @ 10fps of AVI with the Toucam Pro II, processed in Registax 4. I think I should have tried this with the 3x Barlow, but it was freezing outside and I wanted to go in.