Saturn 2003/12/29

Saturn Image Information

Date: 2003.12.29 23:33 PST
South pole is at the top
This image was taken when Saturn was two days from opposition on 2003.12.31. As a result the planet shadow on the rings is in directly behind the planet as seen from our view point on Earth. See Saturn 2003-2004 Opposition on how the shadow has moved since September.
This is my first image to see four cloud bands on Saturn.
The planet is showing through the Cassini division at the bottom the image.
Above average seeing
Images taken from driveway

Photo Information

Equipment

Telescope: Orion Atlas 10 reflector (254 mm aperture, f/4.7 focal ratio, 1200 mm focal length)
Barlow: Tele Vue 5x Powermate (effective f/23.5 focal ratio, 6000 mm focal length)
Finder: Mounted on top of a Atlas 10 is an Orion ShortTube™ 80 mm aperture rich-field refractor (f/5 focal ratio, 400 mm focal length) which is used as a finder.
Focuser: JMI NGF-S Motofocus with DRO (Digital Read Out)
Telescope Mount: Losmandy G-11 mount

Cor Berrevoets Registax Version 2.1.14.0 beta, align, select, stack and process multiple images
Adobe Potoshop Version CS, unsharp mask, curves, resize, crop and convert to JPG

Use Test patterns to calibrate monitor brightness, contrast, height and width