we're going towards the Clayton
observatory what's the clicked
observatory well it's the only
observatory at Clayton so this is my
little observatory and I'm known as the
mad astronomer here this is a it's a
small Observatory is about 10 square
meters I built this three years ago
this photograph is I've satin taken at
three different periods during the
course of a night it actually shows a
photograph of what's called the dragon
storm it's a big storm that became
evident after the ring crossing for long
periods of time in Saturn's orbit the
Rings cover one hemisphere of the planet
with the northern hemisphere it's it's
just come out of a long period of time
about 13 years all of a sudden we
started getting this storm activity the
reason why this is fairly important is
because I came second to Damien peach of
the UK in the solar system section for
the Astronomy photographer in the Year
award I absolutely stoked and totally
did not expect any of this at all I
honestly thought that yeah I do okay but
that was some there was a bit of a
surprise I knew on the night that the
air quality was very still I could see
Cassini's division through the eyepiece
and I could see hints of the inky
division which is very very small it's
technically not you know able to see it
but I could see it softer hi this is
fantastic night what is that what's the
inky dinky division rise this is a
concealer division that's the black the
deep black one and on these little
pieces here you can just on the edge you
can just see a little thin line here
very tiny thin line that's the inky
division it's about 300 kilometers in
width so it's very very special to be
able to get that when I processed it
it's the sharpest image I've ever
produced of that particular object I
really enjoy taking planetary work and
when the the air quality is very very
good very still very transparent you get
great images like this and they are very
rare and few and far between here in
South Australia actually this image
wasn't taken here this was taken in
Adelaide I have a similar mount in
Adelaide much bigger telescope a 14 inch
telescope made by celestron a little bit
bigger than that particular telescope
there that telescope is designed purely
for taking planetary work so the
conditions were very very still it's
very still night I walked outside I
looked up and the stars weren't tweaking
at all those no scintillation there was
nothing it was just still
when I looked in the eyepiece that I
knew what was going on this this sort of
imaging is is done with tricolor imaging
red green and blue filters I take a
video in red say for this one for
instance about two minutes in red two
minutes in green two minutes in blue in
that period of time the camera takes
lots and lots of frames like a video at
about thirty thirty to forty frames per
second at the end of that when I go to
go inside the processing starts that's
where the real work starts the the
capturing side of it has a bit automated
work I have some software turns the
filter will takes turns the camera
on/off that sort of thing downloads that
sort of stuff
processing side of it is a little bit
complicated but the short of it is it
stacks all the good frames so there's a
selection process of the good frames and
then you combine all those good frames
together and then sharpen them a little
bit taken into another piece of software
shelf and a bit more and then finally
into Photoshop - to get the color
rendering right so when you look through
your telescope with your naked eye can
you even do that is there an eyepiece on
your telescope see that did you see
Saturn with your naked absolutely
absolutely yes you can see in any
telescope Saturn looking like this on a
really good night most people see a much
smaller much smaller tiny it'll be a
pair tiny but you can see detail at
higher magnification the air moves it a
bit but if the on that particular night
it looked like this you could see that
storm and you can see yes you can see
the storm that's because that storm has
a what's called a quite high albedo
feature it's actually contrasted quite
well against the planet does it look
that colourful when you look at it with
your eyes and then there's that that is
interesting most the time it looks like
a yellowy orange color on some nights
particularly around the time of
opposition that's when it's opposite the
Sun and to us and we're in the middle
you'll get the Rings being really really
bright and they'll sort of that's called
the Selig effect Jupiter on the other
hand produces color you can see red and
you can see festoons of blue and all
that sort of thing have you got a
picture
I do yes so you can see here there's
some color here and that the festoons in
that in the central area which is called
the equatorial belt you can see a moon
here that has some detail on it and of
course the Great Red Spot which has been
around for three hundred years most
people would know about that Jupiter is
more colorful than setting to look at ya
visually it is yeah you need a good
night to get good detail but you can see
more color in it the blue festoons in
particular of obvious to the eye in this
day and age there are some amazing
pictures of Saturn going around there's
a space probe currently at Saturn what's
the role for someone like you what's the
point of taking pictures of Saturn on
earth when we can just go on to the NASA
website and look at amazing pictures
Saturn what what why do you do it well
interestingly amateurs can contribute
quite a lot we have the capacity to take
lots and lots of images because there's
thousands of us doing this now
immediately when in 2004 when I first
started doing planetary imaging there
weren't many people around they were
probably 100 or so and contributing now
there's thousands and thousands of
people which is great because at any one
point in time someone is taking an image
of one of these great planets and the
beauty of it is that we can contribute
to science programs scientists need to
have photographs to compare and Hubble
is not always available Cassini is not
always taking images at the same time so
we can actually contribute as amateurs
to actual science programs the Jupiter
images for instance I contribute to
gpause which is through the British
Astronomical Association scientists use
these images just specifically for a
confirmation of their theories and their
ideas so we can contribute is that why
you do it yeah absolutely
they and I like to make pretty pictures
so yeah my wife seems to think that it
is a bit of a needy hobby but even
though it's going to have fun at least
it keeps you out of the house yeah yeah