Saturn IR-RGB 28 Aug 2021

[geoflewis]

As well as the series of four Jupiter images showing the Io transit on Saturday night that I posted on the Jupiter competition thread, I managed to get my first image of Saturn, as it transitted the meridian earlier on. I was using my new ASI290MM camera together with the x2 Powermate, but that gave an effective F24, much more than the guideline F14 for the small 2.9 micron pixels of this camera. Rather than taking the x2 PM out of the optical train, I opted to capture the data at Bin 2x2 in FireCapture, giving me effective F12, so a much better sampling rate.

The image comprises 4xRGB and 5xIR runs each of 5000 frames, using Autostakkert to setect and stack the best 2000 of each for a total of 34,000 frames in the final stack. Wavelets were applied using Registax6 and the colour image was built in WinJupos, with the IR stack used as luminance at 100% opacity. A hint of the polax hexigon is seen, which is not bad considering that Saturn was still a low 18 deg altitude when transitting from my 52N location.

Thanks for looking

[Stargazer33]

That's very nice Geof! Really clear colour banding on the planet. 👏

[geoflewis]

Just now, Stargazer33 said:

That's very nice Geof! Really clear colour banding on the planet. 👏

Thanks Bryan, it's been 2 years since I been able to image either Saturn or Jupiter, as they were too low down, so it was good making their acquaintance again 🙂

[CraigT82]

Very nice Geof, feels good to see the gas giants creeping back up higher in the sky

[Pete Presland]

Superb image Geof, we are going to have to make the most of any hints of the Polar Hex. I guess it will invisible as the tilt changes in the coming years.

[si@nite]

Good work Geof well done!

[geoflewis]

14 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Very nice Geof, feels good to see the gas giants creeping back up higher in the sky

9 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Superb image Geof, we are going to have to make the most of any hints of the Polar Hex. I guess it will invisible as the tilt changes in the coming years.

3 hours ago, si@nite said:

Good work Geof well done!

Thanks Craig, Pete and Simon, yes, it’s good to be able to image the gas giants again, though as Pete points out, by the time Saturn reaches a really good altitude the north polar region with its hexagon will likely be nigh invisible to us.

[U Cyg]

Very nice image.

Angie

[geoflewis]

12 hours ago, U Cyg said:

Very nice image.

Angie

Thanks Angie