Saturn 14.02.2011

[riklaunim]

Conditions today (14.02) were quite/very good. There is some storm tail visible on RGB images. IR-RGB doesn't show much as it looks like the storm isn't prominent in IR. I've tried also to get an UV channel at f/10 but it was very dim. The storm seems to be brighter in UV than surrounding parts of the planet. SCT C-11, Basler Ace, Orion Shorty Plus and some filters (UV - Astrodon UVenus, IR - Pro Planet 742).

f/20; RGB, Ir-RGB (light deconvolution), Ir-RGB (strong deconvolution); 00:52 i 00:49 UTC:

f/20; RGB, RGG, IRRG; 01:05 UTC:

f/20; Ir-RGB light deconvolution 00:59 UTC:

[riklaunim]

f/20; Ir-RGB strong deconvolution 00:59 UTC:

f/10; UV channel; CH4 channel, false colors - RG850-IR-UV (01:31 UTC):

And a short AVI on YouTube

(they compressed that badly )

[johnh]

Great banding visible and the CH4 filter looks wonderful on the rings.

John.

[brianb]

Very nice, lots of subtle detail on the planet, not easy as Saturn is so faint. I wish I could get images half as good as that ... I think I need to find a better site as the air is so turbulent here.

[Glasspusher]

Very nice images, lots of detail in there.

John

[Space Cowboy]

Fantastic images! So much detail!

[neil phillips]

Nice sets Rik, some good detail and banding coming out, your best on saturn so far i think

[Gadget]

Stunning

Kevin

[AztecastroMcJ]

Great collection there Rik

looks like ur starting to get hang of ur C11

great details showing

[jnc71106]

Wow they are amazing

[luis]

What a big detail ! and beatiful colors! that C11 rules,

Regards,Luis

[satnavsatnav]

Excellent detail mate

[riklaunim]

Thanks for the comments. The C11 did work nicely (no thermal issues) and the seeing was very good at around -10 C Compared to 13.02 shots I've increased the exposures to get 90-95% histogram fills nearly overexposing channels at ~15 FPS. The result was much better quality after stacking (2500 frames per channel). Even medium histogram fill tends to give grainy Saturn images and this turn out much better than previous shots.

[Patbloke]

Wow, those are fantastic.. I set my alarm for 0500hrs this morning only to look out through the curtains to see - CLOUDS! grrrrrrr

[Astromart]

Fantastic. !!!

[ItIsOnlyMe]

Superb pics, stuff of dreams for me at the minute. Not seen Saturn as my viewing site is badly placed and I like my sleep :-)

[Space Oddity6]

Wish I could get images like this, excellent pics.

[Pete Presland]

fantastic pictures well done!

its pictures like these that leave us lesser mortals depressed

[george7378]

That is fantastic - I love the shadow of the planet on the rings. It makes me wonder how they would look from the cloud-tops - probably like a detailed arc of light illuminating the night.