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Old 26-01-2011, 07:30 PM
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Saturn 26th vgood seeing

SPX350 F30.6, Flea3, Astrodon filters.

At last seeing was lovely with Cassini div visible all the way round and fine banding with a hint of Encke div in the r rgb - this compensated from lack of storm. Felt I should have used a longer fl then seeing deteriorated before improving again. Cloud kept intervening moving in 2 directions and one direction seemed to produced the bad seeing which improved quickly. Seem to be getting a run of clear nights with good seeing. Also tried a gif animation of red channel, should really try an rgb animation but don't have time with deep space imaging first part of the night.

Thanks, John
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Last edited by John Hothersall; 26-01-2011 at 11:14 PM.
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Old 26-01-2011, 07:56 PM
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Great pics John,

Particularly like the third. Moon transit looks amazing
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Old 26-01-2011, 08:24 PM
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Superb images John, seeing is king and your certainly had very good seeing. So much detail, within the rings themselves and also with the storm clouds which now encircle the planet.

Very nice job with your processing also although data this good really does require very little. Congratulations on a top all round result.

Regards
Trevor
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Old 26-01-2011, 09:29 PM
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Man in the animation you have spokes on the left hand part of the rings. I don't think any amateur has ever picked that up before. You can see the spokes moving in the animation.

Beautiful images.
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Old 26-01-2011, 09:59 PM
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Hi All,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese View Post
Man in the animation you have spokes on the left hand part of the rings. I don't think any amateur has ever picked that up before. You can see the spokes moving in the animation.

Beautiful images.
Agree Paul -- I am almost certain they are too. Excellent!


Best,

Les D
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Old 26-01-2011, 10:16 PM
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Amazing results John.

Steve

Last edited by kinetic; 27-01-2011 at 04:14 AM.
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Old 26-01-2011, 10:37 PM
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Great capture John
Well done
Cheers
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Old 26-01-2011, 11:19 PM
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Thanks guys, may get another chance tonight?

The gif animation was way too fast but I have managed to slow it down now and have posted it along with the other for a better view.

Images were from 1707-1850hrs UT every 25-30mins as cloud was sometimes in the way.

Thanks, John.
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Old 27-01-2011, 06:54 AM
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Incredibly sharp, excellent colours. Well done John!
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Old 27-01-2011, 06:55 AM
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Amazing shots, and as others said you most likely captured some of the famous 'spokes' on the rings themselves (left side). They are clearly visible in the animation!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn#Spokes

As far as I know this phenomenon has only ever been photographed from the Voyager and Cassini probes
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Old 27-01-2011, 07:20 AM
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Top shelf John. Agree with others - Encke plus spokes as well - that's really impressive.

Last edited by Shiraz; 27-01-2011 at 07:40 AM. Reason: add
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Old 27-01-2011, 07:26 AM
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I'd be interested to hear what Anthony thinks about the 'spokes'. To be honest, I doubt very very much whether it would be even remotely possible to capture them from Earth, especially at that focal length.

I see the 'marks' on the rings in the animation too, but it could be dust motes, or something else. Even Damian Peach's or Anthony's best images never show a hint of the spokes captured by space craft which are a hell of a lot closer to the planet than we are.

The encke division is certainly possible, but it's also easy to 'simulate' the encke gap by over-sharpening.

Not taking anything away from John's beautiful image.
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Old 27-01-2011, 08:04 AM
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Hi Mike. I'm no expert, but John's animation looks remarkably like this one http://pds-rings.seti.org/saturn/ani...turn_spoke.mov

It looks like the spokes can extend across much of the B ring with fairly high contrast under the right conditions, so they could possibly be visible from earth - it's quite stunning if John did image them. Be good if others could try to image the same effect.
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Old 27-01-2011, 08:46 AM
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Yes Ray, this was the footage that I was thinking of when I made the statement. No offence to Anthony or Damian but just because they have never picked them up before does not mean the spokes cannot be captured. We (planetary imagers) already work well beyond many defined limits of physics capturing detail.

Enke capture is real and most often not now simulated Mike. When people were using toucam's this could well have been the case but all the new equipment has allowed great definition. This image from John is very sharp and one can see the planet through the rings. I have only seen this once when imaging Saturn and the seeing was exceptional. I would suggest this is real.
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Old 27-01-2011, 08:50 AM
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BTW these spots are visible on Chris Go's image of 14 January 2011.
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Old 27-01-2011, 08:53 AM
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That footage linked by Ray was captured from Voyager, a space-craft orbiting, or at least on the way to Saturn. That's a big difference to capturing it from a billion kilometres away, at 10metres focal length.

I agree the Encke gap can and has been captured from Earth - not saying it's not real in this image, but it is not often captured when the rings are still at a reasonably shallow tilt. It's easiest to capture those divisions/gaps when the rings are closer to maximum tilt.
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Old 27-01-2011, 08:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese View Post
BTW these spots are visible on Chris Go's image of 14 January 2011.
You mean this one at the top?
http://saturn.cstoneind.com/

I can't really see them, and Chris hasn't mentioned it in his commentary.
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Old 27-01-2011, 09:03 AM
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Yes the top one but that does not mean Chris would have noticed them. It is entirely possible that I am the first person to notice this from other peoples images. Of course that does not mean I am right but it also does not mean I am wrong!

I also have just noted that one of Trevors images from the 24th in his animation just vaguely shows some of these spots in a simlar position on the opposite side of the rings.
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Old 27-01-2011, 09:05 AM
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I hope i'm wrong too - just trying to play devil's advocate
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Old 27-01-2011, 09:07 AM
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I have posted a message and a link to John's image on the HST imaging group and asked for comments. It may well be nothing but it could be an interesting discovery for all to attempt to image.
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