Saturn spots & polar storm Feb 1st 2013

[Quark]

Hi All,

Imaged Saturn Feb 1st in variable seeing, the best of it being quite reasonable. I noted the recent message circulated by John Rogers to our group regarding the hexagonal polar storm imaged quite nicely by Darryl on CN. Through 2012 as the Nth pole became more visible this polar storm started to show up, particularly at 807nm IR although it was also visible in some R and RGB data. I am confident that a search through the PVOL data base would reveal many examples of it. I have never previously seen a polar map of it though, it has never really been a priority for our work with Georg and the RPWS data. Having said that I have attached a polar map from one of my RGB data sets for Feb 1st and clearly the hexagon can be seen. The hexagon can also be seen in the individual RGB & 742nm IR images. I have also attached an animation of 3 RGB data sets that covers the rotation over a 35 min period, I note that this animation reveals a few degrees rotation of the hexagonal polar storm.


Probably of greater interest to our RPWS work are some interesting details in the NEB. In the animation is a well defined spot mid way through the NEB, just to the Preceding side of the CM and moves toward the "P" limb. Also at a similar latitude in the NEB but starting from back toward the Following limb and moving toward the CM is another reasonably bright feature, however it seems to be more stretched out rather than just a spot.


Regards
Trevor

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Trevor
The storm looks very good - I did not think the hexagonal structure was easily picked up in RGB data - quite an image!

[Larryp]

Fantastic imaging, Trevor!

[EagleEyes]

Fantastic images Trevor :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

very nice work Trevor. good to see so much detail coming through. regards Ray

[Quark]

Thanks very much Matt, have had considerable feedback regarding this data. Thanks to Freddy Willems circulating it to the NASA IRTF observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. As it turns out one of the Planetary Physicists who has previously published my data was on the IRTF last night and is very interested in this data.



Thanks very much Laurie.



Thanks very much Andy.



Thanks very much Ray, the seeing certainly seems on the improve, some of this data was nice but there was a lot of pretty ordinary stuff mixed in with it. I am sure we all look forward to a run of good seeing so that we can really take full advantage of the very nice alt of Saturn.

[Quark]

Have attached another 2 polar projection maps.
One from my 742nm IR data at 18-20 UTC and another RGB at 19-01 UTC which is 20 min's later than the polar projection map in my original post.

Regards
Trevor

[icytailmark]

fantastic capture there trevor i always wanted to see that famous hexagon storm.

[asimov]

Missed this one some how. Very nice Trevor! Can't wait until I get some nice seeing for Saturn.

[Quark]

Thanks Asi, reckon as the ring tilt increases we will certainly see more of the North Polar region. I am pretty confident that the edge of this hex was showing up back in 2012 in good data. I suspect there would be many examples on the PVOL data base. You had a very good 2012 with Saturn so I would suggest that it will be in your best data, might pay to check it out and do a polar projection just for the heck of it.



Thanks Mark, this feature will routinely be imaged by amateurs as time goes on. The orbit of Saturn is near enough to 30 years so it has been that long since the North pole was last seen to be opening up relative to Earth. Pretty sure that 30 years ago even the professional observatories would have struggled to image the hex. It really underlines the advancements in the quality of scopes, imaging equipment and processing software that are now in the hands of amateurs.