Saturn April 26th my PB for this apparition

[Quark]

Hi All,

Imaged Saturn last night in the best seeing I have had this apparition but it only lasted for 17 minutes before cloud filled in.


Have some very high res data that I think is of significance. There are two EZ spots in this data, one fainter than the other and neither as bright as the EZ spot I imaged April 25th.


I have measured the positions of both EZ spots, the brighter of them is at L3 51.8 Lat -0.5 the other is at L3 70.5 Lat -2.4

Of further interest is a bright spot in the storm remnant that leads the dark spot, this feature was noted by Bird about a month ago and is very prominent in this data at L3 61.3 Lat +49.5


It appears there must be several EZ spots but to pick up any, other than the very bright one on April 25th, requires very good seeing.

The dark spot on this night was at L3 97.3 Lat +46.2 . The hexagon is extremely well defined in both R & RGB polar projections.


As I write this I am getting ready to capture more data, tonight is looking good at the moment.

Note that the 742 IR data was all captured through ever increasing cloud which is why it is not as hi res as the RGB data.

Thanks for looking

Regards
Trevor


PS; Have also attached 120% resamples of the annotated R channel & RGB images.

[Larryp]

Lovely work, Trevor!

[U.K.Cowboy]

Superb! I really need to emigrate! :thumbsup:

[EricB]

Stuart, you wouldn't be too much out of your element in Adelaide given the number of expat Brits living here. However, you would get great weather and clear skies many nights of the year;)

Eric

[Deeno]

Wow! You can see the planet through the Cassini Division.
Don't wander into these pages often enough...
Thanks Trevor

[U.K.Cowboy]

Sounds very tempting Eric! :)

[Dennis]

Hello, Trevor

Wow - literally and metaphorically this set of images are out of this world. Fantastic effort!

Cheers

Dennis

[samilag]

Spectacular images, ring's details incredible !!, I never seen saturn rings with this kind of quality.

Congratulation Trevor for this optimum work.
Giuseppe

[Matt Wastell]

Superb images - thank you very much for the updates!

[Shiraz]

What corker images Trevor - excellent results. Must have been an exciting session.

regards ray

[Quark]

Thanks very much Laurie.



Thanks very much Stuart, you would be a most welcome addition. I believe there will be a group from the UK, headed up by Damian, coming out to OZ to do some imaging in 2016. With seeing like this, maybe they will join me in Broken Hill.



Thanks very much Deeno.



Thanks very much Dennis, the live feed was spectacular for the 17 minutes it took to capture the 3 RGB data sets that contribute to this RGB image. I have already made multiple copies of the contributing avi's to save for future reference and further processing. Actually I had to come up with a whole new set of processing routines, considerably milder than normal, for this data.



Thanks so much Giuseppe, I think it just comes down to the quality of the seeing. All of us could make stunning images from data like this.



Thanks very much Matt.



Thanks very much Ray, Bird & Paul have been talking about another visit out here, I really do wish they had been here for this, even though it was cut short by cloud. It was a most memorable night, indeed.

[John Hothersall]

Stunning results and detail is so smooth.

John.

[allan gould]

Beautiful and educational images Trevor, thanks for posting as I learn a lot from your postings.
Allan

[asimov]

Congrats on your PB for this apparition Trevor :-)

[Screwdriverone]

Just superb Trevor, simply excellent work.

A question though, if I may?

The left side of the rings and the planet look like they are misaligned with some ghosting? It only seems to be on the left though....

Is this something that is out of alignment?

I don't mean to be critical, just something I noticed and was curious. (my images are nowhere near this standard) :)

Cheers

Chris

[Quark]

Thanks very much Chris, the alignment is perfect. The noise you refer to is outside the planet. The Moon was very close to Saturn and the sky very bright which added to the background noise in the data. I could have got rid of it totally with a larger levels adjustment but so long as I have the detail I want on the planet I am happy. I have seen some images elsewhere on another forum where the levels have been adjusted so far that the resultant image looked more like a fridge magnet. Such adjustment also destroy the C ring.



Thanks very much Asi.



Thanks very much Allan.



Thanks very much John.

[iceman]

Great images, Trevor!

Like Chris, I noticed the artefacts on the left side of the planet and rings too, but I see what you mean - increasing the black point would play havoc with the crepe ring.

Beautiful sharp images. Great colouration.

[StephenM]

Very nice set Trevor!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Screwdriverone]

Ahh, I see.

Thanks for the explanation, it helps me understand what not to do to mine :)

Cheers

Chris

[asimov]

I see the artefact in mine, & most other Saturn images around the place so I suspect things like slight miscollimation actually, Trevor. I've never had the moon effect a planet image yet, aside from a slight drop in contrast.

[Quark]

Thanks very much Mike.



Thanks very much Stephen.



No probs Chris, reckon its important to keep in mind the effects we can have on the actual image of the planet and the detail we are striving to resolve, with regard to attempts at cleaning up extraneous noise, from whatever source, that might be elsewhere in the field.



I also see the same (artifact or noise) in other images Asi. Reckon we both can recall seeing some images elsewhere that looked like fridge magnets due to the amount of processing that had been done to blacken the background right to the edge of the planet. I agree with you regarding the Moon, but I did note that on this particular night the Moon was very close and Saturn was also very close to opposition with the Seelinger effect quite noticeable. Collimation, a mute point really when looking at the hi-res detail present in the image which obviously wouldn't be there if there were issues with it. Roll on more good seeing Asi, onward & upward.

[asimov]

Good seeing is the word Trevor. I've not seen any for awhile now & thanks to that storm north of Cairns, it's not looking good for the immediate future - Fridge magnets - Was only looking at one of them on a certain site this morning lol. Some never learn!:rofl:

[asimov]

And I've just seen Damians first Saturn image for this apparition...Good bye, 'fridge magnet' :D

[Rod771]

Fantastic images Trevor :thumbsup:

[Quark]

I was checking my email this morning and saw Damian's latest masterpiece, such an unassuming young man and what an image. He certainly made a mockery of the low alt of Saturn. For years he has set the bar for the rest of us to aspire too, although I reckon Birds Jup from Exmouth is the best Jup I have seen.

A friend of mine in the UK, Dave Tyler, a lovely bloke, the elder statesman of planetary imaging in the UK and also extremely good at Solar imaging. Dave is 12 years older than me and has a similar background in engineering trades. Dave has been lamenting the fact that he will likely never see Saturn at a reasonable alt again in his lifetime. I sent Dave the merged R, G & B channels from the data posted in this thread to have a play with. Have attached what he sent back to me.

[asimov]

Naturally I have heard of Dave Tyler & have seen numerous images by Dave. He certainly hasn't lost the planet processing touch! Marvellous work on your RGB Trevor.