Mars & Saturn March 20th UT in good seeing

[Quark]

Imaged Mars & Saturn this morning in good seeing that was at times interrupted by cloud wafting through.

The seeing for Mars was good and I am pleased with the level of detail. Have attached 1 RGB & 807nm IR data set along with an animation of the IR data.

For Saturn , the R channel of my first data set is up there with the best I have seen this apparition, the G & B channels were also in good seeing but effected by cloud coming through that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The B channel in particular was effected to the extent that about half of the frames had to be cut out. But still this RGB was very nice and the pick from the session.



Of interest is a quite bright discrete spot in the NEB, of course the storm remnant remains and there is structure within it .


Since January, in good seeing, I have resolved faint cloud features within the NEB, this current spot is much more concentrated than anything I have seen previously within the NEB.



I have attached 1 RGB, I was not able to get an IR following this RGB as that coincided with the arrival of some rather dense cloud which hung around for an hour or so. Have also attached a 130% resample of this RGB along with an animation of all RGB data. The moon in the animation is Mimas.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/s2012-03-20_tba_rgb.gif

Thanks for looking.


Regards
Trevor

[John K]

Fantastic Trev, love the Mars image in particular with Syrtis Major

[Shiraz]

remarkable set of data Trevor - mars detail is exceptional, animation is great and Saturn is very smooth and with interesting features. Are you aware of any electrical storm activity associated with the bright spot or is it still just a remnant of the big one. regards Ray

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Trev. Take the seeing while you can.

[strongmanmike]

Another successful fishing trip :thumbsup:

I like the softness while retaining the details.

Mike

[bird]

Excellent images Trev!

cheers, Bird

[Quark]

Thanks very much John, I think this is my favorite side of Mars.



Thanks very much Ray, the lightning associated with the great storm has ceased, the last of it was a short sporadic outburst back in December 2011. There is however a tropospheric beacon, a small hotter region visible with the VLT at thermal wavelengths that may produce a visible light counterpart due to chemical reactions caused by it, that would be of great interest to the planetary physicists involved in this research.



Thanks very much Paul, yes, an interesting session with good seeing interspersed with cloud.



Thanks very much Mike, the tools available to us are very powerful and it is so easy to over process and end up with detail that looks a bit like the dressing on a pizza. Over the years, in pretty ordinary seeing, I have done just that to reveal storm structure for my researcher to the detriment of the esthetic's of the image overall. It is great to get good seeing when an image can be processed for a nice natural look but still reveal the the detail that is of scientific interest.



Thanks very much Bird and congrats on your most excellent Saturn, it looks like this weather pattern reached over to you the next day.

[Derek Klepp]

Great update Trevor lucky your not up here in the NE.

[samilag]

Trevor,
Fantastic Saturn spectacular details and colors !!

Giuseppe

[anthony.tony]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/Strange-Happenings-on-Mars-143959576.html - Hello Trevor and members can you Work this one out -Reguard's Tony

[Lester]

Excellent Trevor, thanks for the views.
All the best.

[stardust steve]

a crackertastic set of images, good stuff:thumbsup: