[iceman (Mike)]

Hi guys and gals.

Here's a Saturn I took on Friday night at about 10:30pm. The seeing was good, 7/10, but transparency was poor (5/10). I had to have the gain and gamma up quite high to get an acceptable white level, and as usual the blue channel was almost glowing, resulting in a slightly soft looking image.

The one on the left is the result of the first round of processing, and the crepe ring is very visible although the overall look is softer than I would've liked. The image on the right is processed a little more (reducing gamma and a little more sharpening, plus a decreased image size) to make the image look sharper, however the crepe ring is not as visible now.

I'm happy with the width of the Cassini Division, it goes pretty much all the way around if you squint hard enough, and i'm happy with the width of the "A ring", which shows a much more natural width - captured thanks to the higher gain and gamma. I'm quite happy with the shape of the globe now too - much more round and less cut off at the intersection of the rings. Got 2 moons as well.

So unfortunately it's a trade off and I just can't seem to win with Saturn.. when the seeing has been good the transparency has been bad so I just can't capture a sharp delicate image with good banding on the globe lately.

No storm captured either, by the looks of it.

Anyway comments welcome.