Saturn July1 - equatorial spot breakup

[Shiraz (Ray)]

hi

have been trying to track a smallish equatorial spot over the past month and was fortunate enough to image it again on the 1st. Seeing was variable, but got one fair rgb (the first image) and a couple of reasonable broadband luminance images. A small spot is just visible in the centre of the colour image, but it could as well be noise.

The second image shows the main spot region near to the central meridian - what used to be an isolated spot (possibly elongated in the image of 25/6) appears to have broken up. The third image was taken ~3/4 hour earlier and shows a small but noticeable change in brightness in the equatorial zone at the spot position (marked by the inverted "v"), but the spot structure is not discernable this far round the globe. There may possibly be a wake extending some distance around the EZ, but more resolution is needed to say for sure.

The position of the centre of the rightmost lobe of the main spot in image 2 was plotted on the drift chart (image 4). The new observation is consistent with earlier results, although it must be borne in mind that there is only one point from an independent source in this data (Trevor Barry found the spot in an image taken by Damian Peach).

The monochrome image data has been very heavily processed to bring out very low contrast features, so noise is also enhanced and many apparent features may be noise rather than real. A saving grace is that the equatorial zone of the planet is bright, so the signal to noise ratios are high enough to support a bit more contrast enhancement than would be possible elsewhere.

However, the spot is no longer obvious and it is so low in contrast that I don't think I would be able to find it anymore without knowing where to look. Thus, there is probably not much point in pursuing it further - but it has been thoroughly entertaining and educational to track it this far.
thanks for looking. regards ray

[Troy]

Nice images Ray. You have done well with this outbreak, regular images, plotting its location and it has been interesting along the way. Very well done Ray 8-)

[Quark (Trevor)]

Well done Ray, it can be extremely satisfying tracking discrete detail & structure within the atmospheres of the gas giants, reckon its addictive.

Regards
Trevor

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by Troy

Nice images Ray. You have done well with this outbreak, regular images, plotting its location and it has been interesting along the way. Very well done Ray 8-)

thanks a lot Troy - appreciated

Originally Posted by Quark

Well done Ray, it can be extremely satisfying tracking discrete detail & structure within the atmospheres of the gas giants, reckon its addictive.

Regards
Trevor

thanks Trevor - sure is addictive - I spent the last few days without scope access and suffered a bit.

regards Ray

[Clayton]

Nice work Ray

[Shiraz (Ray)]

thanks Rob. regards Ray