Has Saturn's Hexagon disappeared?

[Stefan Buda]

This is another image from ANZAC day morning and I was surprised to see that the polar hexagon has faded out of visibility.

Does anyone know when did this happen?

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

awesome shot Stefan!

[blink138 (Pat)]

Quark (trevor) pictures still clearly show the hex, he has an animation of it in his last saturn images
pat

[blink138 (Pat)]

oops, fantastic saturn you got there stefan!
pat

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Ripper shot! I can still see the hexagon there.

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Superb Stefan

[astroron (Ron)]

I don't think so, I saw a fantastic photo taken only a few days ago and posted
on face book, the hexagon was there in all it's glory.
I have not been able to find it again.
Nice pic all the same .
Cheers

[SkyWatch (Dean)]

That's a great image Stefan. The hexagon is still there, just a bit subdued. Maybe atmospheric transparency wasn't the best when you took the image.

All the best,

Dean

[el_draco (Rom)]

Glorious...

[Stefan Buda]

Yes, the transparency was not very good when a took this image, but I looked at recent Saturn images on the net and all, except the IR and the over processed ones, show a very faded hexagon.
A couple of years ago the hexagon was greenish and dark relative to its surroundings. Last year I did not image it so I suppose I'm comparing it to how it was back then.
While Damian Peach's image of 19th March shows it reasonably well , at low contrast, on Christopher Go's from 2nd of April it is barely visible.

[astroron (Ron)]

The latest image from Damian Peach shows it very well.
http://www.damianpeach.com/sat1516/2...908_9-LRGB.jpg
Cheers

[andyc (Andy)]

Great image! I don't think it's gone, but maybe not as prominent as it was?

[Stefan Buda]

Originally Posted by astroron

The latest image from Damian Peach shows it very well.
http://www.damianpeach.com/sat1516/2...908_9-LRGB.jpg
Cheers

Thanks Ron, you are right, I somehow missed his image from the 18th and only saw the one from the following day, which shows the hexagon in less contrast. So it may come down to sky transparency in some parts of the spectrum.

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Stefan Buda

Thanks Ron, you are right, I somehow missed his image from the 18th and only saw the one from the following day, which shows the hexagon in less contrast. So it may come down to sky transparency in some parts of the spectrum.

Thanks Stefan, the seeing and transparency have a lot to do with it, even though sometimes it looks fantastic.
I would like to see this detail none the less visually,but I reckon I would a scope a lot bigger than my 16" scope.
Keep up the good work
Cheers