Saturn 28 March 2011

[Paul Haese]

Saturn is now approaching its opposition with the Earth. The planet is practically at the largest apparent diameter for this opposition and the seeliger effect is starting to show. Last night the blue channel was particularly bright on the rings. It was interesting to see the effect as I have never been able to image right near opposition before. Seeing could have been better and I am sure there is a diamond in the rough here somewhere.

Click here for image.

[John Hothersall]

Glad to see the master at work finally with Saturn, detail and banding coming through well and hopefully seeing will give you more chances through opposition.

John.

[deanm (Dean)]

Folks - this may sound like a daft newbie question, but is the Seeliger effect the interplaneray equivalent of an Iridium flare?

(By which I mean a reflective, planar surface (rings), the Sun and us being briefly in the appropriate geometry)

Dean

[Quark (Trevor)]

Nice result Paul, thought you may have used the Flea3 though.

Cheers
Trevor

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Bright, colourfull and detailed Paul, a delight to view. Well done.

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by John Hothersall

Glad to see the master at work finally with Saturn, detail and banding coming through well and hopefully seeing will give you more chances through opposition.

John.

I am flattered John, but seeing is the master of this pursuit. Thanks all the same.

Originally Posted by deanm

Folks - this may sound like a daft newbie question, but is the Seeliger effect the interplaneray equivalent of an Iridium flare?

You could look at it like that I suppose.

Originally Posted by Quark

Nice result Paul, thought you may have used the Flea3 though.

Cheers
Trevor

Fixed that Trevor. Forgot to change the type. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks Fred, appreciated.

[bloodhound31]

It's been a while since i even looked at planetary imaging. A couple of years in fact. I didn't realise the rings had opened up again! Last time I looked the rings were a straight, thin line. How long ago was that?

Great image Paul, you have really come along!

Baz.

[Paul Haese]

Not as long as you think Barry. Last year the rings were edge on for us. You should pop in more often though, take a search of John's Hothersall's, Trevor's and Asimov's images. Those guys have produced so many great images this year it will make your eyes pop.

[desler]

Nice to see you get some reasonable seeing Paul. Lovely image.

I spent a fair bit of time staring at Saturn through the 9.25 during imaging runs at the same time. Such a great view this year.

Your advice and knowledge about letting the scope cool down as much as possible has made my use of this scope a lot more enjoyable. Can't wait to see more of your work.

Darren

[Jen]

keep em coming Haese i can never get sick of looking at Saturn pics Very nice

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys,

Darren it has come through hard fought experience, but I am glad to hear you are getting more out of your scope.

Jen I think the same too. It needs exceptional seeing to get great views of Jupiter, but Saturn nearly always looks superb when view in the scope and imaged.