SATURN 2007/2008

A new Saturn season has begun!  With Cassini at Saturn, it is great to monitor the ringed planet again!  The northern hemisphere of Saturn is more visible now!   

All images were taken using a Celestron C11 SCT and a DMK 21BF04 camera.  All images are processed using Registax 4.

All these images were taken in my home at Banilad, Cebu City, Philippines!

You can also see my past images of Saturn at the ALPO Japan Kansai Branch site.

May 1, 2008

Transparency was terrible today.  Seeing was good though. 

There are two outbreaks in the STrZ!!  The one close to the CM is huge and complex.    Band detail is great in this image.  The Cassini division is still visible all around!

April 17, 2008

Seeing was not good this evening.  This was suppose to be a quintuple transit  (Tethys and Shadow, Dione's shadow and Mimas and Shadow).  But I was only able to image Tethys and her shadow.  Dione's shadow was too close the Tethys.  As a bonus there is indeed a very bright STrZ white spot in Saturn!!

 

 

April 4, 2008

Seeing was unstable this evening. 

Tethys is visible in Saturn's left.  Enceladus is visible in mid-transit at the NEBn at the CM.  Click the image on the right for an animation made by Mark Crossley to view where Enceladus is.  Thanks Mark!  Please click this link to download the  raw luminance image.

 

 

March 30, 2008

Seeing was good this evening.

I was trying to image the WSZ this evening.  But I couldn't find a hint of  it in all the images I took.  Lots of bands visible in Jupiter.  Tethys (upper-left) and Dione (upper-right).

 

March 29, 2008

I had some visitors this evening.  Byron Bell from Lexington, KY dropped by my place and I took this image while he was here in my place.

Seeing was good but transparency was rather poor!

I was hoping to image the WSZ but I can only see a hint of it on the left size of the CM.  It still too far from the CM to get a good view.

 

March 27, 2008

Seeing was  good this evening.  I have just upgraded the firmware of my AP900 to v4.15 and it works flawlessly!

No spots in Saturn's disk.  Just a lot of banding.  You can see Saturn's disk through the Cassini Division!

Dione is just north of Saturn.

 

March 25, 2008

Seeing was  not very good this evening. I had to image between the clouds!

The STrZ spot can be seen to the left of the CM. Contrast is very low with this spot. 

Rhea is above Saturn.

 

March 24, 2008

Seeing was excellent this evening.  There are no moons or white spots but belts and zones galore!  There are a lot of belt and zone details on this image!  The north polar hood is bluish while the southern hood is reddish!  This is my best image of the year!

 

March 18, 2008

Seeing was very good this evening.  I was only able to get one shot at Saturn before the clouds rolled in.  The STrZ storm is suppose to be at the CM but can't be seen in this image.  It has probably faded?  A lot of belts are visible.  The north polar tip looks bright in this image.  A lot of bands are now coming out in the northern hemisphere.

 

March 1, 2008

Seeing was good this evening.  I was able to capture the rising STrZ storm "aka" the "Dragon".  The storm is located around SYS III: 300.  Contrast of this storm gets better as it gets closer to the CM.  Some features of this storm seem to be resolved.  Hopefully we can get some Cassini images for this.

2 moons are visible here.  Tethys is on the left while Dione just below the SPC.

 

February 29, 2008

Here's my first image of Saturn this year. Seeing was good this evening.  It's bands galore in Saturn.  Note the dark NPR.  The northern hemisphere bands are showing up now.    Tethys is the faint star just above the ring of Saturn on the right while Rhea is below the ring on the right.

 

December 7, 2007

Here's an LRGB image of Saturn.  Note the STZ white spot just after the CM.  The contrast of this spot is very low and is visible only in best seeing.  Note the dark NPR.  

 

December 3, 2007

Seeing was good this evening.  It was just so windy and it was though keeping Saturn still.   Fortunately, I was able to capture the STZ white spot.  It is at the CM on the second image.

Georg Fischer informed me that Cassini has detected radio emissions associated to the "dragon" lightning feature.  Is this white spot associated to the lightning?

3 moons are also visible in this image.  Rhea and Dione are on the upper right.  While Tethys is on the lower left just below the ring.

 

December 2, 2007

It's been cloudy here for the past month.  Here's my first shot of Saturn.  Note that Tethys is transiting the Saturnian disk at the NNTZ eastern edge.  At first I thought this was a white spot but after checking Winjupos, I realized that this was Tethys.

Note that the north Polar Hood is emerging! 

 

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Copyright 2007 Christopher Go (christone@pacific.net.ph)