Image Links Published image Full resolution Annotated image Full resolution Target Information Main Target Designation(s) Saturn Companion Object(s) High latitude storm All Exposures Date(s) of acquisition 2018Jul24 at 05:25UT Location Defiance, MO Capture resolution 640x480 Target Altitude 26.3° Luminance Exposures Total capture 3376 x 53.3ms at 62% gain Stack source 25% of 720" video at 18 fps (avg) Red Exposures Total capture 1000 x 142.4ms at 62% gain Stack source 1000 frames of 600" video at 7 fps (avg) Green Exposures Total capture 750 x 217.7ms at 62% gain Stack source 750 frames of 450" video at 4 fps (avg) Blue Exposures Total capture 750 x 264.7ms at 62% gain Stack source 750 frames of 450" video at 3 fps (avg) Equipment Imager ZWO ASI174MM Filters ZWO 1.25" RGB Telescope/Lens Celestron C14 XLT SCT Magnifiers Tele Vue 2x Powermate Correctors ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector Effective Focal Length 7820mm (f/22) Mount Celestron CGE Pro Focuser Moonlite 2.5" CSL Software Acquisition FireCapture 2.5 Guiding None Processing AutoStakkert 3, Registax 6, WinJUPOS 10, PixInsight 1.8 Aiming to improve on my previous Saturn, I set out this time with a plan to acquire longer color videos (between 450" and 600" as compared to 90") and also take a long set of luminance data (720") to use as true luminance instead of relying on the red exposures to provide the detail. The added data used in combination with a lower gain has resulted in more noiseless frames, while the shorter exposure lengths of the luminance data resulted in "beating the atmospheric seeing" a little better. The result: My best Saturn yet... and a surprise! High in the northern hemisphere in this shot is a bright streak. This unanticipated feature is a massive storm! With Saturn's diameter coming in at about 9.5x that of Earth's, it's a pretty easy estimate to say that this storm is larger than our own planet. It's a good thing though -- any smaller and it'd be a lot tougher for me to act as a meteorologist from 750 million miles. As Saturn begins to sink lower into the evening sky, I feel pretty comfortable marking this image as my Saturnian prize for the season. Next up are more Mars attempts! Â
