These images cover the 2007/8 season. Saturn reaches opposition on 28th February 2008.
The rings have closed up even more this season. The north polar region is now clearly visible, but it makes resolution of the rings even more difficult.
It will be interesting to watch the presentation of the rings over the next couple of seasons. Between October 2007 and April 2008 the rings will open slightly before closing again and, in late December 2008, they will close almost completely before opening again in the same direction until May 2009. Finally in September 2009 the Earth will pass right through the plane of the rings. Resolving the rings at all in December 2008 will be difficult (and likely beyond the resolution of my telescopes), and in September 2009 they will be invisible in all but the largest instruments. (Particularly as it will be on the other side of the Sun at the time!)
The images are in chronological order, so the best may well be in the middle.
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My first picture of the season. Saturn was still low in the early-morning sky (32° and right over the nearby town) when this picture was taken only an hour before sunrise. It was 1,477 million kilometres (9.87 AU) away and subtended an angle of 16 arc-seconds.
Date and Time: 18th October 2007 05:26 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, high saturation, 1/25", 50% gain, 603 frames Processing: Registax. 476 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2 = 10, gamma 0.7, histogram 6-140. |
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My second picture of the season, taken 3 days later. Saturn was still low in the early-morning sky (34°) when this picture was taken only an hour before sunrise. It was 1,471 million kilometres (9.83 AU) away and subtended an angle of 16 arc-seconds.
Date and Time: 21st October 2007 05:28 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, high saturation, 1/25", 42% gain, 754 frames Processing: Registax. 597 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2 = 10. |
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My third picture of the season, taken 5 months later. By now Saturn was much higher in the evening sky (48°, which is only 2° below its maximum for that night) when this picture was taken. It was 1,269 million kilometres (8.48 AU) away and subtended an angle of 19 arc-seconds. This has to be one of the best images of Saturn I have ever obtained. I was surprised as the conditions didn't seem too good with light, high cloud about, but it seems I was lucky.
Date and Time: 30th March 2008 20:41 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, 50% saturation, 1/25", 40% gain, 1015 frames Processing: Registax. 510 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2 = 10, histogram 0-190 PhotoImpact. Unsharp mask factor 10 radius 2. |
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Only my fourth picture of the season, taken almost a month later. Conditions were not good, and the resulting picture is similar. Saturn was past opposition so we were receding from it; at this time it was 1,315 million killometres away (8.79 AU) and subtended an angle of 18 arc-seconds.
Date and Time: 23rd April 2008 20:50 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, High saturation, 1/25", 37% gain, 907 frames Processing: Registax. 132 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2 = 10, gamma 0.8, contrast 165 |