We were supposed to be clouded-out, last night. However, I noticed that the skies cleared around 10pm and the seeing steadied around the time of culmination. With Saturn at about 38 degrees altitude, here are some images of the ringed gas-giant.
Here is an image in near-IR (>742nm)
And finally the original RGB that adds a 50% luminance from the IR (purely for aesthetics, but it does help to see the smaller details visible in the IR image).
Here’s an image of M3, taken last night under very unstable (but quite transparent) skies. The seeing was too poor for planetary work, but I didn’t want to let the clear skies go to waste.
Here’s a “Star Wars Day” Saturn, taken at a scant 32 degrees altitude under fairly steady and transparent skies. A small white spot is visible in the NTZ. The north polar hexagon is barely discernible.
Here’s the same RGB with a 50% IR luminance added, just for aesthetics.
It’s been a while since my last images, but the weather has been quite horrid here for the past few months. Here are some images of Jupiter taken late this afternoon, about an hour before sunset. The sun was a bit more than 8 degrees above the horizon, so these were taken in essentially full daylight. The transparency was excellent and the seeing wasn’t too bad.
This will probably be my last Jupiter image of the apparition, but the new apparition is just around the corner.
It’s been over 2 months since the weather allowed any imaging. The seeing was fair tonight and the skies fairly transparent, allowing for these RGB and IR images to be taken. Jupiter has moved much farther from us over the past months, so it appears quite a bit smaller than it did during my last session.
