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Saturn

It’s fuzzy, but there’s the Cassini Division in the rings, and you can see atmospheric banding on the planet itself:

Saturn.jpg

I’m going to call that a successful image for now. I’ve really squandered this year’s Saturn season, and circumstances being what they are, the next two nights are probably my only real chance to make up for it. I may give this planet one more shot this week, but if not, this is as good as it gets until the fall.

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  • Posted by Tim on Monday, March 8, 2004 at 1:06:16 am PST
  • Category: Astronomy
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7 Responses to “Saturn”

  1. jed says:

    Well, I’m envious. Or something like that.

    Alas, my C5+ is for sale — on consignment over at S&S Optika.

    I suppose I might have waited until after this month’s quintuple planet play. (All 5 naked-eye planets in the sky at the same time.)

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 8th, 2004 at 7:41 pm |
  2. Tim Berglund says:

    Jed:

    Bummer you had to consign your scope, but I trust your judgment.

    And don’t forget: March is Messier Marathon month! You’re not gonna fine me staying up all night for that stuff. Catch-as-catch-can viewing does the job for me. (Plus maybe a star party in the summer.)

    Quick plug for S&S Optika: Cathy Havens is about the nicest retailer period–not merely the nicest telescope or even optical product retailer–in the Denver area.

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 8th, 2004 at 9:39 pm |
  3. pentamom says:

    Am I correct in assuming that the reason your webcam images look to me like collections of a couple dozen squares a piece on a black background has to do with my dialup connection?

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 7:04 am |
  4. Tim Berglund says:

    Uh-oh. You mean all of them, or just Io and Europa? The two moons look pixellated because they’re very zoomed-in views; the moons actually took up just a few pixels in the processed image. You should see a picture of Saturn and a picture of Jupiter, though, regardless of the speed of your connection. They are 7kB and 12kB images, respectively.

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 8:07 am |
  5. pentamom says:

    Yeah, it’s IO and Europa. The planets are fine. It’s pixellated, but beyond pixellated, if you know what I mean. They’re not just choppy looking, they just look like small piles of slowly shifting squares. Kinda nice in the psychedelic art department, but… ;-)

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 10:09 am |
  6. Sciolist says:

    Awesome low-overhead photos!

    I can’t wait until Cassini’s Huygens probe drops into the atmophere of Titan in 2005!

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 7:09 pm |
  7. jed says:

    Messier Marthon Month — MMM!

    I never got into the “hell-bent” for bagging objects mode either. Just enjoyed looking at stuff. I tried several times to catch the Horsehead nebula — never saw it. Of course, it’s a difficult target.

    You’re right about Cathy too.

    Comment Permalink | Posted on March 9th, 2004 at 10:59 pm |
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