Technical data

14″ Newton ♦ P1 Saturn C ♦ ADC Pierro Astro

August 25, 2023 23:13 UT

This image shows two DS (Dark Spots) in the northern hemisphere of Saturn, and a storm in the Southern hemisphere.

Not only Jupiter, but also Saturn has its own band system, clearly visible in this image from August 25th.

Unlike those of Jupiter, which are quite stable over time, Saturn's bands migrate slowly in latitude, following the point of maximum insulation (subsolar point). Note that the saturnian NEB (and SEB) is actually very large in latitude and splitted into 2 components (NEBn and NEBs).

Technical data

30 cm Cassegrain ♦ ASI290MM ♦ Astronomik R

August 25, 2022

Saturn imaged about a week after opposition, shows a polar storm near f limb (on left). Also visible is the disk of Titan, pasted here in a plausible position for aesthetic reasons.

Technical data

30 cm f/20 CFF Cassegrain ♦ P1 Saturn C

August 21, 2022

Fairly poor seeing, but the greater brightness of the rings on opposition days is clearly visible (Seeliger effect).

I took a long series of videos for about 4 hours, from 1 to 4 am, trying various filters and with various cameras. In the end, I had the best result with the red filter which clearly highlights the disk (only 0.2″!) of Iapetus. Any attempt to see it at the eyepiece was useless, it was invisible even on the monitor.

The next transit of Iapetus visible from Italy is foreseen on November 25, 2035.

This animation highltights the Seeliger effect, i.e. the greater brightness of Saturn's rings on the days around the opposition. Attached is a graph (made with ImageJ on a processed and uncalibrated image) with a brightness profile for the two images.

One of the first images of Saturn with the 30cm Cassegrain.

Another success for the "small" C8: the imaging of Saturn's polar hexagon, clearly visible here in the WinJupos polar projection (on the right).

Technical data

C8EdgeHD ♦ R Astronomik

August 10, 2019

One of the best images of Saturn taken by the C8HD, just a few days after the 2019 opposition. The planet was just over 25 degrees above my horizon.

July 6, 2019