Although Saturn has been visible in the morning sky for a while now, the wait for clear weather has finally ended. It was very windy and the air above was very turbulent. This was my first time having insulation wrapped around the OTA while imaging a planet. Despite having just bringing the scope out to a cooler environment, I saw no internal heat plume while collimating the secondary mirror.
This was also the first time I used my Chroma extended green filter on Saturn. As expected, the new filter gave an image about 25% brighter compared to the standard green, resulting in a slightly less noisy green channel. The 11:28 image uses the standard green filter while the 11:29 image uses the extended green. I am hoping for better conditions soon so I can create a solid comparison between both filters.
As Saturn's axial tilt continues to decrease, more of the southern hemisphere is revealed. The planet is now at about the same tilt as it was
when I first imaged it in 2013.
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