Contains:  Solar system body or event
Saturn opposition 2020, Darren (DMach)

Saturn opposition 2020

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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The weather hasn't been kind here of late with respect to astrophotography, but I was very fortunate to be blessed with very clear and steady skies the night of 20th July.

Conditions were near perfect, with the exception of a gusty breeze which was causing a significant amount of image shake. (The C11 is pretty much at the capacity limit of my CEM60, so it doesn't handle such conditions very well.)

Even though I know to expect it, I'm always blown away by how bright Saturn's rings become at opposition due to the Seeliger Effect (AKA "opposition surge"). You can read more about this in the article below:

https://astronomy.com/magazine/stephen-omeara/2014/03/saturns-opposition-effect

The rings can really only be described as luminous at this time, easily outshining the planet itself ... completely captivating!

In all I spent more than an hour and a half imaging Saturn that evening, with the image here being a de-rotation of 7 captures spanning 20 minutes elapsed time. Only the top 10% of frames were stacked for each capture, in an attempt to combat the wind shake.

Thanks for looking!

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Saturn opposition 2020, Darren (DMach)