At first sight these three images seem rather unremarkable because they're fuzzy and not of a high resolution. Yet I consider these amoung the best I made this year. All three are made using narrowband NIR filters that highlight specific characteristics of the Saturnian atmosphere. The small bandwidths cause dimm images and longer exposures, making images at these wavelengts more difficul.

Left is an image taken at 825 nm. At this wavelength, the high altitude haze that covers the deeper clouds is far more transparant. These hazes are the cause of the mostly yellow bands of Saturn in visual wavelengths, and they cover the deeper cloudes. At 825 nm, the planet looks rather unremarkable, but appearances deceive. We have a unblocked view, almost undisturebed by the haze and we are looking deep into the atmosphere. If I succeed in getting a higher resolution image (next year perhaps?), it would be an excellent window to look for storms and other disturbances in the atmosphere.

The middle image was taken at 728 nm, where methane absorbs rather weakly. Rather than being transparant, at this wavelength the absorption of methane blocks the lower atmosphere so that the equatorial band (higher in the atmosphere), stands out. The planet is also dimmer, which is noticable because the rings are a bit brighter in comparison.

The right image was taken at a stronger wavelength, 890 nm. The same rules that I explained at 728 nm apply here, except that the effect is much, much more stronger. The planet has almost dissapeared, and only the equatorial belt is weakly visible. The planet is very effectively obscured by methane, and the rings stand out bright compared to the dark globe.

As Saturn will be less favourably placed in the years to come, I hope to experiment further with imaging in these wavelengths. NIR is more forgiving to air turbulence, so I hope I can keep track of this remarkable ringworld.

A series of images that show different faces of Saturn. To the left a Luminace, with maximum detail, in the middle, this Luminance has been coloured with a lower resolution RGB.

To the right a different colour image. The RGB channels have been replaced with red, far red and NIR channels. As a 'Luminance', a red+IR filter was used, which encompasses all the wavelenghts of the three formerly mentioned filter channels.

Saturn looks bluish due to methane absorption in the far red and NIR channels. It is the same process that colours Uranus and Neptune, but due to their greater atmospheric methane content, the effect is much stronger, giving a visible blue colour as well. For Saturn, this effect is only visible in NIR, where methane absorption is much stronger.

I took greater care in recording these channels compared to my last attempt of 18 April so that different colour bands can be discerned. The equatorial band shows yellow hues as well as light blue, and other bands to the north and south show green and purple hues.