Saturn is shown here 1 month past its 2025 opposition with Earth.

Atmospheric seeing conditions for this session were poor (4 out of 10) with
jet stream turbulence present overhead complicated further by low planet
altitude in the sky which caused some blurring effects from atmospheric
dispersion.

The rings of Saturn are currently showing a very severe closure angle in 2025
as Saturn reaches the part of its orbit around the Sun that puts it directly in an
edge-on visual alignment with Earth.

As Saturn continues its orbit around the Sun, the rings will gradually open
back up and become much more visible.  Features such as the Cassini and Encke
ring divisions will be much easier to observe then.

Same image of Saturn with major cloud and ring features labeled.

• Saturn features information (courtesy of WikiPedia-click on links):
  Saturn's Cloud Belts and Atmosphere
  Saturn's Ring System
  Saturn's Moons

Image Details:

• Instrument: Takahashi Mewlon M210 Dall-Kirkham OTA Cassegrain @ native focal length of 2415mm ( f/11.5)
• Image Amplifier:  None used, ZWO ADC Unit was used.  ADC tuning by FireCapture software.
• Mount: Rainbow Astro RST-300 in EQ Mode
• Camera: ZWO ASI715MC color video camera  
• Image Scale:  0.12 arc-seconds/pixel
• Filters:  Baader IR/UV Cutoff Filter
• Exposure:  16-bit .Ser files, 3000 frames, shot @ 130 frames per second.  Best 70% of stack saved and processed (2100 frames used from stack).
• Software: FireCapture V.2.7.14 capture software, Auto-Stakkert V.4, Registax Wavelets Ver. 6, WinJupos v.12.1.13, PixInsight Post-Processing.
• PixInsight Processing Steps (listed in order):  MLT, GreyCStoration, UnSharp Mask, ACDNR, HT, CT for color adjustments, Dynamic Crop, Resample
• Location: Little Rock, AR., El. 350ft
  Image Date:  03:33 UTC November 15th, 2024