Saturn 2021-07-02

A beautiful night with excellent seeing July 2, 2021. We were prepared this time and took out the EdgeHD 14 to take high resolution images of Saturn.

Many bands are visible across the planet. Despite the high resolution of this image, the north polar hexagon is hard to distinguish other than a slight reddish tinge. In contrast to the yellow-brown and green dominating the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere has various shades of blue. When a hemisphere tilts away from the Sun, the rings block most of the sunlight from reaching it. The lack of sunlight causes the ammonia clouds that define Saturn's color to clear out and expose the Hydrogen gas deeper in the atmosphere.