Ultra Venus

Venus is covered by a thick layer of clouds which shines brightly, making it the brightest planet in the sky.  See prior Venus overview.  Visually it appears to be a featureless white disk which goes thru phases like the moon.  However, UltraViolet light shows rapidly moving clouds, thought to be composed of sulfuric acid and aerosols(wikipedia):  

Venus Visible light 7/3/2018 ~3:30 UTC

Venus Ultraviolet colorized 7/3/2018 ~3:30 UTC

Venus Ultraviolet grey scale 7/3/2018 ~3:30 UTC

Venus Ultraviolet 7/2/2018 ~3:30 UT

Venus Ultraviolet 7/14/2018 3:35 UT

Venus Ultraviolet colorized  7/14/2018 3:35 UT

No detail in this one:

Venus Ultraviolet 7/4/2018 ~3:30 UT

Couldn't pick up any detail in IR:

Venus Infrared 7/3/2018 ~3:30 UTC

Imaging details:
imaging in UV was complicated by light loss and poor focusing of UV light by glass elements in the image train, increased UV susceptibility to atmospheric distortion, and turbulent air near sunset when Venus is visible.
typical capture
Celestron 11 edge HD
Camera=ZWO ASI290MM
Frames captured=109386
Duration=400.921s
FPS (avg.)=272
Shutter=3.206ms
Gain=361 (60%)
Histogramm=33%
Baader U filter: 350nm, bandwidth 60nm (320-380nm)
Baader IR pass "685" nm

Eastbluff
Southern California

summer saturnalia

Still celebrating a summer Saturnalia.  I've had a run of the best seeing locally in several years.  It's a great time for planetary observing with Venus at sunset, Jupiter transiting at a gentlemanly 9 pm, Saturn near opposition around midnight, and then a blazing Mars rising in the east, approaching  opposition later this month.  

Here are more images from my recent capture of the Saturn's polar hexagon.  Infrared, up-sampling the video by a factor of 3.  

Saturn with north polar hexagon, infrared image 6/26/18 7:45 UTC

Here's a north polar projection, showing the hexagon:

The hexagon was not visible in my RGB image (click on image for full size):

Saturn RGB 6/26/18 7:45 UTC

Here, I've added infrared as luminance to bring out the hexagon in the RGB image.  You can also see that the banding on the disk is much more prominent in infrared (click on image for full size).

Saturn with north polar hexagon, RGB with IR luminance  6/26/18 7:45 UTC

Lastly, here's an annotated wider field:

The cause of the hexagon is still not clear.  One theory is that a hexagon forms where there is a steep variation in the speed and viscosity of atmospheric winds.  The hexagon was blue when it was discovered by the voyager probe in 1981, but has changed to a gold color.  More information on the hexagon at wikipedia.  

The north polar hexagon can only be imaged from earth when Saturn's north pole is tilted towards us.  It was maximally tilted towards us last year and will be tilting away for the next 15 years, when the south pole will be facing us, then begin tilting back.  So you can see the source of my urgency in capturing it.  

image details
celestron 11" Edge HD
ZWO ASI 290MM
zwo RGB filters, Baader IR pass "685" nm
processed in PIPP
upsampled 3x in autostakkert
sharpened in registax
combined in winjupos
6/26/18  07:45 UT
Eastbluff
Southern California

Eureka, The Hex!

neared Saturnian nirvana last night 
think i got a legit shot of the hexagon
if you look closely at the top dark ring, you can see the corners:

Saturn Infrared

image details
celestron 11" Edge HD
ZWO ASI290MM
Baader IR pass "685" nm
3 minute capture
FPS (avg.)=269
Shutter=3.532ms
Gain=351 (58%)
33% histogram
upsampled 2x in autostakkert
sharpened in registax
6/26/18  07:45 UT
Eastbluff

Southern California