Saturn

A new first for my 5" telescope was my viewing of Saturn last night. Saturn currently rises in the eastern sky well after sunset and gets high in the sky towards midnight. I captured the image above with my small CCD camera using 0.177 second exposures stacked and averaged to bring out the details. The rings are obvious and I could convince myself that the large gap in the rings, the Cassini Division, is visible but I'll leave that to the viewer. A cloud band on the upper portion of Saturn itself may also be visible. Regardless of the details, the image definitely captures the subtle pastel colors of Saturn.