The greatest Saturn portrait...yet

[danielj]

Look at this
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06193
Do you think you can see better detail than before?I wonder if it can be a start to a 4k texture of the ringed planet

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

While it is a very fine image, the problem is that gas giant atmospheres - on the small scale - change all the time. Bands and large structures may generally stay the same, but it's obvious with Neptune and Jupiter that spots and storms can come and go. Saturn IS a little more stable-looking, but at the small scale I don't think a lot of detail is really going to be that useful, since whatever is there may only last a few weeks.

Plus, this is only one part of a hemisphere - bit hard to make a full texture out of that unless you do some cloning.

[t00fri]

For curiosity, I have made a 8k texture from that Saturn composite right after it had appeared about a weak ago (Feb 24th). It's very easy to do.

However, the gain in detail is not very dramatic and hence I dumped that project soon after. I am not worried by the change of cloud details with time. After all, we don't mind using /generic/ cloud patterns for Earth as well. The clouds on Earth change even more dramatically...

[selden]

Fridger,

Please remember that some people want very much to be able to use Celestia to watch the Earth's clouds change.

[t00fri]

Fridger,

Please remember that some people want very much to be able to use Celestia to watch the Earth's clouds change.

Selden,

I thought we concluded that this is presently out of the question. See e.g.

http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6150&start=10

Bye Fridger

[selden]

Fridger,

I was responding to your comment "After all, we don't mind using /generic/ cloud patterns for Earth as well." We do indeed very much mind, although it is not yet feasable to show active cloud cover.

[Matt McIrvin]

For curiosity, I have made a 8k texture from that Saturn composite right after it had appeared about a weak ago (Feb 24th). It's very easy to do.

However, the gain in detail is not very dramatic and hence I dumped that project soon after. I am not worried by the change of cloud details with time. After all, we don't mind using /generic/ cloud patterns for Earth as well. The clouds on Earth change even more dramatically...

I'm coming to think that it might be nice to at least have a series of seasonal textures-- for Saturn, we may well find out over the next few years that the blue cap that Cassini is seeing is a seasonal phenomenon. Seasonal textures would be nice for Earth (the Motherlode already has them!) and Mars as well... very likely for Titan... and, given recent discoveries, probably more important for Uranus than any other planet.