A first: Three planets

[luminova11]

A first for me tonight, three major planets in one short session. I have had great views of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. I was using a MV 16mm 68° ep with a Skies the Limit 3X ED barlow in my SW 200p dob. Jupiter was only so so being quite low and directly over some houses and was better just using the nosepiece of the barlow screwed onto the ep. Mars was great, plenty of detail in the dark areas and polar caps were very clear with nicely defined edges. Finally Saturn, this is the first time I have had the chance to use the new MV ep on Saturn and this was that Saturn WOW moment all over again. Cassini division was clearly visible as was the banding on the planet itself. The planet seemed to float in front of everything else, a real 3D experience. What a difference a great eyepiece can make

[cotterless45]

Nice, clutching at straws here with clods cover. I heard at the last star party the MV was well thought of,

Nick.

[dick_dangerous]

It's great that we can view "The Big Three" all in the space of half an hour at the moment. It'll be like this for at least the next month, so it'll even be worth going out there in June when it doesn't get properly dark.

DD