Saturn 3-8-07

[Astroman]

Prompted by the Enke discussion, I took a look at Saturn last night under excellent conditions. (Clear skies, temps ~20ºC, humidity ~15%, calm winds, seeing 7/10, transparency 8/10. 10" F/7 Newtonian.)

At low power, ~60x, all 8 satellites were easy, bright and pinpoints. Cassini was solid. The Crepe ring was nicely highlighted by the planet, and visible with averted vision around the inside of the ring to the planet. I figured it was a good night, so I cranked up the power.

At nearly 300x, cloud patterns were consistent, if not solid. Cassini was wide and well defined. Differences in albedo from ring to ring were well defined as well, but no Enke visible. Seeing suffered from time to time, but there were minutes of rock solidity. The challenge was keeping the planet in the EP as the scope is still undriven. (Slow motion cable works, but takes a moment to settle between tweeks.) I'd set the planet at one edge, and watch carefully as it slid across, keeping focused on the edge where Enke should be. Cassini huge, albedo subtle, but I couldn't say I saw Enke with confidence.

At ~600X, it was more of the same, only faster.

One hour later, I was convinced I hadn't seen it. Maybe it's the ring angle, but I'm sure it wasn't the scope or conditions. Next apparition, possibly.

[Andrew]

I've just got to find some decent skies

It's a good night when I can see Cassini with my 12" reflector. The sky just won't stop shimmering and shaking.

Nice report

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Ditto from here AM. The cloud patterns are consistent, if not solid. The difference is that the clouds are local phenomena, not the target.

I often wonder if we're mad, or at least delusional, in the UK. 20C, 15% humidity, calm winds is possible, but 7/10 seeing, or worse still 8/10 transparency? As if!

It's nearly half past ten and I'm going outside for another look. Maybe the forecast was wrong, maybe the satellite cloud images were wrong, maybe I'm just crazy.

I'm still going to get an image of M51 in the next year month, so yah boo!

Keep up the reports AM, just so that we know that the sky is still up there. It's sometimes a trial to keep the faith from where I am.

Captain Chaos