Jump to content

NLCbanner2024.jpg.2478be509670e60c2d6efd04834b8b47.jpg

Best view of Saturn ever...

The Warthog

By The Warthog
in Observing - Planetary

Recommended Posts

The Warthog

The Warthog

Posted
Posted

March 28, 9:00 to 11:00 more or less.

The temperature was about -1 degree. Through the evening I had a little problem with dewing up the eyepieces, but it wasn't a big deal.

I actually started before it got dark. Set up the refractor and pointed it at Venus, which was at an altitude of about 40*. I used the 24mm Speers-WALER to begin with, and to centre the planet, then switched to my 5mm X-Cel. This was a bit ambitious, as the planet showed spikes and some false colour, but was clearly gibbous. Left things alone for a while, and went to make a cup or tea and wait for it to get properly dark. I could already see Betelgeuse, Sirius and Rigel, as well as Saturn, at this point.

When I got back outside I pointed the scope at the Moon, in order to drop down a degree or so and put Saturn in the eyepiece. I put in the 5mm again, and was clearly able to see three moons, Titan obviously to the upper right, and another moon off to the left and a faint one slightly to the lower right. I could get glimpses of the Cassini division, and at first I thought I was seeing some banding on the disk, but as the night went on, I realized that I was seeing the rings passing in front of the disk, and when I swithced to the 8mm X-Cel and a yellow filter, I got a proper three-dimensional image of the planet. I'm used to seeing this in a reflector, with the planet south side up. I also used my 9mm Ortho and had good results with both this ep and the 8mm. The 5mm was not as good, perhaps because the transparency was less than perfect.

Spent a little time on the Moon, with the 8mm, enjoying the crispness of the mountains and craters along the terminator.

Went to look at M42 with the 24mm in place. Had a good view of the nebula in this ep, and the Running Man was rightside up, for once. I observed M42 with the 5mm, the 8mm and the 9mm Ortho The best Trapezium appeared in the 9mm Ortho. Again, it appeared to me that I could discern colour differences in these four stars. In the 8mm the trap was almost as good, but the faintest of the stars was a matter of indirect vision. In the 5mm, the stars weren't quite as sharp. The Nebula itself looked best in the 8mm.

Nest I went to Mintaka, which splits easily in all my eps, and then used Mintaka to test the FOV of the 24mm S-W. It took 6:34 for the star to cross the FOV. Doing the math, that gives 68 degrees for the AFOV, and the manufacturer claims 66 degrees, so given a little timing error, it's pretty close to the claimed figure. Stars are pinpoint sharp across except for a very narrow band at thee dges, where the stars smear out a bit.

Tried unsuccessfully to split Sirius, then went and found NGC 2244 in Monocerous. Tried and failed to find beta Monocerous. Also tried for M35, but had trouble finding reference stars to guide me. I think I will have to put an optical finder on the scope as well as the red dot. Either that, or get GOTO for the mount.

With the LP and a little haze, the magnitude was about 3 or a little higher. I found that things like M78, while visible, didn't show a lot of stars.

Towards the end, a little thin cloud was moving in. I enjoyed a fine Montecristo No. 4, the last of a present my daughter brought me from Cuba. It went out when I was about 2/3 of the way through it, and I don't usually relight a cigar, but this is a $15 Cuban. I relit it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.