Saturn on a clear night

[GordonCopestake]

How clear was lastnight's sky!? I think it was the clearest i've seen for a good year!

Used my new 6" SCT (6SE) to view saturn, tracking was spot on and I seem to have sorted the alignment out. No idea what I was doing wrong the first time, but this time I used a named city rather than enter my co-ordinates manually and a solar system align on Venus and saturn worked well.

Saturn was crisp and bright at 275x at 6mm in a 3-6 nagler. Pushed it all the way up to 500x and saturn still remained crisp. Cassini was bright and the ring shadow was clear on the planet. I could see only 2 or 3 bands though, perhaps a filter would bring out more detail.

Very pleased with the setup as saturn remained in the eyepiece at 275x for as long as I viewed. Needed some tweaking at 500x though, but thats understandable given a fork mount rather than an EQ mount. I knew my collimation was slightly off too, so given another night like that with perfect collimation i'll be VERY happy with the views. I'm shocked at how much contrast there is given the near 40% CO.

Also saw the double cluster and M45. There was too much light pollution for any faint fuzzies though, will have to throw the lot in the car one night. Did look at M42 and it was clear, if a little faint. Not quite a 12" view but still a nice sight. Will attempt a few piggybacked DSLR shots soon.

[geppetto]

Wonderful..

Yes, what a great night to be out playing with a new scope 8)

Nice one Gordon

[Andrew]

Glad you had a good one Gordon - skies were best I can remember for at leat 6 months

[The Warthog]

You get clear skies? :shock: Damn, I wish I were you. Besides, you're half my age.

I'll have to look through one of these vaunted SCTs again, soon. I rarely see more than a glimpse of the Cassininini division, and very, very seldom see bands or the ring shadow. It's not my collimation, but I don't know whether it's my eyes or the skies.

Sounds like an excellent night. Glad you had one~!

[storebror]

As a relative newbie - I've just come indoors from my very first sighting of Saturn with my Skywatcher 130 PM......no chance of seeing the cassini division but the rings were very clear - what a stunning sight - I wanted to tell all the neighbours, but perhaps a raving loony banging on your door at night wouldn't go down too well Nevertheless, I'm a happy man :D

[John]

Nice report Gordon.

I've been favourably impressed and a little suprised at the views that I have had of Saturn through the 2 SCT's that I have owned - a C5 and now a C8 and it sounds like the 6 inchers are great too. What suprised me was the level of sharpness and contrast that a well collimated SCT delivers - after reading all these tales of the negative impact that the relatively large central obstruction is supposed to have and having got used to the views through my ED100 and Megrez 90 apo refractors I was expecting to be a little underwhelmed but in reality it's quite the opposite.

I guess it shows that any scope design can perform to a high standard if it's well executed and properly tuned.

Remembering the impressive views that I had of M13 through my C5 I can't wait to have a look at that through the C8 - I'd be interested in how the 6 inch does on that object as well

John

[GordonCopestake]

M13 will have to wait till it's up at a more sensible time hehe, i'm usually in bed by 10pm these days! I have to admit though I was expecting low contrast but brighter views out of the C6 compared to my ED100. The views are brighter yes, but the contrast isn't far off either. I think the difference between these new modern SCT's and the older 80's and 90's versions is marked. Weather it's because the optics havn't had time to degrade or if the coatings are better or if the whole design is just executed better I dont know. But going by memory I would rather have my new C6 than my old C8 I think, which suprises me.

[John]

I think the difference between these new modern SCT's and the older 80's and 90's versions is marked. Weather it's because the optics havn't had time to degrade or if the coatings are better or if the whole design is just executed better I dont know. But going by memory I would rather have my new C6 than my old C8 I think, which suprises me.

My C8's an oldie (1994) with Starbright coatings but obviously not XLT so it will be interesting to compare notes on how it compares with a new 6 inch. Celestron have been very clever in transferring manufacturing to China while obviously maintaining or even improving further their production values - a fact that is now being recognised even by our sceptical friends on the other side of the Atlantic.

Let's just hope for clear skies this spring and summer so that we can give our scopes the chance to perform :sunny:

John