Stayed Up For My First Saturn View Last Night

[Zaine UK]

It was great. I'm really surprised i was able to see it, because i stayed in my backgarden and set the GOTO to Saturn at about 00:00. Just my luck it was directly behind a big tree. I looked through the eyepiece on my CPC 800 and it was right in the centre of the eyepiece. I could clearly see the rings. I couldn't see it through the branches of the tree with my naked eye? I must have just got really lucky and the scope must have been centered on a little opening somewhere in the tree?

Very cool. Looking forward to seeing it now without any obstructions, when i take my Telescope up to my local Dark Sky location.

[BazMark]

I did that on Sunday. Had a cracking early evening just after sundown with unusually clear skies. Got my scope up to an incredible 416x with a SW 3.6mm super plossl, on Venus , Jupiter and Mars still with worthwhile views and good focus. I was amazed considering the negative reviews the higher powered SW plossl's seem to get. I'd like to have tried a quality high power eyepiece to see the difference. Anyhow, I stayed up late to see what I could see of Saturn only too find it had fogged over. Everything was milky and washed out and I couldn't even see Saturn. Patience is the word in this hobby.