Eureka!

[gurneyfan67]

Hi folks, Finally after weeks of clouds or rain in the Pacific Northwest, the skys parted. At 6:30 PM I put the TAL1 out in the garage to cool and watched a Doris Day/James Cagney classic on the tube. By the time it was done it was dark enough to set up.

Checked out bright Venus first. A beautiful crescent at 90X. The as the scope acclimated a few double stars with my 9mm plossl and 2X Barlow. Seeing getting better so I switched to Mars now almost at zenith. My best setup for planets has always been my 15mm plossl and the 2X barlow. Sure enough by now I could easily see darker features on the planet as well as the polar cap. I switched to my Tal 12.5 plossl and the view was even better. GREAT!

At this point the glare of the rising moon was appearing above my roof so I swiched to my 15mm Orion Expanse ep w/ baader moon filter. Just fills the foccuser. To keep from blinding my dark vision I got out my Pentax 10X50 binos to try again to see Comet Garrad,still no luck.

Oh well, at this point Saturn had cleared the roof so I spent the rest of the time peering at the glorius planet. By now the due and frost were starting to form so I packed it in. A really fine night. This is what we live for!

[Carl83]

You can't beat Saturn! Even if someone didn't have any interest in Astronomy, I'd bet money they'd love seeing Saturn themselves.