Moon and Saturn + great seeing

[Mike73]

You don't see any reports on the moon or planets here so hopefully its ok to add one?

Its been pretty hot here all day and you would think that the land giving off all that heat would make it seeing terrible but nope....it was great!?

Started of by having a 'quick' look at the moon and ended up exploring it for quite a while.

But straight away I could see that the conditions were good so I went straight from x60 to x187 and had a steady view, x2 barlowed a 12mm (x250) still steady. The final test was x2 barlow with my 8mm which I had never even attempted before as it just seemed pointless to be honest but although I could see the lunar surface shimmering and it wasn't quite as sharp it was still very acceptable.

I admit to not knowing much on the lunar landscape and I'II look thinks up in the morning but I know the main crater I was looking at was Copernicus which had the terminator running right through it making it really contrasty.

My second object viewed was Saturn which couldn't hold such high magnifications (x250) as the moon but was sharp and showed the Cassini division, also its shadow on the rings.

Once again I don't know enough about the planets and its also something which after tonight I'm going to sit down and read up on.

So that was it, 2 objects viewed in 2 hours but easily my best views of out nearest neighbour and IMO the most stunning planet in our solar system.

What a treat...Gonna have a nip of Whiskey now to calm down before going to bed.

SQM - 19.6

[Qualia]

Nice report, Mike. I was out this evening and pretty much did the same kind of thing, albeit in a lot smaller scope I was surprised to catch glimpses of Saturn's Cassini Division tonight (200x) and could make out a number of her moons (I jotted down Titan, Rhea, Hyperion and I swear that I saw Dione if I looked away and reducing the magnification, Lapetus). After an hour, or so, with Saturn, I blinded myself with the full moon, a spectacular sight with the 18mm filling up the entire eyepiece.

[todd8137]

Well the Moon is still my favorite thing to look at there's a lot to see and find and I always try to find the tiny craters .

Pat

[cotterless45]

Good to look at with "Sky and Telescope's mirro Moon map". It has been a period of very clear seeing.If you catch the front of Saturn's rings you should see the inner dark band ©.

el Nick.