Planetary Session This AM

[asteria]

I managed to get the scope out this AM for an early morning session. I wanted to catch Mars, Venus and Saturn just before dawn.

Mars - what a tricky planet. It was pretty much on the meridian and very high. I managed to get some fairly good views in the 9mm Plossl. It was quite bright and a challenge to focus. Unfiltered it was possible to make out what seemed to be surface features, some darkening in areas and lighter patches. However, it was difficult to say whether there was anything real here, or just optical effects due to seeing - the scope was probably still quite warm at this point.

It seemed to be better with a filter - green #56 53% seemed to improve things with better definition at the edges. The downside was a garish green colour! The best option seemd to be light blue #80A 30% which took out more light and left the planet with a neutral colour. Difficult to say if there were any surface features. The best I could claim would be a slight mottling of the surface light and dark which might have been 'genuine'.

Venus - again very bright. I had to wait for it to emerge from behind the neighbour's chimney! Unfiltered at 9mm it showed nearly 50% phase. Some superfluous colour and difficult to focus. Again the blue filter helped to sort this out, reducing light transmission and sharpening up the image. Very nice clear view after this but no cloud detail that I could notice.

Saturn - superb. This was my first view of the planet through the MAK. Looked absolutely fantastic in the 9mm and would just about take 6mm (300x). Extremely sharp at 200x, with very clear definition in the rings. I couldn't see the divisions, but this might be because of the shallow angle. Clear banding on the planet, with some hint of the planet's shadow on the rings. I could also see at least one of the moons, Titan I guess. No need for any filtering here, just enjoy the view! I tracked it well into daylight. As the sky lightened, it seemed possible to get a real sense of the size and shape of the planet, apparently filling out and taking on a 3-d aspect. Tremendous.

Last night - lots of cloud cover, but picked up the usual suspects: Polaris, Vega, Epsilon Lyr, Mizar and Alcor, before packing it in.

Happy viewing.

[mik]

Thanks for the nice report seems you are having fun with the Mak.

Mick.

[asteria]

Hi Mick - it's a good un! The scope/mount combo are a joy - much easier to set up than I thought. I was probably out and viewing in around 10mins. OK there's the cool down time, but even straight out of the box this morning, the view was more than acceptable. The manual mount is turning out fine too. I had a lot of downtime with the eq-1 because it was frustrating to use, but the CG-5 has taken all that away. I find I know where I am with this one!

Thanks for the reply.

Ed