.....another Saturn!

[Kokatha man]

I guess the title says it all.....left home the night before last about 11pm and drove to one of our more distant Murray Mallee imaging sites - in fact we hadn't been to this particular spot for several years but were pleasantly surprised to arrive at 1am with the place looking very nice.....an old sportsground that is on the far outskirts of an almost "ghost town" - there had been heavy rain there lately (very unusual) and the ground had a lovely carpet of soft green grass..!

Sitting amongst the ghosts of this bygone era place was very pleasant after we set up the scope and collimated: constant sharp, fizzing meteors and a spectacular bolide (space junk?) that blazed a bright blue smoking trail across the Western horizon kept us in a relaxed mood despite being pretty tired from no sleep and a hundred mile (160km) night-drive.

It was here actually that my late father arrived during The Great Depression as a 15-year old trying to walk to Queensland on the other side of the continent looking for work.....he got a job in a bush camp hand-cutting mallee and converting it to charcoal, working for an Italian immigrant gang and being paid by the "gondola" load - these are those long railway freight cars that shunted the loads from the nearby railhead (all long gone or in total ruin nowadays, the price of his axe coming out of his first pay-packet.)

Anyway, enough of the story-telling, seeing was fairly good but I'm still looking to go further than my 26th January and 6th March efforts. (which Mike tells me will feature in the next BAA Saturn report)

And Encke, banding in both the A & B rings and some detail make us reasonably satisfied as the apparition slowly moves towards that opposition 6&1/2 weeks away!

So all-in-all this one was pretty reasonable and we enjoyed the night for other reasons so much that I think we'll return here for some more imaging the next time we get an opportunity!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice image again!

[Scott]

Great image and enough of the story telling, you're making me homesick

[si@nite]

Nothing wrong with reminising Darryl ( hope i spelt that right) nice build up! A stunning image once again, detail i only dream about.

[Freddie]

Looks like the trip was well worth it. Great image again.

[theo]

A top notch image Darryl. Your dedication is really paying off!! Great work.

Regards,

Pete

[sologuitarist61]

Very nice