June 1-2, 2013: Saturn and some fun with bins

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yesterday the forecast was for clear weather so I set up the scope at about 22:30, and spotted that Saturn had already cleared the trees. I had a quick look, even though I knew the scope had not yet cooled properly. The view was OK, but nothing great, so I went inside and waited for the scope to cool. About 23:15 I tried again, and what a difference those 45 minutes made. The view at 290x in the XW7 was much crisper. Three moons showed (Rhea, Dione, and Titan, I somehow overlooked Tethys), and the Cassini division was clear. The shadows of the ring on the planet, and of the planet on the rings were nice and clear too. The seeing was not really great, however, and you needed to pick out the fleeting moments of stable views. I decided to wait a bit longer to see if the seeing would calm down a bit (as it sometimes does, later at night).

At about 00:10 I had another look, but things had not changed, so I thought I might try my hand at a few DSOs.

Enter the clouds

These chased by at quite a rate, so I tried to use the gaps, but after about 40 minutes of this, I decided enough was enough, so I packed the gear in. I left the OTA in the kitchen to allow condensation to evaporate, and by about 01:30 I found it was OK to place back in its flight case. I had a quick look outside before turning towards my bed (or so I thought), and what do you know: crystal clear skies! I did not want to set up the scope again so I went for the 15x70 bins. Globular time! M13 and M3 were first, followed by M10 and M12. Just to get a little sequence of Messiers, I picked up M11 as well, just above the trees to the south. This might be an open cluster, but it is so dense and bright it might be called an honorary globular . As I was in the neighbourhood, I also picked up M27: a lovely little glowing patch. I spent some more time searching for M5, but duly got it. Just to see whether the sky would allow me to pick out galaxies, I homed in on M81 and M82: lovely pair, and quite easy.

Finally, I tried to see if I could spot NGC 7000. Some glow was visible in the right spot, but the distinctive shape was lacking. Skies need to be darker, I think. I did pick up M39 nearby, so all was not lost.

So, once again, bins came to the rescue and saved the day (or rather, night), at least DSO-wise.

[Double Kick Drum]

Saturn's moons never seem to be positioned so that you can see the brightest five at the same time. Titan is never a problem and Iapetus is normally far enough away to be outside the planet's glow but it is pot luck with Rhea, Dione and Tethys being that much closer, despite all being brighter than Iapetus.