saturn best yet

[algol]

ok so last night i was out with the 130pm and the moon pretty much ruined my planned messier hunt as i was going to dive into the realm of galaxies.

so i thought i'll concentrate on clusters and planets. mars as ever was dissapointing as a tiny star but saturn rukled.

at high power (130x) there was no cassini division but the rings were clearly defined even in front of the planet and the first time i have ever seen the planets shadow on the rings. on the back right of the rings as seen in ep. that made me catch my breath that did.

[saturns_rings]

i joined you on that one. was tryin' line red dot up and saturn just happened to appear in the eye piece, so i jumped up a mag to 10mm, then the barlow came in, at this point i was almost being stretchered into the house with an oxygen mask on. amazing viewing. 4 moons visible, like you said, no casini but rings clearly defined infront of planet and divded at the sides were the gaps are. amazing.

[Ju123]

I'm very new to this but I too saw Saturn through a 10mm eye piece. It was just fantastic, such an amazing feeling being able to see the famous rings, a real moment to remember.

[saturns_rings]

you wanna get the barlow on it mate! haha

[AndrewP]

I managed to get Saturn the other night at x230 in my 8" Skywatcher dob with a TV 9mm Nagler and a TV x2.5 Powermate (worth together more than the scope )

I'm amazed at the optics in the Skywatcher as the Cassini division was pretty clear and in gaps in the seeing very clear! The only problem is it races though the field...

[John]

I managed to get Saturn the other night at x230 in my 8" Skywatcher dob with a TV 9mm Nagler and a TV x2.5 Powermate (worth together more than the scope )

I'm amazed at the optics in the Skywatcher as the Cassini division was pretty clear and in gaps in the seeing very clear! The only problem is it races though the field...

Thats exactly the setup that I use Andrew - except I'm now using 5mm and 4mm TS Planetary HR eyepieces for high power work. The extra-wide fields that Naglers provide do help reducing the need to nudge a bit though !.

Had fantastic views of Saturn last night at 250x and 300x - just as you describe. I reckon the Skywatcher 8 inch dobs are amazing value for what they deliver

John

[Paul G. Abel]

I managed to get Saturn the other night at x230 in my 8" Skywatcher dob with a TV 9mm Nagler and a TV x2.5 Powermate (worth together more than the scope )

I'm amazed at the optics in the Skywatcher as the Cassini division was pretty clear and in gaps in the seeing very clear! The only problem is it races though the field...

Here Here Andrew!! I have a Skywatcher 8 inch permenantely set up in my observatory (or purposley designed garden shed!) and frequently I use a power of 400x to get exceptional views of Saturn. Here's a recent sketch of mine: