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Waiting for the planets.


cotterless45

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Getting up in the early hours avoided a very bright Moon and a short wait for Saturn and Mars . I wandered through some doubles in Hercules down to 1.2" split. The seeing was quite good as frost set in.
How bright Mars looks by eye ! No details were seen at x150, still wobbling over the heat of town.
Saturn to the east of Mars looked simply stunning. The view in the Dob was looking up and under the rings. Even at x150 Cassini and surface details were bright and clear. I pushed on to x218 without much loss.
The frac by comparison showed a fainter , but more contrasty view. The symmetry of the rings is just so lovely to observe as they are quite wide now, skimming both poles.
Cygnus and Aquila were rising high , signs of a summer feast. Some signs of the Milky Way as the Moon was setting.
Worth watching the weather and getting up early for a few hours if you can under 
Very clear skies !
Nick.

a poor sketch at the ep, nothing as clear and dazzling as the real thing.image.jpeg

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Was out at a do in quite a dark site last night, and the sky was nice and clear. Sadly no scope or binoculars to enjoy the view though. When I get back home later on today I may rise early on Monday morning to see if I can bag Mars & Saturn again. Nice report Nick. :) 

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Nick nice report , I was there with you up at 4.00am but of course it was 6.00am here and i was not outside but getting ready to go get the milk, no milkman here. I often look out when I get up in the night as we have many clear skies, but that's 99% of the time all I do. I am waiting for Mars to get up at a better time, it's in a good spot now at about 2.00-2.30 but I am not tempted as yet.

Alan

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4 hours ago, laudropb said:

Another very nice report Nick. I must admit that when sketching Saturn at the eyepiece I use a planetary blank with the rings at the correct angle. Cheating a bit perhaps, but much easier.

Hi, Where can I get the latest observing template with the rings at the correct angle ? Also what is the correct angle at the moment?

Thanks

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15 hours ago, estwing said:

Saturn's always going to make people smile a thing of beauty,Mars is so obvious naked eye it's like a satsuma!....thanks for sharing,clear skies Nick.

I was looking at mars around 0400 this morn and with it being reasonably close to Antares, it just seemed so much redder (is that a real word?) The heart of the Scorpion looked a tad anemic

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Nice observations there Nick. I was out on Saturday Night although packed up at 2am Sunday as I was just plain tired. Mars was very bright at about 10deg and Saturn was quickly rising not far behind. I couldn't quite get the dob low enough for a look but with that amount of atmosphere to go through I doubt it would look any good? Saturn on the other hand is just stunning whenever you see it :grin:

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Hiya,

I made it out early on Sunday morning (4am), and it was lovely. I initially mistook the Milky way  for a band of cloud, Saturn was magnificent (Cassini division very obvious, and a hint of banding on the planet), and Mars was huge. I couldn't see any detail on the latter, though, it was just a large shimmery ball (even with a light blue filter). Tried all my EPs, but the sharpest view was with the 8.8 ES 82 (x136). 

I had hoped to get in a few Messiers in Scorpius/Saggitarius, but the sun rising beat me to them. 

Still a cracking session, though, and I was back in bed by 6am!

Kev

 

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On ‎17‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 13:35, laudropb said:

Another very nice report Nick. I must admit that when sketching Saturn at the eyepiece I use a planetary blank with the rings at the correct angle. Cheating a bit perhaps, but much easier.

That's such a sensible thing to do.  Some of my most comical sketches have been of Saturn - it ends up always looking like an unfortunate looking chap with very large ears!

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