Saturn's charms..

[Fozzie]

I've seen Saturn only fleetingly over the last few years of gazing and none of those have been good for reasons of equipment, or lack of opportunitie to spend enough time observing.... tonight however I've spent about 2.5 to 3 hours just watching the great planet meander though the heavens..

What a fantastic sight, nothing special around 100x with the 12 and 9mm SLV in the f11 frac on gp mount.. the seeings nit brilliant, but in thise better moments im picking up the CD and shadowing on the planet around the equator.. just a lovely sight..

Starting to feel the cold though, and after a long day (including a trip to the ER with little Oliver who slipped and bust open the back of his head... he's alright now, nothing a lollipop and bit of glue didn't sort) I'm starting to flag.. so as Saturn drops in to the trees, I'm going to checkout the veil and call it a night..

Hope others are on it too..

Ta

fozzie 

[John]

Nice report fozzie. Hope Oliver is OK.

I've been observing Saturn plus other stuff myself this evening with Bristol AS folk - a mini star party !

Lovely night

 

[Mrs Racey]

@Racey kindly set the little ED80 up for me on our manual mount last night. While he was watching the golf I spent a very relaxed and contented couple of hours alternating between Saturn and Jupiter, various clusters and even the ring nebula...

I didn't see quite as much detail as some (not quite as many moons of Saturn for example) and the GRS eluded me too given the seeing over a few houses in the village from where I'd set up to see Saturn wasn't perfect. 

But I was happy perfecting my Star hopping and scanning for a while. But what I did notice particularly was the difference to observing Saturn from our terrace in La Palma back in March. It was so much higher in the early morning skies at that Lattitude than last night... Roll on the dark skies of Fuertaventura next month and Namibia in October... 

Susie

(Hope little Oliver heals quickly)

[chiltonstar]

Certainly pretty low in the sky at the moment compared with a few years back, but still stunning! Last night, at 15.5 degrees altitude some detail was beginning to come out for me, with a razor sharp Cassini and some ring detail visible inside it. I had less luck with the moons compared with a few nights back, but the sky was not completely dark. The seeing was close to 4/5 with even Zeta Herculis showing nicely in fleeting instants (Stu's nemesis, isn't it??).

Chris

[Fozzie]

Thanks John, Mrs Davey.... the little tyke was up at 7:30 and acting like nothing happened.. I should really have checked out what I was seeing more as I assumed that I could pick out 2 moons by 12:30, the seeing and contrast was markedly better around then, crisper focus and in great moments nice colour to the disk, shadow and CD all very evident.. I tried a neodymium filter but actually prefered the unfiltered view.. 

Had half an eye on the golf... I little "going concern" in young Tommy Fleetwood who I think has played splendid all weekend.. hoping to not do too badly this evening for 9 with my old man!..

Enjoy the sunshine today everyone!

Ta

fozzie