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Planets before work

Fredster1970

By Fredster1970
in Observing - Planetary

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Fredster1970

Fredster1970

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Decided to have another go at the planets this morning. Hoping for better seeing than the last two mornings. Also got up early enough for a little deepsky.

Hopes were dashed pretty much instantly. The second i stepped out i could see the conditions were poor again. Stars twinkling maddly, my heart sank.

I did a quick dso tour but sky wasn't very transparent. So hastily moved on to the planets.

Started with Jupiter. So bright to the naked eye, impressive before i even turned the scope on it. View through the scope was good at 50x, easily picking out the belts and the moons. To be honest i would have been happy with that view. Best view came with the 15mm Edmund Scientific RKE and 100x. Could just pick out some finer detail on the belts. No GRS this morning.

Mars was next. That red is vivid, no mistaking Mars. Through the scope not much to see other than a small disk and maybe a hint of white at the pole but probably just wishful thinking. Not really worth spending too much time with Mars at the moment.

Saturn finally. It is so low in the sky. Hugging the horizon and struggling to clear the houses. The turbulence from the houses was playing havoc with the seeing. And to be honest the best view came at 50x, no point pushing any further. Just turned to mush. Zero chance of seeing the Cassini division. But just happy to see it. Maybe a countryside setting with less turbulent air would yield better views?

All in all a good 1.5 hours at the scope to set me up for the rest of the day.   

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Pig

Pig

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Nice one Fred.... it will be great when Saturn is in a good position again, unfortunately Saturn does take its time and isn’t in any rush to give us some views, mind you when it does it can be exceptionally pleasing and is worth the wait ? I can’t make my mind up about Mars as apart from the colour I have never had much joy with picking out any detail, Jupiter on the other hand can be pretty amazing ?

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Stu

Stu

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Just now, 25585 said:

Mars polar caps always wow me. A geographical detail on another planet, rather than just meteorlogical. And seeing extra-terrestial ice.

Agreed, Mars when it is good is very, very good :) 

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MarsG76

MarsG76

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It is very early in the Mars, Jupiter and Saturn Season, so the views will get MUCH better... Especially Mars this year.. the angular size will be massive, and with that there is every chance to see some amazing surface detail.

 

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Fredster1970

Fredster1970

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7 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

It is very early in the Mars, Jupiter and Saturn Season, so the views will get MUCH better... Especially Mars this year.. the angular size will be massive, and with that there is every chance to see some amazing surface detail.

 

That sounds great, really looking forward to it. How many arc seconds is Mars increasing too? I guess it’s about 7-8 at the moment.

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Fredster1970

Fredster1970

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3 hours ago, 25585 said:

Mars polar caps always wow me. A geographical detail on another planet, rather than just meteorlogical. And seeing extra-terrestial ice.

That’s what makes Mars so interesting. Another planet like our own but we are looking in, not out. And now I’ve just found out it gets a lot better (bigger) this year, awesome.

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Fredster1970

Fredster1970

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3 hours ago, Pig said:

Nice one Fred.... it will be great when Saturn is in a good position again, unfortunately Saturn does take its time and isn’t in any rush to give us some views, mind you when it does it can be exceptionally pleasing and is worth the wait ? I can’t make my mind up about Mars as apart from the colour I have never had much joy with picking out any detail, Jupiter on the other hand can be pretty amazing ?

In a way it’s quite easy to get down about it knowing how much better the planets would be if they were 50-60degs above the horizon. But it’s Saturn and Jupiter, and just seeing them, the rings, the belts, moons, it’s amazing. ?

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MarsG76

MarsG76

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55 minutes ago, Fredster1970 said:

That sounds great, really looking forward to it. How many arc seconds is Mars increasing too? I guess it’s about 7-8 at the moment.

Mars will be 24.3" on 31st July.. Homermungous.....

 

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