A bag full of planets and other dawn delights

[johnfosteruk]

It's been decidedly moist here since the snow melted, night and day, not a chance of any practical astronomy. Mercury has been laughing at me from behind the clouds I'm sure.

Until just before 5am today that is. I hadn't planned to observe thanks to a forecast of further moistness so didn't have a telescope cooled. Binoculars then. 

Starting with mounted 8x40 for the Moon and Saturn low in the SE. At about 2.3° separation, the wide fov is perfect, the binoculars providing enough magnification to detect the ring system but no chance of the divisions with it's apparent size at only 16 arcsec. 

On the Moon, which is at apogee, Blancanus, Wilhelm, Longomontanus, Bullialdus and Copernicus stand out. Mare Humorum looks lovely. Gaze at this lovely pairing a little longer just enjoying their majesty.

I could spend more time here but I want to move on to Mars. At 7.2 arcsec the red planet is barely a visible disk at this magnification, or is it? Either way it looks lovely against the field, completing a pretty little V Shape with half a dozen field stars.

While I'm in the area I mount up the 10x50 and hunt around Antares, M4 showing nothing more than a diffuse grey smudge, but the core noticeably brighter. You can't leave the area without a look at the Rho Ophiuci Nebula/IC4604. A very faint glow but doable and better with a.v. At this magnification its large size is really brought home.

On to Jove, with the moons strung out in a row to the west. The closest moon looks a little oblate, SkySafari tells me that Ganymede is sat almost atop of Io. I try to split them but don't succeed!

Now I've got the bigger binoculars mounted, I try for M13 but the sky is brightening so no success but it's been an enjoyable hour and the clouds are starting to drift over now. Note to self to enjoy some binocular doubles tomorrow morning if it's clear (no doubt it won't be). 

Grab the camera to capture the Moon and Saturn, and of course cloud, but it's only wispy so it's very atmospheric, only detectable in the image if you really concentrate!

Coffee & breakfast time.

[russ]

A beautifully detailed observation John. Could almost be out there with you. 

 I really must use the binoculars for more than just scouting targets. 

[nightfisher]

Great short session John, looking forward to getting some time in with the new scope when it arrives.........weather willing

[Stu]

Nice one John, and a cracking shot of the Moon and Saturn. I needed to clean the grubby paw marks off my phone before I could detect those lovely atmospheric clouds  

[Trikeflyer]

Great to see you were able to get out John. Lovely pic and great account. See you soon.

Steve.

[johnfosteruk]

1 hour ago, russ said:

A beautifully detailed observation John. Could almost be out there with you. 

 I really must use the binoculars for more than just scouting targets. 

Thanks Russ, it's been an absolute age since I've had them out. I'm glad I did.

[johnfosteruk]

1 hour ago, nightfisher said:

Great short session John, looking forward to getting some time in with the new scope when it arrives.........weather willing

So sometime next year then

 

[johnfosteruk]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Nice one John, and a cracking shot of the Moon and Saturn. I needed to clean the grubby paw marks off my phone before I could detect those lovely atmospheric clouds  

At first I thought I hadn't captured any cloud, I had to stretch it a fair amount before it was visible, but I didn't want to end up with no detail on the moon so I left it 'subtle'.