Wispy clouds but steady seeing: 100mm Tak

[John]

Compared the the last couple of nights when I've had a scope out, the seeing seems to be relatively steady tonight affording some decent views of Saturn and Mars with the Takahashi 100mm. The martian disk has reduced substantially in apparent diameter now to just under 13 arc seconds (compare that to the 24+ arc seconds at opposition back in June) but the dust seems to be settling out of the atmosphere so some reasonably well defined dark features were visible in the southern hemisphere with the south polar cap showing as a white "button".

I think the dark areas included Mare Cimmerium, Hesperia and Mare Tyrrhenum (going west to east across the disk towards the martian terminator). The pale area of Elysium was showing on the north west quadrant of the disk and there was a further dark elongated feature between the Mare Cimmerium and the south polar cap.

Saturn showed the Cassini Division quite nicely at 200x plus the equatorial belt, ring shadow on the planet and the planetary disk shadow on the rings.

I'm having to observe either through gaps in the thin clouds or through the thinner cloud itself - the latter can actually be quite a nice natural filter to help pick out subtle planetary detail.

I've picked up Neptune's pale blue disk which is currently just 2.5 arc seconds in diameter.

I've seasoned the planetary viewing with some "usual suspect" binary stars for variety. It's not a deep sky night though with the cloud and a bright moon rising. I'll have a look at Theta Aurigae when it rises higher - nice arrangement of 4 stars there with 2 rather close and of very uneven brightness to create a challenge. John Nanson describes it so well as usual:

https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/theta-aurigae-and-the-light-of-its-passage-is-night-on-the-face-of-the-world/

I'll be looking out for Uranus a bit later if the clouds don't thicken any more.

Nice to see the planets looking more "planet-like" tonight rather than the boiling spots of light that the poor seeing recently has presented

Hope you are having fun if you are out !

 

[John]

Back in now. Quite cold out there !

Managed to get Uranus quite easily despite relatively close proximity of the Moon. The moonlight seemed to enhance the greenish tint of the planet to my eye ?

Also had a nice view of Theta Aurigae. The fainter star that makes up the triangle (as depicted in the above link) was quite hard to spot due to the moonlight in the sky. The close pair were nicely split despite the very substantial brightness difference.

The Moon is 99%+ illuminated with just a thin rim of teminator to explore. Some interesting oblique views of craters and hills close to the limb with stark shadows creating the effect that you were looking at the profile of some of the peaks in places.

Had a quick peek at Castor in Gemini before packing up - clearly split though a little unsteady because it was still low in the sky.

Nice night overall

[jock1958]

Nice reports John. Indeed Mars looked much more settled last night, wish I’d stayed out longer but the cold and fatigue got the better of me.

[chiltonstar]

A nice report John - good to hear that Mars and Saturn still have their admirers! I put the seeing here last night as about 4/5 - certainly good enough for some challenging doubles to continue testing out my Mak insulation.

Chris