Short but sweet

[Saganite]

My wife and I spent the evening dining with our eldest daughter and her family, so I was unable to get home until just before 11pm, however,the cooling down time for the FC100 is very short , so I was soon observing. The gap between my neighbour's Silver Birch and her roof is where I have to catch Jupiter and Saturn and Jupiter was already past that so the image was a bit wobbly even at 105X, but yielded surprisingly good detail never the less.I had a fleeting glimpse  of Io, barely detectable, but in the correct position when I checked with Stellarium. Lowering the power to 30x I was able to take in the conjunction, itself a lovely image.

I turned then to Cygnus for a look at Albireo. The seeing high above me was excellent, and through the XW 7mm the two pin sharp points of light, when defocused gave me two perfect Airy disks one of Gold and one of light blue. I could not ignore beautiful Vega , close by,and again was rewarded with a perfect Airy Disk. Before moving down to Saturn, now crossing my observing window, I split Epsilon Lyrae, both components showing sharp points of light with black between them.

Saturn, at a similar altitude to Jupiter, above the horizon, was stunning and took much more power, 185x to 232x, revealing slight shading and a good Cassini around most of the Planet, but the real pleasure this time was detecting with direct vision, in addition to the major Moons, Enceladus and Mimas.

Clouds put an end to the session just after 1am.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Saganite

[John]

Very nice report Steve - your session seems to have lasted a bit longer than mine did tonight

[Saganite]

Thanks John.

I had not expected to observe anything, so bad was the weather when we set out earlier in the evening..

[Kn4fty]

I had just the opposite tonight. Beautiful clear skies until I started observing, then heavy clouds moved in. Was suppose to be clear all night.

[MarsG76]

Nice report.. 2 hours is a good time observing.