Early morning planets 14/4

[Sky-searcher]

Decided to drag myself out of bed at 4.15am this morning to hopefully get a view of the morning planets. Missed seeing my favourites Saturn & Jupiter over the winter months. Checked on Stellarium last evening as to when they would rise & position with the moon. They are very low at present & I have hills in the S to S/E position unfortunately, but don’t block out to much. Popped my head out of the door & the moon was visible, although the only clouds in the sky where in the area of where I want to see 😩! Setup the mount & MAK127 & waited with a coffee while the clouds pasted. Poor seeing on the moon at 1st. Could only make out larger craters & getting focus difficult. A bright pinpoint was visible to the left of the moon which was obviously Jupiter. Could make out the bright planet & 2 moons(100x mag, hyperflex zoom at 15mm) but no signs of any features. Further over to the east, a small red dot could be viewed (Mars), but again poor seeing. Saturn not yet visible as behind a tree in the distance. As the morning wore on & the sky lightened just before sunrise, seeing settled down some what. Saturn came into view & the skies where totally clod less. Focusing on the moon, I moved over to Jupiter. 3 moons now visible with hints of 2 bands on the planet. Turning to Saturn, the disc & rings where now visible. Mars had now gone from my viewing position. Took a couple of phone pics through the eyepiece before the rising sun made viewing harder. All packed by 6.15am with a smile on my face. Good the see Saturn & Jupiter returning to our  skies again, have missed them over winter. They are definitely the planet’s with the WOW factor!