Jupiter, Saturn and Mars 2/6/20

[niallk]

I drove 10mins to the beach at 3:15am to get a low southern horizon had left the scope cooling all night: time to roll the dice and see if 17° altitude was going to be pure mush, and would i be knackered in work all day for no reason!

The eastern horizon already brightening, so I set up fast and popped in an 8E on Jupiter.  Hmmm bit mushy, still some slow thermals on the mirror.  The GRS was there, but this was never going to be a spectacular session. Gonna diy some boundary scrub fans this summer

Swung over to Saturn, and dropped to a 10E.  Could catch Dione, Titan, Rhea and Tethys: could not see Enceladus in the lightening sky.  As an hour passed, Saturn and Jupiter rose slightly as they approached due south.  I could start to get reasonably decent sharp views of Saturn - some definite banding on the disc, different colours in the A &B rings and the Cassini Division, darker polar region and a sliver of a shadow on the rings.  Back on Jupiter, and the GRS was showing with strong colour, and there were moments of hints of turbulence and a festoon in the NEB.  3 bands readily visible, atmosphere was definitely hurting the views, but the scope was doing much better at equilibrium now.

Tried Mars and it looked like quite a bright polar cap was tilted towards us, with a darker region obvious below it.  Nice to be able to discern some detail - it was barely 11° altitude!!

Dawn came fast - just an hour or so on my knees, but it was worth the trip

Saturn & Jupiter:-

Here comes the sun - maybe some Ha later 😎

Edited June 2, 2020 by niallk

[russ]

Looks so peaceful and calm.....bliss.  And a stunning horizon. Sounds a great session.