Three Planets

[Roy Challen]

I was inspired by the appearance of Comet Neowise earlier this year, to do more real astronomy. So, with that in mind, I brought the Tal, the mount and the box of eyepieces down from the loft.

I had one target in mind - Mars. However, that didn't become easily visible to me until around 3am, so I decided to set up earlier in order that I wouldn't have much to faff around with that early in the morning. 

At around 8pm, on the 9th Sept, I set up, did a polar alignment, and pointed toward Jupiter. Centred in the crosshairs of the finder, and my Vixen 30mm in the diagonal, I found Jupiter well within the field of view.

And what a sight! I had forgotten how big the disc of this planet is. Even with the 30mm (x33), the disc was resolved, and three of the four Galilean moons were visible.

Using a 9mm eyepiece (x111), the equatorial bands became easily visible. It's been so long since I last looked at the King of the Planets that it was almost as if I were seeing it for the first time. The scope hadn't cooled properly yet, and the planet was only a little way above the roofline, but it was very impressive nonetheless.

I knew that Saturn was close by, and there was a point of light to the left of Jupiter, so I swung the scope over and centred in the finder. Looking through the eyepiece, immediately I saw the ringed planet. I couldn't make out the Cassini Division, but could see some banding on the disc, and Titan was easily visible nearby.

I asked Aliya to join me in the garden. When she looked through the eyepiece, I heard "wow" and "so beautiful" many times. I agreed. I should thank my neighbour for cutting the tree that now allowed me access to that part of the sky.

This was just a warm, though, for the main event. I left everything set up, but put the covers on all the lenses, and set my alarm for 3am...

...and woke up at 2:55. I got dressed quickly and went outside. I looked up straightaway and saw Mars in optimum position. I centred in the finder and, as expected, found the red planet well within the field of view (this is good because it's been years since I last adjusted the finder on the Tal). 

The last time I viewed Mars for any length of time was in 2003, so this really did feel like looking at it for the first time. Back then, I had a cheap 60mm telescope, with rubbish eyepieces and a rubbish mount. Now I had the Tal, on a Takahashi mount, although the eyepieces are still mainly rubbish.

I could make out the tiny polar ice cap, a dark region mid-latitude but slightly off-centre, and lighter-but-darker regions than the main disc both surrounding the dark region, and toward the 'top' of the disc'. Every now and again, the seeing allowed the darkest region to be better resolved, and appear a bit sharper.

I stayed at the eyepiece for an hour, just adjusting the mount each time Mars left the field of view, allowing the wonder and joy of being able to do this to soak in.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Roy Challen

[globular]

6 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

... allowing the wonder and joy of being able to do this to soak in.d at the eyepiece for an hour, just adjusting the mount each time Mars left the field of view, allowing the wonder and joy of being able to do this to soak in.