Saturn 5th August 2022

[IB20]

Saw that Saturn had just peeped over the hedges around 11:30pm so quickly got the Tak 76DC out. 

Seeing was quite fuzzy which may be due to it being quite low still. Occasional ADC was seen too, particularly in the Pentax 3.5XW, again a low altitude artefact. 

The 4mm TOE was the best performer of the night. Saturn’s ring system tilting more towards the equator than last year but still marvellous to look at. The Cassini division bleeding in and out of view and thick brown Northern hemisphere banding on show. A duller, grey Northern polar region sat atop of the disc.

Titan stood out brightly in every eyepiece I tried but a 2nd moon, Rhea was only visible with 5-3.5mm EPs. Other tiny points of light were occasionally visible with averted vision, certainly Dione and potentially Tethys.

I tried to push the mag to 228x with the TOE 2.5mm but the seeing wasn’t there. Two things to note about the eyepiece is the 0.33mm exit pupil didn’t seem to bother me and Saturn looks huge in the small Tak. On nights of excellent seeing this eyepiece is going to be insanely good.

I was woken up at 4am by my screaming toddler and after sorting him took a quick peek of the skies. Jupiter was so bright and so high, I was sorely tempted to observe again. The need for sleep won over though and the king of planets will wait for next time.

Delighted that the planets are back with us, it’s going to be a fascinating season.
 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by IB20

[beka]

25 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Saw that Saturn had just peeped over the hedges around 11:30am ...

Guess you meant 11:30 PM?

[IB20]

🤣 yeah PM. That 4am rude awakening turned my brain to mush.

[Gonariu]

I too have seen Jupiter and Saturn these last two days. On the 4th evening I used the Nexstar 8 SE. Seeing Saturn you could see Titan well, very faint and with the averted vision you could see some other satellites to the right of the planet (I was using the stellar diagonal) but I did not understand what they were. The Cassini division was sometimes seen at the loops, a gray band was noticed (I believe the equatorial one). There was not a great image of Jupiter, it seemed to me that the seeing was not that great. Exactly for seeing last night I was thinking of giving up, I decided to observe Jupiter and Saturn at a fairly late hour therefore, not having put out the 8 "SCT to thermostatize myself, I use the small achromatic 80/400. Saturn at 160X (Plossl of 6 mm with a Barlow 2X) did not mind, it was practically white and without visible chromatism (strange, given the optics), you could sometimes see the Cassini division at the lugs and, hinted at, the gray band of the night before; Titan visible slightly to the right of the previous evening (yesterday I used the stellar diagonal too). Even yesterday evening the seeing was poor, with Jupiter at 160X slightly deformed by the turbulence of the air, the use of Wratten's colored filters (W56 yellow-green, W8 yellow) and the semiapo filter of Baader worsened the vision of both planets which also appeared less bright; both observing sessions were mediocre. Positive note: the cool breeze that was nice at one in the morning, given the great heat of the day (at the expense of seeing, unfortunately).

[MalcolmM]

8 hours ago, IB20 said:

Saw that Saturn had just peeped over the hedges around 11:30pm so quickly got the Tak 76DC out. 

Seeing was quite fuzzy which may be due to it being quite low still. Occasional ADC was seen too, particularly in the Pentax 3.5XW, again a low altitude artefact. 

The 4mm TOE was the best performer of the night. Saturn’s ring system tilting more towards the equator than last year but still marvellous to look at. The Cassini division bleeding in and out of view and thick brown Northern hemisphere banding on show. A duller, grey Northern polar region sat atop of the disc.

Titan stood out brightly in every eyepiece I tried but a 2nd moon, Rhea was only visible with 5-3.5mm EPs. Other tiny points of light were occasionally visible with averted vision, certainly Dione and potentially Tethys.

I tried to push the mag to 228x with the TOE 2.5mm but the seeing wasn’t there. Two things to note about the eyepiece is the 0.33mm exit pupil didn’t seem to bother me and Saturn looks huge in the small Tak. On nights of excellent seeing this eyepiece is going to be insanely good.

I was woken up at 4am by my screaming toddler and after sorting him took a quick peek of the skies. Jupiter was so bright and so high, I was sorely tempted to observe again. The need for sleep won over though and the king of planets will wait for next time.

Delighted that the planets are back with us, it’s going to be a fascinating season.
 

 

Nice report and music to my ears that the 4mm TOE did good  I've yet to get the scope on Jupiter or Saturn this year but your report is whetting my appetite

Malcolm 

 

[IB20]

1 hour ago, MalcolmM said:

Nice report and music to my ears that the 4mm TOE did good  I've yet to get the scope on Jupiter or Saturn this year but your report is whetting my appetite

Malcolm 

 

The 4mm TOE is quickly elevating itself to the top of my eyepiece list. Just oozes quality.

[MalcolmM]

Even over your Pentax's?

[IB20]

The Pentax 5XW is a fantastic EP, probably my best but on planets I think I’m going to need more mag. The TOE 4mm is providing that low end higher mag of 143x, anything more than that I’m finding the seeing needs to be better which our UK skies aren’t reliable for. It’s just so comfy to use too and makes observing easy. 
It’ll be interesting to see what wins when I get chance to observe Jupiter.

[IB20]

Have just had the 8” dob out and after leaving to acclimate for 30-45 mins, the seeing is so poor that couldn’t push the mag up to more than 120x. Higher mags caused softness, bubbling and adc which meant teasing out any detail impossible. At 120x it’s just so bright that again, all planetary disc detail is lost. Titan, Dione and Rhea easily visible however. The small Tak seemingly copes much better with the poor seeing and heat loss from my patio and house.

Edited August 7, 2022 by IB20