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Southampton back garden - Saturn & Jupiter - 10/09/22 to 11/09/22


PeterStudz

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First night out in a while since our holiday. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering from COVID. The actual COVID wasn’t that bad (I’m fully vaccinated) but I’ve been really feeling tired and fatigued so lots of early nights and sleeping. Still far from 100% :(

Put out the SkyWatcher 200p Dob plus the relatively new DIY EQ platform at around 10pm in order to view Jupiter, Saturn and play around with the platform. Didn’t plan to stay out long. My daughter also had her ballet class in the morning, so an early start for a Sunday. Moon very bright but looking at the stars seeing looked good.

First up Saturn. Straight away I could see that conditions were good. Put the magnification up to x240 and the details were still sharp. Anything more was too much. Could clearly see the Cassini division at the ring tips and most, if not occasionally all, the way round. Some colour variation at the right tips too. There was a thin ring shadow on the disc and a shadow from the planet onto the ring. Obvious shading on the planet surface towards one pole with very subtle banding. I could easily make out two moons, and another two which were faint. 4 moons in total! All strung out in a line towards the east with one appearing very close to the disc and faint (flicking in/out of view). I later found out that these were (form furthest out to nearest in) Titan, Rhea, Dione & Tethys. My daughter was impressed. The EQ platform really helps here. Saturn at x240 staying central in the FOV with no need to nudge really does help in picking out small details. 

Then onto Jupiter. At x170 the details still sharp, the maximum before things started to go fuzzy. We could see Io just appearing form behind the planet (lovely sight) and the GRS which was very orange. Some lovely details around the GRS including what looked like a couple of white spots. Details in the banding and the even within the polar regions which is usual - I’ve hardly ever been able to see this. Later on, as the GRS approached the plant limb, we could clearly make out some darker areas in and around the NEB which looked different/relatively new.

My daughter declared this the best views we’ve ever got of these two planets. Well, we only started last year. I think I/we have seen better but only just. The EQ platform also helping.

To finish off we had a quick tour of the very bright moon and a look at Neptune. Just a blue-ish dot but you could see it was a planet and not a star. Pleased to actually find it in the strong moonlight. Packed up quickly at just after mid-night (I think) and went straight to bed.

 

Edited by PeterStudz
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