Saturn looking quite nice tonight.

[mikeDnight]

It's a nice clear sky over Burnley tonight, with the Double Custer and M31easily seen with the naked eye. I swept at low power through Cassiopeia and Perseus, then had a quick look through Cygnus. There was a clarity to the view that wasn't there a couple of days ago, so I turned the scope to Saturn, which two days ago was simply not worth looking at. Tonight however, despite being far from excellent, the view was good enough to show a strong equatorial belt, darkening of the temperat region and an even darker polar hood. A & B rings were nicely displayed but no sign of the Crepe ring. The planet was still low and troubled by intermittent turbulence so the Crepe was a lot to ask given the seeing conditions and height of the planet above my neighbours roof. Cassini's division was easily seen in both anse and could be traced close to the ring edge as it began to cross the face of the planet's globe, but it was lost as the ring neared the planet's CM. The shadow of the ring on the planet was quite stark as was the fine globe shadow on the ring. Hopefully this will be the first of many good views of Saturn.

[RobertI]

Lovely description Mike. 

[Mr Spock]

Saturn is fuzzy here 

[John]

Nice Saturn here as well tonight. I'm using my little 70mm ED refractor but the views at 130x are crisp. 

Jupiter was not so good but it was still rising out of the Bristol "glow" from my back garden. 

 

 

[fireballxl5]

Nice detail Mike.

I also had good views of Saturn last night, not so far away from yourself in Preston using my SM125. 

CS, Andy

[Carpy]

Been watching Saturn too this week, was really bright the other night and could make out quite a bit of detail when the atmosphere calmed down.

 

Using a 114mm reflector with a 5mm eyepiece.

 

Bit hazy in Worcestershire tonight so not as good but the wife got see Saturn for the first time tonight.