Mars & Saturn - 18th December 2009

[dweller25]

Woke up at 3:40am this morning and checked the Sky - it was clear but there was an inch of snow on the ground - not a problem :-)

So I setup the Dobby and started viewing - and what a surprise - very little detail on Mars - the image was steady but just nothing to see. Even the polar cap which has really stood out was bland - poor seeing I guess. I have been observing at x300 but it looked mushy so dropped down to x267.

Had a look at Saturn too which was sharp at x267 but again very little detail on the surface - just one band, 4 moons and the shadow of Saturn on the rings.

Will post some drawings later.

Anyone else brave the snow ??

[Towa]

The same thing here this morning. Mars had very little detail visible.

Also the same with Saturn, I think it was the seeing conditions

in my case.

[russ]

Just the luck of the draw i suppose. The skies last night were very good for DSO's (i spent 2 hours observing) but not so good for the planets. Although Mars wasn't bad at 1am, just not as good as previous sessions.