Major WOW

[TopHouse]

I've only just come in and it's about 10 to 3, started off tonight with the scope pointed almost straight up, I'd decided to give the whirlpool a go, don't know if it was the seeing or if i was asking too much, but it certainly wasn't up to what Turn Left At Orion insinuated, basically all i got was two undefined fuzzies. Now for what happened later, I KNOW it wasn't my scope.

I had tonight, my best saturn so far, and not only good but AWESOME, and talk about pushing the envelope, well, spun over to saturn and had my 32mm Panaview in, I actually really liked that view, lovelly and sharp, what i thought were 4 moons in view even, only tiny but with good definition and some stars around it, just mae a nice picture.

So, I stepped up with the Baader Hyperion 8mm, absolutely STUNNING, ok the rings aren't at their best but on the planet itself with a slight amount of averting, some faint horizontal lines, undefined, more like slight changes in contrast, and 4 moons! (so i thought) After looking in Stellerium later and one of the moons was Tethys and Enceladus very close together, and definitely Titan and Rhea and Iapetus.

Still lovely and razor sharp with both of the tuning rings on, so now we're at 4.3, view was absolutely stunning, my wife and I's 'wows' were as big as the first time we did saturn, so, i pushed it, (well you have to don't you) I added a x2 barlow into the equation, so that's what? 2.15!! granted there was a loss of clarity but absolutelly nowhere near as bad as expected, still fairly sharp given the circumstances, however I know for a fact i couldn't have managed it without the auto focuser, definitely one of my best buys.

Forgot to mention at this point that pre barlowing i had, after experimenting, two filters on, a blue and an orange, which helped a lot with the planet as it was very bright but took out the moons somewhat, so, we must have played with saturn for AGES tonight and it was a serious buzz!

Did I get really lucky with the seeing and has anyone else had it similar tonight? (Sun night Mon morn 8th)

[Doc]

I have to agree with you Saturday night was a very rare occasion, with hardly any dew it made the skies very transparant hence the great seeing we had.

[Chris H]

Yep Saturn was nice last night x150 gave me the the clearest view of the planet but I went on to use x200, x300 and x450 with a gradual loss of clarity with each step up but it was not too bad. It was nice to see a little bit of space between the rings and the planet even though the tilt of the rings is not huge.

[russ]

That sounds a great session indeed. Nothing like getting a really good view of Saturn, it really makes it all worthwhile.

Russ

[Beyond_Vision]

That sounds like a great night especially sharing it with your partner.

Regards

Kevin

[DarkerSky]

Excellent stuff...Saturn's hooked you, I can tell

The dry continental air these last few days has pushed dewpoints well down. Humidity is low compared to what it has been most of the winter - so no dewing and little frost formation on mirrors / lenses because there is not enough moisture in the air. Combined with a clear high pressure (up to now) in control of the weather, conditions have been good for sure

[TopHouse]

Just edited my post slightly, bit of a brain fart, it was SUN night MON morn not Sat nigh Sun morn as post originally said. Regarding moisture content, we see a lot here being rather high and it first shows on the wooden garden furniture, but last night it was very very dry.