Nice session with my 4" frac

[John]

Having set the scope up earlier to snap some piccies to post in the members equipment photos section, as the skies looked good I thought I'd give my 4" Vixen ED refractor a bit of a run out - it's been rather neglected lately as I've been spending more time with my 6" achro.

Well I'm really glad I made this decision

With a bright gibbous moon in the sky, DSO's were out so I stuck to Mars, Saturn, the Moon and some double stars. Conditions must have been rather good as I managed a few "firsts" with this scope:

- 3/4 craterlets on the floor of Plato. A & B were clear as tiny bright "spots" on the darker floor of Plato. C & D are close together and appeared as an elongated bright spot - so I'm claiming them both

- Saturn was extemely sharp and contasty. Planetary belts were clearly seen in both hemispheres. I identified 4 moons this evening - Titan, Rhea, Dione and, further off and on the opposite side of the planet I was pleased to pick out Iapetus, at 11th magnitude a challenge for the 4" with the Moon relatively close to hand. I would have seen 5 moons if Tethys had not been hiding very close to the planet this evening.

- Mars was a tiny (7.5 arc seconds in diameter) disk but at 189x I could still pick out the polar cap and the dark wedge shape of the Syrtis Major on the disk.

- Gamma Virginis or Porrima is a tight binary of 2 magnitude 3.5 stars currently separated by 1.5 arc seconds. Previously the smallest aperture I'd split this double with was a 5" refractor but tonight, with very careful adjustments to focus, my 4" Vixen gave me the tiny dark rift between the extremely close componant stars, again at 189x.

- Finally I hunted down another of my favourite challenging binaries, the triple star (in my scope) Iota Casseopea. A lovely split of all 3 componants with the closest pair being about 2.3 arc seconds apart I think.

It's been a while since I've had a decent session with the 4" Vixen and tonight I sort of re-discovered what this lovely (and rather rare) scope can do

[Doc]

Sounds like a great observing session, I would love one of these scopes one day, get back into binary splitting.

[Mark at Beaufort]

John we must have had similar thoughts last night as I gave my Astro Tech 4" APO a run out. Viewed Saturn and tried to pick out Tethys crossing the planet but could not detect a shadow. Mars was small but like you was able to detect the polar cap. Viewed a number of doubles but finally ended looking at the Beehive and M35, M36, M37 and M38.

Mark

[russ]

Sounds like you had a wonderful session out John. And a really steady night too, the moon sounded like it was spectacular.

I was all setup to go out but we had families troubles which meant i missed half of Flashforward and never made it outside. Received a call from Rob this morning to say the seeing was a good as you describe. Just hoping there's a repeat tonight.

[Talitha]

Great session, John! Well done in Plato, too. The most i've ever been able to squeeze out of C&D (8"SCT) was a fat looking peanut shape.

[pvaz]

Sounds like you had a good time!

I need to start taking the moon seriously instead of soaking when I can't do DSOs...

[Tantalus]

I thought conditions were good last night Jahmanson. I was also looking at Saturn and managed the same four moons with my Helios 120, although I could only get Iapetus with averted vision, and in moments of exceptional seeing with direct viewing.

[DarkerSky]

It's great when you get a night like that John when it all comes together. Those sort of nights definately give me a bit of a buzz

[Moonshane]

nice one John! I have not even heard of the doubles you mention. will be hunting them out :0))

I'll be looking at Plato too next time the terminator's nearby.