Yet another "first of the season" for saturn and I

[GordonCopestake]

Woke up early this morning a little worse for wear as i was trying out the new "chateu de copestake" (see other thread) anyway, I was stood in the back garden with my cup of coffee letting the dogs do whatever it is that dogs need to do at 6am, looking at the nearly full moon and bemoaning the clouds that seem to be plaguing us at the moment when i caught a glimpse of Saturn fairly high in the south-south-west. Debated with myself if it was worth getting the 'scope out and the 'scope won. Dragged the 12" dob out and popped in my 24mm Pan, centered the ringed one in my red dot and bam, there he was! First view of the season. Upped the magnification to the 11mm Nagler and he just kept getting better. Wish I hadn't sold that 3-6 zoom! Although I did notice that at high magnification the 12" lightbridge is a pain to use, wobbly wobbly wobbly! I need to sort out strengthening the base. Anyway Saturn was very nice and its interesting to see how much the rings have closed since i saw him last season. Makes me wonder if we will ever get an edge on view (i'm sure theres an answer somewhere)

Made a good 30 minute session whilst the bin men emptied my wheely bin with there flashing lights and f'ing and blinding hehe. Didnt bother with the moon as the clouds were rolling in and it was pop luck with Saturn. It's impressive how much detail you can see with a blue sky!

[GordonCopestake]

How odd. Seems I packed away at exactly the right time as about 10 mins after i put the 'scope away it RAINED like i've not seen for some time! Bouncing off the ground and all that. My lightbridge would have been less a light bucket and more just a bucket! Strangely once it stopped and the rain clouds passed the moon looks bigger and brighter. A great target to test my lidl 10x50's!

[Rob]

Nice report there Gordon. I've not managed Saturn this year just yet!... the weather down south has been rubbish for what seems like weeks now

I'm with you on the Lidl bino's ... I'll have to wait till Christmas day though.

Rob