First look at Saturn after over 30 years

[Toymaster]

Well there I was in the land of nod..        

 

Then Misty the Cat woke me at 5:45 for a comfort break.  (My Wife never hears him - strange )

 

There was Mars and so out came the scope and me in fleece and PJs.

 

Mars was good to see but I could not make out any detail. Not sure if I should have but it was unstable at 100x mag?

 

Then I spotted a bright star further to the left and not as bright as Mars. Had a look. 50x mag and there was Saturn and it's rings.

This time the image was nice an crisp with the rings clearly visible once my eye was tuned in.

Next was 100x mag and what a disappointment after the initial Wow! The image was nowhere as clear even after spending some time twiddling with the focus.

 

Was this my eyes or what?

 

Still a memorable morning though     

 

Ade

[Guest Kheldar]

What scope and eyepiece were you using?

[red dwalf]

one thing i`ve found over the years when visual observing is that mag means nothing to quality of the view, more focal length and a nice low mag eyepiece i find works best for me  

[dawson]

Lovely sight I imagine.

 

JD
 

[+Bino-viewer]

We've been spoiled by Jupiter high up in the sky in Gemini this year.

 

Sadly saturn, which is lurking down in Libra to the south is badly affected by the atmospheric murk.

It won't be returning to better, more northerly altitudes for for at least another 10-15 years.

Cos of this, high magnification views of Saturn are going to be difficult.

 

But maybe the general seeing conditions were really poor anyway, hampering detailed views.

 

Did you bring your scope out of a warm room and started observing straight away ??

If so cool down (lack of it) would have been the problem.

 

Despite Saturn being low, there a few conjunctions to look forward to this year....

It comes close to Lunar on the 21st March, 31st August (closer still) and theres an occultation event on the 25th ? October visible from the UK 

[Brantuk]

Yup - it was the poor seeing through low elevations that caused it to be grainy and blurry - it only gets up to 23 degrees right now. The Aussies have it good with Saturn right now though - so maybe an antipodean jolly is in order lol

[Toymaster]

What scope and eyepiece were you using?

 

This morning I quickly took out the Celestron AstroMaster that I have had partly to bits and done a complete set-up making it better than when it came out of the box. The eyepieces I used were the bog standard 20mm and 10mm. The scope has a focal length of 1000mm.

 

Ade 

[Toymaster]

We've been spoiled by Jupiter high up in the sky in Gemini this year.

 

Sadly saturn, which is lurking down in Libra to the south is badly affected by the atmospheric murk.

It won't be returning to better, more northerly altitudes for for at least another 10-15 years.

Cos of this, high magnification views of Saturn are going to be difficult.

 

But maybe the general seeing conditions were really poor anyway, hampering detailed views.

 

Did you bring your scope out of a warm room and started observing straight away ??

If so cool down (lack of it) would have been the problem.

 

Despite Saturn being low, there a few conjunctions to look forward to this year....

It comes close to Lunar on the 21st March, 31st August (closer still) and theres an occultation event on the 25th ? October visible from the UK 

 

Thanks Rob,

 

The scope was still warm as I was in a hurry before dawn - Guess as you say that did not help.

 

Ade

[Guest Martin Hill]

Hi Toymaster

Saturn was my favourite . "penny Lane " on in the background (it was in the charts ) 12 Inch scope (length of , not aperture ) and Saturn was a magical sight . Mum brought me out a sherry (bl**dy cold ) Memories eh ? jumpers for goal posts etc...Now showing my lovely wife the wonders of the rings . She's a bit younger than me and thinks the Cassini division is part of the Italian football league but hey ho its always about what you perceive not just what you see.