FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Saturn was good tonight

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy all;
 

I had an hour or so of good seeing in my backyard tonight (Tues.) and Saturn
was very good around 11 PM.  I would rate the seeing at 7 out of 10 on the
Pickering scale.  In practical terms that means that I could really use 200X
or so and see lots of detail.

 

Cassini's division was an easy black ring within the ring system and the
crepe ring could be seen as it crossed the ball of the planet.  Four faint
satellites were around Saturn.  The ball of the planet showed the equatorial
band as pretty dark and the polar area was about the same dark color, maybe
medium grey.  I was able to use 200X in my "new" Nexstar 8 and Saturn was
very stable at that power.  At 267X it was a moving around somewhat, so I
returned to the lower power for this observation.  A nice view of one of my
favorite objects in the sky.

 

A quick note about an optical illusion that I have noted when the rings are
at this angle.  I appears to me as if the small section of the ball of
Saturn that sticks "below" the rings is all the "wrong angle".  By this I
mean that curve of the cut off region of Saturn does not match up with the
rest of the planet, as if there was a section shaved off the ball of Saturn.
I know its not the truth, there is not a portion of Saturn that is
"missing", but it does look like it my eye.  

 

Clear Skies to us all;

Steve Coe


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