[AZ-Observing] Saturn and Comet Machholz
- From: "Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 01:52:38 -0700
Howdy all;
Just a quick report. Using the "new" 9.25 inch Celestron SCT in my
backyard observatory, I observed Saturn and Comet Machholz tonight
(Wed).
The seeing was rated at 5/10, so the highest useful power was 200X with
a 12mm Lanthanum eyepiece. Saturn was good, but not great, at that
power and it certainly is surrounded by little satellites. I got to
thinking about the fact that a probe from the third planet is orbiting
the sixth planet-amazing. Cassini's division was easy, but there where
no markings on the ball of Saturn. Save the high power for another
night.
Comet Machholz was nice, even in the city lights. It was easy to sweep
up in the 8X50 finder scope and with a 32mm Konig eyepiece the comet was
light green in color and displayed three layers, getting brighter toward
an almost stellar nucleus. At this low power the coma really grew in
size when averted vision was used.
Hope that the clouds will go away for a while so we can follow the
comet;
Steve Coe
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