[AZ-Observing] Re: Saturn, it has rings ya'know

It was indeed an interesting night. I start PEP around 8:00 PM. The 
West Phoenix sky looked clear, but there were thin clouds up there. I 
ended taking nearly double the reading as the sky got better and 
better. By around 8:30 what started out to be a poor photometric 
night turned into an very good one.

I'm not surprised Steve got some good views.

I think it points out that there are many nights that start out poor, 
but then progress to being great nights.  The trick is not to give 
up. There are a lot of nights that you can make great observations if 
you  are patient and hang in there.

Jeff

At 22:10 -0700 3/23/06, Steve Coe wrote:
>Mar 23 2006
>Nexstar 8
>Moon Valley Observatory
>9:20 PM MST
>
>Excellent seeing (8) for 15 entire minutes.  It is an evening with some high
>clouds, but it looks steady, so I open the roof and let the scope cool for
>30 minutes.  As soon as I put the 10mm Lanthanum eyepiece in (200X) I know
>that it has been worth my time.  The view of Saturn is sharp and shows
>excellent contrast.  I immediately put in the 7.5mm Lanthanum and it
>provides the best view at 267X.
>
>Saturn is really showing off at its best.  There is detail on the ball of
>the planet--one wide yellowish band, another that is more ivory in color and
>the polar cap is dark and unmistakable.  The rings are terrific, the inner
>Crepe ring is quite easy and
>
>Cassini's division is black and sharply defined.
>
>Titan is the easy satellite on the east side of the planet, Dione and Rhea
>are off to the west.  Tethys is near the disk of Saturn on the SE side.
>
>A great view of an old favorite.  After all these years it is still a
>fascinating planet.  And then, the good seeing went away as the breeze
>picked up and I did some wide double stars for a while.
>
>Just a warm up for the marathon;
>
>Steve Coe

-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
Counting Photons
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html
Hopkins Phoenix Observatory
7812 West Clayton Drive
Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A.
www.hposoft.com
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