Holy cow! I didn't have any real plans to observe tonight, either, but just like last night I reminded myself that I took all those pains to make setting up easy that I really shouldn't let a clear steady-looking sky go to waste.
I started with the moon and Mars and then Saturn at 310x and everything looked just as good as it did last night. However, a nagging thought that the image was not as sharp as it could be made me check collimation. The primary was out just a bit so I slewed to Zubenelgenubi and started working. When I was finished, I had my in-focus travel back and stars were so pinpoint at 310x that I could see diffraction rings from the secondary mirror. Back to Saturn...
As I said, holy cow! Saturn looked so good at 310x, I put the 10.5mm Plossl in. I didn't notice any loss of sharpness or brightness, so I put the 7.4mm Plossl in, 560x. At first I thought I should go back to 380x, but after the image steadied and my eyes adjusted, just wow! Seeing a 0.75' object in a 6' field of view was impressive in scale. The A-ring was a medium brown with black details. I still couldn't see a distinct band that made me think I could see the Enke minimum, though. The Cassini division was so clear and black that I flattered myself that I could see the planet's disc through the gap. The B-ring was pale yellow shading to brown as it faded into the Crepe ring. The A and B rings had white high lights adjascent to the Cassini division. The disc itself had seemingly hundreds of stripes as it faded from dark brown at the pole to yellow near the equator. I could also see Tethys, Dione and Rhea, but I missed Mimas. Absolutely mesmerizing. Too bad tomorrow is a work day, or I'd still be out there. I've never seen Saturn like that. 560x is fun, I hope I don't have to wait too long before I get to use magnification like that again.
On nights like this, who needs astrophotography? Too bad there aren't that many nights like this.
I started with the moon and Mars and then Saturn at 310x and everything looked just as good as it did last night. However, a nagging thought that the image was not as sharp as it could be made me check collimation. The primary was out just a bit so I slewed to Zubenelgenubi and started working. When I was finished, I had my in-focus travel back and stars were so pinpoint at 310x that I could see diffraction rings from the secondary mirror. Back to Saturn...
As I said, holy cow! Saturn looked so good at 310x, I put the 10.5mm Plossl in. I didn't notice any loss of sharpness or brightness, so I put the 7.4mm Plossl in, 560x. At first I thought I should go back to 380x, but after the image steadied and my eyes adjusted, just wow! Seeing a 0.75' object in a 6' field of view was impressive in scale. The A-ring was a medium brown with black details. I still couldn't see a distinct band that made me think I could see the Enke minimum, though. The Cassini division was so clear and black that I flattered myself that I could see the planet's disc through the gap. The B-ring was pale yellow shading to brown as it faded into the Crepe ring. The A and B rings had white high lights adjascent to the Cassini division. The disc itself had seemingly hundreds of stripes as it faded from dark brown at the pole to yellow near the equator. I could also see Tethys, Dione and Rhea, but I missed Mimas. Absolutely mesmerizing. Too bad tomorrow is a work day, or I'd still be out there. I've never seen Saturn like that. 560x is fun, I hope I don't have to wait too long before I get to use magnification like that again.
On nights like this, who needs astrophotography? Too bad there aren't that many nights like this.