Observation Log - 12/09/2004

Subject:Saturn, Venus
Seeing:Reasonable
Light:Poor
Location:Home (doorway)

Equipment

Scope:Meade LX90

Comments

Despite the substantial cloud coverage, I thought I'd at least try to get a peek at Saturn, which has just recently crept above the North-Eastern horizon early in the mornings. It's certainly a target I was looking forward to seeing for a long time!

I scanned round with the naked eye to get my bearings, being a lot more familiar with the South-West sky due to the orientation of the house. Pollux and Castor were clear and finally lead me to Saturn, which wasn't far from the line formed by these two stars. Knowing that there was at least something to see out there, I quickly set up the scope and pointed to what I thought was Saturn using the finder (unfortunately I'd been playing with the focus, so it was little more than a spkiy, asterisk-like blob). What can I say? I was almost bang on target - that first glimpse through the 9.7mm EP, although not yet in focus, already showed the ellipse of the rings. Knowing I'd found what I was looking for, I slowly turned the focus knob and there she was. Given the seeing, a pretty sharp image of the planet appeared before me. After a while, peering between the dense clouds sweeping overhead, I could make out the Cassini division and a slight dark band on the surface near the equator. What I wouldn't have given for a 2x Barlow at that moment!

After initially thinking nothing of the "stars" in the FOV, I soon realised I was actually looking at several of Saturn's moons. Four or five where clearly visible, although in the excitement I didn't bother identifying them at the time!

When the clouds drifted in, I took the opportunity to get my first look at Orion in a while. It's one of the constellations I've always recognised (I can imagine most people can relate to this) but it now takes on almost a whole new significance. Betelgeuse was very prominent with its distinct red twinkle. I also had a good scan around to try to familiarise myself with this area of the sky a little better.

A little later in the night (or should I say morning? It was around 4am) I noticed Venus had started to rise. Observing through a slight mist of cloud so close to the horizon gave a full rainbow of colours, which later became more and more blue, but never got all that clear. The brightness of the planet was remarkable, the current phase showing about half of the planet's disk.

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