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Observation Log - 19/09/2004
| Subject: | Saturn, Pleiades |
| Seeing: | Average |
| Light: | Poor |
| Location: | Home (doorway) |
Equipment
| Scope: | Meade LX90 |
| Other: | Planisphere |
Comments
Eager to get another look at Saturn, I set up the scope again in the doorway around 2am (00:00 UTC). Thick cloud was rolling over the sky, and started to become slightly more patchy at time went on, revealing some beautifully clear patches which drifted slowly Westwards, towards my target. I managed to get a couple of quick glimpses, but the thick clouds started to return and I considered packing up for the night. "I'll just give it another half hour," I thought to myself - and I'm glad I did!
The cloud started thinning out, and by around 4am (02:00 UTC) had almost completely disappeared! Wonderfully clear views of Saturn followed, so I thought I'd try out the LPI (Lunar & Planetary Imager) which came bundeled with my scope. However, my alignment wasn't good enough to get a steady image, so I went back to visual oservation and made a couple of sketches, shown below.
 View of Saturn and Titan through my 9.7mm Plossl eyepiece. The two unlabelled 'dots' are stars. |  A larger sketch showing the details I could make out from the same view. |
As can be seen from the more detailed sketch, a dark band was visible near the equator, which lightened towards the South. The South pole seemed also slightly darker then the rest of the disk. The Cassini division was just visible, but the Crepe ring's tone was not discernable from the surrounding sky - a small section may have been visible where it crossed the planet's disk. The A and B rings were similar in colour to the darker and lighter parts of the disk respectively.
By this time, I was about ready to turn in for the night. I did however have a quick look towards the South-West from the balcony. The immediate view was cloudy, but towards the zenith all was clear. Rather disoriented, having never seen this part of the sky from this angle, Cassiopeia was the only constellation I could make out. My eye was however draw to a bright clutster high in the South, which I later realised was the Pleiades. Having packed the scope away (not that I'd be able to see that high with it from the balcony, anyway), I had a quick look with the LX90's finder - definitely something I'll want to study more closely later!
