Sunday I woke at 5.00am and having looked outside I noticed it was clear, so I decided to avoid the temptation to get more sleep and wait up for Jupiter to rise. By 6.30am the sky had clouded over :o(
Today, at 4.30pm the sky was perfect, but I had work to do, I thought I'd be OK for a couple of hours and anyway Saturn would be a while to rise. By 8.30pm when I had finished working, guess what? More clouds!
I have to get up early in the morning to catch a train at 7.00am so will soon be off to bed as it will be a long day.
later
Mitch
Showing posts with label Saturn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saturn. Show all posts
Monday, January 22, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
OK,
So I decided to not be lazy and went out to see what I could of Saturn. First I just took out the Opticron MM2 with my camera tripod, Saturn was low to the East quite near to the moon but not as close as it appeared with Stellarium. The Opticron zoomed in at max magnification (40x) showed the planet quite clearly, the rings quite easily discernible and overall quite a sharp image.
So tempted I swapped for the Skywatcher, the 40mm EP showed a similar view to the Opticron but as I increased mag the image quality dropped off considerably. I tried the 40mm (25x), the 25mm (40x), 10mm (100x) and the 10mm with the Barlow (200x), next I tried the 25mm with the Barlow (80x) this seemed to be the best combination but the sharpness wasn't a patch on the Opticron. However the Opticron doesn't give a large enough image to be useful.
Having said all of this the seeing conditions were nothing short of attrocious, although I'm not now so impressed with the Skywatcher for Planetary observing. Even taking into account the conditions it will obviously not perform as well as the Opticron for image sharpness at higher mag's. Of course this could well be down to the quality of the standard EP's which themselves seemed to be far better than Meade's.
The standard series of EP's for the Skywatcher seem to cost in the order of £40, the EP for the Opticron (albeit a zoom EP) was £90. So I guess I might need to invest in some higher quality EP's (some sell for £200 or more!).
Anyway, back inside now, I was about to say in the warm, but of course we have been having a very mild winter so far. Hardly any frosts that I can recall, our cricket team should have stayed home rather than tour Australia where we just suffered a 5-0 series defeat in the Ashes series! Worst performance for over 80 years apparently! But that's another story.
More later.
So I decided to not be lazy and went out to see what I could of Saturn. First I just took out the Opticron MM2 with my camera tripod, Saturn was low to the East quite near to the moon but not as close as it appeared with Stellarium. The Opticron zoomed in at max magnification (40x) showed the planet quite clearly, the rings quite easily discernible and overall quite a sharp image.
So tempted I swapped for the Skywatcher, the 40mm EP showed a similar view to the Opticron but as I increased mag the image quality dropped off considerably. I tried the 40mm (25x), the 25mm (40x), 10mm (100x) and the 10mm with the Barlow (200x), next I tried the 25mm with the Barlow (80x) this seemed to be the best combination but the sharpness wasn't a patch on the Opticron. However the Opticron doesn't give a large enough image to be useful.
Having said all of this the seeing conditions were nothing short of attrocious, although I'm not now so impressed with the Skywatcher for Planetary observing. Even taking into account the conditions it will obviously not perform as well as the Opticron for image sharpness at higher mag's. Of course this could well be down to the quality of the standard EP's which themselves seemed to be far better than Meade's.
The standard series of EP's for the Skywatcher seem to cost in the order of £40, the EP for the Opticron (albeit a zoom EP) was £90. So I guess I might need to invest in some higher quality EP's (some sell for £200 or more!).
Anyway, back inside now, I was about to say in the warm, but of course we have been having a very mild winter so far. Hardly any frosts that I can recall, our cricket team should have stayed home rather than tour Australia where we just suffered a 5-0 series defeat in the Ashes series! Worst performance for over 80 years apparently! But that's another story.
More later.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Cloud Dodging...
Well it looked like it was clearing up later on so I decided to take the scope out to hopefully get a first look at Saturn with the Skywatcher. As I was setting up the scope Saturn was in view as I'd predicted through a clearing in the clouds.
By the time I was all set to go, you guessed it, Saturn disappered behind the clouds, I missed it by seconds!
So I swung the scope around and had a nice view of the Pleiades and Hyades, and after waiting for what seemed like ages I gave up with Saturn and decided the moon was looking good...as I dashed inside to get the camera the clouds were starting to cover the moon also!
Managed to get a few shots in, here is the best....
More later
Mitch
Well it looked like it was clearing up later on so I decided to take the scope out to hopefully get a first look at Saturn with the Skywatcher. As I was setting up the scope Saturn was in view as I'd predicted through a clearing in the clouds.
By the time I was all set to go, you guessed it, Saturn disappered behind the clouds, I missed it by seconds!
So I swung the scope around and had a nice view of the Pleiades and Hyades, and after waiting for what seemed like ages I gave up with Saturn and decided the moon was looking good...as I dashed inside to get the camera the clouds were starting to cover the moon also!
Managed to get a few shots in, here is the best....
More later
Mitch
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Saturday, April 01, 2006
First clear night in weeks, OK not exactly clear, but I did get a nice glimpse of Saturn which is now high in the south. Orion and Sirius have moved quite a way westward since my last sighting.
Cassiopea was low to the north and the Plough was on its side to the north east.
The crescent moon looked impressive with quite a bit of earthshine lighting the shadow.
That looks like it for now, will check later to see if the cloud has cleared.
Cassiopea was low to the north and the Plough was on its side to the north east.
The crescent moon looked impressive with quite a bit of earthshine lighting the shadow.
That looks like it for now, will check later to see if the cloud has cleared.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
18:50 - At last, a clear sky!
19:15 - Already spotted the Southern Albireo, and....
19:32 - Just had my first attempt at looking for the ISS based on the predictions from Heavens Above. Right on the money, came out of the southwest and went into the earth's shadow just after it went by Orion, brill. Next time I will get my camera ready and try to get a long exposure to capture its track.
20:00 - Saturn is on view (also saw a satellite skim by as I was looking through the scope)and Orion looks brill, Sirius is quite high in the sky already.
22:20 - Arcturus is beaming brightly through the pollution to my East, wondered what it was so checked all my resources. Very bright indeed, getting a bit cold out there now.
19:15 - Already spotted the Southern Albireo, and....
19:32 - Just had my first attempt at looking for the ISS based on the predictions from Heavens Above. Right on the money, came out of the southwest and went into the earth's shadow just after it went by Orion, brill. Next time I will get my camera ready and try to get a long exposure to capture its track.
20:00 - Saturn is on view (also saw a satellite skim by as I was looking through the scope)and Orion looks brill, Sirius is quite high in the sky already.
22:20 - Arcturus is beaming brightly through the pollution to my East, wondered what it was so checked all my resources. Very bright indeed, getting a bit cold out there now.
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