Saturn 4am 3 Jan 2009

[MarkS]

Saturn at 4am this morning.

The seeing was quite good but for some reason this lacks contrast - maybe the transparency?
There are also a few artifacts caused by specks of dust.

Anyway it clearly shows that the rings are fairly "edge on" now.

Stack of 20 exposures of 1.6sec at ISO 800.  Canon EOS 350D on C11 using eyepiece projection.

[Rocket Pooch]

I must get that this year i'll have 6 years worth then, good image for a dslr.

[JohnP]

Nice Mark - impressed you were up at 4am... was that an all nighter or did you set the alarm...????

John

[Carole]

You did well to get the "edge on rings" so clearly Mark.  It must have been bloody cold at that time of the morning, very brave.

Carole

[MarkS]

John,

It was a "kind of " all nighter.  We came home in the early hours after a party and I was drunk enough to think it was a good idea to set up my kit in the sub-zero temperatures.

Mark

[Carole]

I was drunk enough to think it was a good idea to set up my kit in the sub-zero temperatures.

Ah, that would explain it.

I'm afraid I can't stand it this cold, I certainly won't be setting up my scope etc until it warms up a bit.

Carole

[Mike]

Best conditions are when it is freezing. On Saturday night from Paul's garden we were up till 5am and it went down to -7.2 degrees C. The seeing that night was fantastic.

[MarkS]

Plenty of cold nights are forecast this week ...

[JohnP]

Did you take any images Mike? John

[Mike]

Nope. I had the usual attack of the gremlins.

I set out to do the Rosette but then found the mount was not moving in DEC at all despite the motor spinning. I opened it up to take a look and the axle of the motor was just freely spinning inside the brass gear which just sat there not moving. Needs a new one

[Whitters]

We did get the 14" out though and take a peek at Saturn, it does look most wierd without a nice wide ring system.