Saturn was great tonight. The rings are almost on edge. With the 100 f/6 achromat at 120x, I could see the slim shadow of the rings across the planet and three moons in orbit. Seeing was pretty good, and I was able to kick up to 240x. That's a lot for the 100mm scope, but it handled it well. The shadow was bolder at the higher magnification, and the moons more obvious when seeing cooperated. The rings are obviously not exactly on edge now, and this was more obvious at 240x. It's a nice view, though.
After looking at Saturn, I swung the scope around to Epsilon Bootes, also called Izar. Izar is a double, and tonight it was cleanly split at 240x. That's one I did not think I would coax out of my little achromat. This was a lot of fun.
Astronomy and astrophotography by Val Ricks for the love of the sky and its Creator. For a better view, toggle F11 and turn off the lights.
No comments:
Post a Comment