Re: (SNES) Observation Report - Wow!! Wotta Night!!

[Albireo54@aol.com]

Hi Les,

You wrote:  Sounds like you had a wonderful night! Had I not just come off an 
all-nighter at Frosty Drew the previous night, I'd have been out there as 
well again! 

Friday night at FDO started out in very discouraging fashion, as slow moving 
bands of clouds were everywhere until nearly midnight. But then the skies 
cleared nicely, and although there was still a lot of haze, the upper 
atmosphere rock steady. Magnitude limit at the zenith was about 6.0, and even 
low in the east I could see M35 naked eye. We also easily observed M 32 and M 
110, both high overhead, using 10 x 50 binoculars.

Your experience with Saturn and Jupiter paralleled ours the night before. We 
were able to observe the double transit as Jupiter rose through murky skies, 
spotting both Io's and Europa's shadows right in the middle of the dark 
southern temperate belt. The moons themselves were much harder to see when 
they later passed in front of the planet, but during moments of clarity we 
could make them out vaguely. 

While the skies were clearing, and the two gas giants rose into better 
viewing position, we took the time to tweak the collimation of the 16" LX200, 
and this made a tremendous difference in the scope's fine resolution. We have 
Bob's Nobs installed, and this makes adjustments very easy. But we hadn't 
done it in a year, and the thousands of scope motions, plus a 100+ degree 
swing of dome temperatures over the many months, had combined to knock the 
collimation off noticeably. (I had been having trouble resolving double stars 
in the 16" that I was splitting successfully at home in my C8.)

The adjustments, small as they were, made a world of difference. We were 
simply dumbstruck with the subsequent views of Jupiter and Saturn at 340X 
(12mm Nagler)! Jupiter was gorgeous - like the best astrophotos you've ever 
seen with finely resolved swirls and festoons everywhere and a rainbow of 
pastel colors. Even the elusive pale blues were seen throughout the brighter 
belts (we used no filters) and the Great Red Spot was as distinct as I've 
seen it in years, although somewhat smaller than usual. It's color is now a 
strong brick / orange shade. The Jovian moons were all crisp little balls, 
with the giant Ganymede (1.6 arc seconds across) actually showing some 
surface variations!

Saturn was as good as any of us had ever seen it, although we are not 
prepared to confirm a sighting of the Encke division. I and others may have 
glimpsed it, but I suspect it was just the Encke minima, a shading & contrast 
variation that is slightly closer to the Cassini division than is the actual 
division. The air was steady, but not as transparent as we'd have liked, so 
better nights lie ahead. Nonetheless, with a freshly collimated 16" scope, 
working mostly at 340X and occasionally 600X, we observed amazing details 
both in the rings and on the planet's surface. A first for all of us was 
actually seeing the northern area of Saturn THROUGH the Cassini division! 
This is easier now due to the extreme tilt of the rings, which will continue 
to increase until early April, 2003. (27.0 degrees then, vs. 26.1 degrees 
now). The crepe ring was broad and clearly seen against the black sky between 
it and Saturn's disk, as well as in front of the planet, with Saturn showing 
through it. Titan was a neat little orange ball, and we saw all of the 
visible moons, including a glimpsing view of Mimas, which was only about 6 
seconds from the rings.  The globe of Saturn revealed a rare wealth of fine 
detail; not just the typical horizontal banding, but vertical variations 
within those bands.

Saturn will approach us by another 3% prior to its 12/03 opposition, so we 
have months of fine viewing to look forward to. 
For true Saturn watchers, I noticed that the planet will twice be passing 
directly in front of (occulting) M1, the Crab Nebula - on July 24/35 next 
year and on January 4/5 of 2003. Both events will be visible from our area. 
Something to look forward to, though I'm sure it will be difficult to observe 
the nebula behind Saturn, due to Saturn's brilliance (more than 2000 times 
brighter than M1). 

Here's wishing more clear dark skies to you and all readers of SNES!
Doug Stewart
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