Observation Report - Saturn & Jupiter
Anaheim CA
8:30 - 11:30 p.m. local (- 8 UTC)
Equipment: NS11 SCT
Hi Everyone,
Saturn:
Saturn was already about 54 degrees above the horizon and looked sharp in the 18mm Radian (155x). Tethys, Dione and Rhea were semi-aligned in a little string north-west of the planet. Enceladus was supposed to be next to Tethys but I could not detect it. Titan stood out on the west side and there was a nice little double star (optical double I think, not a true binary system) to the east.
The Cassini Division was etched sharply almost all the way around, except for the portion behind the southern pole. The last time I observed Saturn it fooled me (fooled myself, to be more accurate!)into thinking I saw it all the way around. The better seeing last night removed the illusion. There is an interesting optical effect whereby a bit of the shadow of the globe on the rings seems to be visible just to either side of the pole. Is this an illusion or is it really the shadow?
Another interesting observation was the Crepe Ring, which was easily seen in front of the planet and around one side but not on the other. Maybe this has to do with the angle of illumination?
Cloud bands on disk were evident, with gradiations in the polar region.
Jupiter:
This was my first "real" observation of Jupiter this time around and I picked a good night for it! I started at 9:30 p.m. local time. The four Galilean moons were strung out to the east, with Europa & Io closest to the planet. The Europan shadow transit had already begun and the shadow was sharply cast on the equatorial band. Jupiter was still a bit low but the north & south equatorial bands were prominent and starting to show good edge definition. Ganymede was farthest out in fov and actually showed itself as a tiny disk, with a bit of color, albeit with some diffraction "noise". Europa and Io, at the center of the fov, were sharp-edged and clean. As I watched, Io began its shadow transit and Europa closed in on the edge of the planet. I was able to follow Europa across the face of the planet for only a short distance, but it would re-appear sometimes as the seeing improved. I continued to observe until the two shadows were equally spaced on either side of the centerline of the planet, making Jupiter look like a beady-eyed, petulant alien with one Frida-like eyebrow:-)
Saturn was now almost directly overhead so I slewed back to it for a final observation. The seeing was still good so I put in my 10mm Radian (280x)and was rewarded with the best view so far this season. Aside from the absence of the small, thin divison near the outside edge of the A ring (Encke division?) it looked like a smaller version of a Hubble photograph. Since this placement of Saturn required me to kneel in the wet, cold grass to avoid permanent neck damage I decided to call it a night. I went to bed happy I decided to pull the scope out!
Thanks for reading this and Happy New Year!
Ed
Anaheim CA
8:30 - 11:30 p.m. local (- 8 UTC)
Equipment: NS11 SCT
Hi Everyone,
Saturn:
Saturn was already about 54 degrees above the horizon and looked sharp in the 18mm Radian (155x). Tethys, Dione and Rhea were semi-aligned in a little string north-west of the planet. Enceladus was supposed to be next to Tethys but I could not detect it. Titan stood out on the west side and there was a nice little double star (optical double I think, not a true binary system) to the east.
The Cassini Division was etched sharply almost all the way around, except for the portion behind the southern pole. The last time I observed Saturn it fooled me (fooled myself, to be more accurate!)into thinking I saw it all the way around. The better seeing last night removed the illusion. There is an interesting optical effect whereby a bit of the shadow of the globe on the rings seems to be visible just to either side of the pole. Is this an illusion or is it really the shadow?
Another interesting observation was the Crepe Ring, which was easily seen in front of the planet and around one side but not on the other. Maybe this has to do with the angle of illumination?
Cloud bands on disk were evident, with gradiations in the polar region.
Jupiter:
This was my first "real" observation of Jupiter this time around and I picked a good night for it! I started at 9:30 p.m. local time. The four Galilean moons were strung out to the east, with Europa & Io closest to the planet. The Europan shadow transit had already begun and the shadow was sharply cast on the equatorial band. Jupiter was still a bit low but the north & south equatorial bands were prominent and starting to show good edge definition. Ganymede was farthest out in fov and actually showed itself as a tiny disk, with a bit of color, albeit with some diffraction "noise". Europa and Io, at the center of the fov, were sharp-edged and clean. As I watched, Io began its shadow transit and Europa closed in on the edge of the planet. I was able to follow Europa across the face of the planet for only a short distance, but it would re-appear sometimes as the seeing improved. I continued to observe until the two shadows were equally spaced on either side of the centerline of the planet, making Jupiter look like a beady-eyed, petulant alien with one Frida-like eyebrow:-)
Saturn was now almost directly overhead so I slewed back to it for a final observation. The seeing was still good so I put in my 10mm Radian (280x)and was rewarded with the best view so far this season. Aside from the absence of the small, thin divison near the outside edge of the A ring (Encke division?) it looked like a smaller version of a Hubble photograph. Since this placement of Saturn required me to kneel in the wet, cold grass to avoid permanent neck damage I decided to call it a night. I went to bed happy I decided to pull the scope out!
Thanks for reading this and Happy New Year!
Ed
Ed Moran
Equipment Forum Moderator - Two of Five
