Post by ianr on Sept 29, 2020 7:16:58 GMT
Read an article somewhere online yesterday talking of Jupiter and Saturn being visible near the moon at the moment so went out around 8-15 for a look well there not as near the moon as I thought they would be quite a bit further to the south.
Anyway there shining away was Jupiter and to it's left a lot fainter was Saturn
As I stepped out of the door I noticed satellite crossing over SE to NW and while setting up my scope I noticed a very bright not flashing quite fast moving light traveling W to E I've seen the ISS several times always on this trajectory so possibly that, it disappeared behind some cloud before I could get back out with my bins
Having set the scope up and found Jupiter it was stunningly bright and 4 equally bright moons could be seen 2 either side I've seen it's moons before with binoculars but the extra magnification and tripod made all the difference
Now for Saturn off to the left and a lot dimmer but as the cloud cleared away I got focused on it and zoomed in not quite to maximum I always back zooms off a tad. I could see the disc and make out the very slight gap between that and the ring fantastic. It appears to be at about 45deg to us and though I couldn't see rings I could see a gap and a ring
As I turned to look at the moon a little further round to the left and Mars was outstandingly bright and looking very I would say orange but red if you like
I dipped out this morning as it was cloudy but Venus is up there in the east first thing.
All in all last night was a bit special
ian
Anyway there shining away was Jupiter and to it's left a lot fainter was Saturn
As I stepped out of the door I noticed satellite crossing over SE to NW and while setting up my scope I noticed a very bright not flashing quite fast moving light traveling W to E I've seen the ISS several times always on this trajectory so possibly that, it disappeared behind some cloud before I could get back out with my bins
Having set the scope up and found Jupiter it was stunningly bright and 4 equally bright moons could be seen 2 either side I've seen it's moons before with binoculars but the extra magnification and tripod made all the difference
Now for Saturn off to the left and a lot dimmer but as the cloud cleared away I got focused on it and zoomed in not quite to maximum I always back zooms off a tad. I could see the disc and make out the very slight gap between that and the ring fantastic. It appears to be at about 45deg to us and though I couldn't see rings I could see a gap and a ring
As I turned to look at the moon a little further round to the left and Mars was outstandingly bright and looking very I would say orange but red if you like
I dipped out this morning as it was cloudy but Venus is up there in the east first thing.
All in all last night was a bit special
ian
