Saturn/Venus/Moon last night near the moon

Hi All,
This is a forum I don't often post in, I was out observing last night with the high near full moon. I had a good look at Saturn through the 12" and binoviewers, the binoviewers make the planet soooo much easier to observe.
It's very easy to get so caught up in the imaging that you forget to actually have a look at some of the objects.
I was working at about 400x magnification which showed most of the cassini division in the rings, the section directly in front of the planet was very hit&miss, the belts on the disk were clearly visible as were Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, I tried to get Mimas, but the almost full moon brightening the sky swamped it out for me.

It was really nice to sit back in the chair and look at Saturn through the binoviewer, its much easier to observe with both eyes and when you're sitting comfortably. In the crater Aristarchus, you could see the steps in the crater walls, absolutely stunning :shock: have a look at it in virtual moon atlas and you'll see what I mean!
Observing the moon through the binoviewers gives the term "observing" whole new meaning, its like looking at frozen talcum power, the textured surface is so much more visible, a real 3D effect, just amazing !
Thankfully these are much cheaper then they were a few years back.

There was other fine edge details visible on the moon also. Lets hope we can repeat this on the eclipse night on Saturday.

Those Binoviewers sound great Dave. I have never looked through a set. Would love to look at the moon through them. Do they make the image dimmer?

I was back late from the SDAS meeting last night (the guys can vouch for me ) and the sky was just sooo clear.

I had the Bresser 10 x 50s, and closest conact on a line seemed to be for me from ~0225z - 0245z. I really thought the moon was going to cover Saturn.

I'd say scopes or even mounted binocs gave a great view.

Here's to tomorrow night...

Those Binoviewers sound great Dave. I have never looked through a set. Would love to look at the moon through them. Do they make the image dimmer?

Supposedly, but with bright objects like the moon and planets its not a problem given 12 inches of aperture, objects like M13 are noticeably dimmer but still usable, anything fainter gets too faint.
The ones I've got are a Lomo set, not the usual cheapo ones you see on the web, this thing looks like it came off the periscope from a Russian submarine, all metal!

Funny thing is that not everyone sees the effect, and for those that do, they take a while to get used to.

Nice report Dave. Like you said, when you get out there and 'observe' something that maybe you have taken for granted as simply being there before, you really do (re)find a new appreciation for it. Sometimes I get like that with just the Moon, and using the club's 12" Dob. I need to get myself some filters for my eyepieces though - the glare from the Moon when almost full, at even the lowest power through the 12", kind of prevents me from observing other objects for a time afterwards! (wrecked night vision) Still, when you're geting a great view of some lunar geological features, who cares!

Seanie.

Sometimes I get like that with just the Moon, and using the club's 12" Dob. I need to get myself some filters for my eyepieces though - the glare from the Moon when almost full, at even the lowest power through the 12", kind of prevents me from observing other objects for a time afterwards

Seanie.

Hi Seanie, To reduce the glare, you should try pumping up the power, although at full moon, its still going to be bright.