Dreads reports

Location: Dublin Pike, Cork

Date/Time: 2008/01/05 2330 - 2008/01/06 0130

Equipment:
Bresser R102 1000mm refractor, 10mm, 15mm & 25mm Plossls with 2X Barlow. Carl Zeiss Jena 10x50s.

Conditions
Intermittent cloud, some haze, little wind. Transparency/seeing: 3/2

Report
Observed Saturn with moons Rhea, Tethys (?) and Titan. Rings became visible with 15mm plossl with the best detail from 15mm Plossl @2X. Could clearly see the rings, the dark lobes either side of the planet, the shadow of the rings across the planet as well as faint band on the larger hemisphere.

Observed Mars but could not make out any detail at any magnification. I thought I had a shot at some detail as it was directly overhead and I should benefit from best seeing.

Briefly observed M81 and M82 (Bodes nebula) with 25mm Plossl. Didn't see any detail but make out that M81 was edge on. Identified the location using bins and, with difficulty, managed to starhop to location with telescope. Main diffuculty due to various orientations of stars in the views of the scope, finderscope and bins. Had a problem viewing through the finderscope as it was at knee level :roll: . I couldn't find M101, M51, M63, M101, M109 or M97.

Comments
Must print out and laminate sky maps of areas to be visited. Nortons 2000 magnitude limit a bit limited for telescope. Must find a midget to look through findercope when viewing overhead :lol: .

Hi Declan,

Well done on the report. I was looking at Saturn to and I couldn't believe how much the rings have closed up not much in the way of detail this year from the Cassini division

I'm guessing there is some kinda cycle as to when Saturn is best viewed and not. Any tips on when to view the rings for best results?

Thanks Carl I know what you mean about the rings but this is my first telescope and seeing Saturn in such detail left me absolutely awestruck. And now you tell me I have more to look forward to. I can live with that .

Regarding the report, I am just experimenting with using this as my log. We'll see how it goes.

I'm guessing there is some kinda cycle as to when Saturn is best viewed and not. Any tips on when to view the rings for best results?

Not these days anyway!


Due to Saturn's tilt and Earth's changing orbital position,
Saturn's rings go through a phase of 'Opening' and 'Closing'
every 29.5 years (roughly)


They were last fully open with the south side presented to our view in 2002 (top image)
they will be fully edge-on in 2009 (bottom) gradually opening back up again until
2016 when the north side of the rings will be at maximum tilt toward us and so on.



This last image (taken by Dave Lillis & I) shows the
rings as they appeared in April last year.

From visual observation lately it's amazing to see just how much they
have closed in, the Cassini Division (the big gap in the rings) is now
just about gone.

Saturn will be better placed for observing in a month or so and I'm
sure a lot here will be imaging it.
It would be interesting to see some comparison shots.

Thanks for the info Frank. Looks like im gonna have to wait a while to see it remotely like anything in your pics.

Great pics by the way.

One thing i've read about Saturn is no matter what you view it through for the first time it always has the WOW factor.

So thats always good to know.