Saturn's C-ring

Once again, Valerie and I and our 6.2" apochromatic refractor ventured out to our backyard to do some stargazing or should I say planet gazing. Skies in Ranelagh seemed to be crystal clear last Saturday night.
We started off as per usual with the planet Venus, and viewed her with magnifications up to 167X. Venus was 16% illuminated and a full 40" in diameter. Southeast of Venus, was a faint double star -118 Tauri. Components A and B are 4.6" apart and magnitudes 6 and 6.5. We just needed 40X to separate them, but 112X was very nice. The primary was bluish white.
However, we had no idea what we going to see with the planet Saturn. At 112X, we could see the bright equatorial zone, Cassini division, Titan, Rhea, Tethys, Dione and Iapetus. At 167X we could see both north and south ring shadows on the planet, and at 280X, we could see the North Temperate Zone and the North Tropical Zone. But the big surprise was at 320X. The sky was very calm and perfectly still, we observed Saturn's enigmatic C-ring. I have always wondered would I ever get to see it. Over the last 30 years, I have never observed it with 6" and 8.75" reflectors. I often tried, but always failed. I shall for ever in my memory remember the date 12th May 2012 -the night I finally saw the very faint C-ring.

Aubrey.

Well done Aubrey, very impressive. The conditions must have been excellent, especially as you were viewing from the city. You've thrown down the gauntlet now!

Mike

Thank you, Mick. I was just talking to a friend of mine who owns a 10" Dobsonian. I challenged him to give it a shot. I should also say it must be quite rare to see both the northern shadow of what must be caused by the B-ring on Saturn and the southern shadow cast by the A-ring. I don't remember seeing that before either.

Aubrey.

The C ring is a little faint alright.
Now all you need to chase down is the encke division...

Thanks for making me laugh out loud, Michael. I wonder what magnification I would need to view the Enke Division. Perhaps Dave Lillis could share that with us in his glorious 20" Dob.

Aubrey.

Great Little report, enjoyed reading that.