Hi, Phil!
The official mid-transit time for Saturn will be about 3:00pm our time
today (Saturday), passing north of the Crab's center. Yep, it's a slow
transit, and would have officially started late last night. Personally,
I think the best view of both Saturn amd M1 could come between 6~7pm,
just because of the way the Crab visually "extends" to the NW. I don't
think Saturn officially exits the Crab 'til sometime tomorrow morning,
probably about the time it's setting. That's also the time that
"trailing" Titan will be about 20-arcsecs north of the position of the
Crab's central pulsar!
Hope this helps, Phil.
...Bob...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sf-bay-tac@No-Spam
> [mailto:owner-sf-bay-tac@No-Spam] On Behalf Of P T Chambers
> Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 9:47 AM
> To: sf-bay-tac@No-Spam
> Subject: Re: [TAC] Saturn's Transit of the Crab
>
>
> Hi Bob
> Do you have an approximate time for the transit. I have seen
> it mentioned
> in several other places but not one time to be had. I
> suspect it will be
> for quite a while as Saturn doesnt move very fast but would
> kind of like
> to know the "center time".
>
> ---------
> Phil Chambers [ptchamb@No-Spam] (S.F. Bay Area - Calif. USA)
>
> On Fri, 3 Jan 2003, Bob Czerwinski wrote:
>
> >
> > For those of you who are planning to view the Saturn
> transit of the Crab
> > Nebula (M1) on Saturday night, make certain you bring your nebula
> > filter(s) along. _Sky_&_Telescope_'s Fred Schaaf says he thinks the
> > planet's glare and scattered light in a 'scope will obscure
> M1. Rick
> > Baldridge, of Peninsula Astronomical Society fame, however,
> thinks we
> > can view Saturn's transit through M1 with the aid of a
> nebula filter.
> > Rick is usually right on the money with advice like this. I'll
> > definitely have my 12.5" out in the backyard tomorrow night for a
> > look-see. Along with a filter or two. :^) Ought to be fun to
> > experiment with different filters to see which one presents the best
> > view!
> >
> > ...Bob...
> > Bob Czerwinski
> >
> >
>