Whose afraid of Saturns Moons? :)

Hi All,

I saw Mimas in the 11 inch Starmaster last Saturday night around 11pm local 7:00UT. Awesome seeing and from my driveway to boot! I diagrammed it the moons. Enceladus I could hold with direct vision, Mimas I glimpsed, sketched, and verified later on indoors. This with a 9mm Nagler and an AP Barcon for around 280x. Like I said, great night. Tegem was almost easy. My software said AB is 1.01". But I could only elongate Porrima.

Took 7 inch Teleport down to the pool and after seeing what a great night we were having. I had to get on my knees to look at Jupiter in Libra at about 7:30UT. I used a Celestron 7mm Ortho (Vintage Circle-T type) for 144x.

Observing Jupiter reminded me why I call my Teleport 7 an "180mm f/5.6 APO". The festoons hanging from the NEB were almost like a half circle, bridging across the meridian from the southern edge of the NEB. Seriously amazing. The detail was more than I could make out stooping on my knees! It is true you need to be comfortable to see the most detail and that means a stand or table for the diminutive Teleport. I turned it to Saturn and was able to make out Enceladus. Sweet.

Remember we are talking a driveway in Los Angles County (though I must say, La Habra Heights is the only city in L.A. I am aware of with no street lights and lighting ordinances).

Jamie Dillon <jamie_dillon@pvusd.net> wrote: That's a real thrill, Rob. I have a very clear memory of getting M30
early one morning from Coe for the 110th Messier. 5866 is too good to
miss.

Dude, one night at CalStar it was just David Kingsley and me up
around 4 am, Saturn was stunning, everything clear at 420x. Mimas
plain wouldn't show in my 11, while it was clear in David's 14.5. At
that point I figured I'd determined what was possible in my scope.
You might not want to print on your business card with an attached
affidavit that you caught Mimas in your 8". Might possibly have been
Encedalus. But I'm certainly not signing off any Saturn moon logs
. It'll be a big treat to see your Messier logs. You've passed
your apprenticeship; welcome to the guild of journeyman observers!

Also looking forward to seeing a shadow of your face in the dark.
Missed you up there by 24 hours.
Thanks for the fun report!

Jamie

-- 
Jamie Dillon <*> speech pathologist
jamie_dillon@pvusd.net
"_____"  -- Harpo Marx
---------------------------------------
Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky
La Habra Heights, California 
"Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender. " - W.C. Fields
"What wretched scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" - W.C. Fields