I've been waiting for a certain planet to get high enough over the horizon for months now. I've had some great view of Jupiter over the last months but always one planet has been too low for me to see above the trees about 200 yards away..........but last night!!!... Saturn!!!! It was still low in the skies but just high enough to clear the trees as a tiny bright dot. The full Moon was just to the East of it but with my trusty Telescope I got the first sight this year of Saturn and it's Rings Whenever I see Saturn it just me, the rings are just perfect and seeing the planet sitting out there in the blackness is amazing. The "seeing" wasn't perfect due to turbulent atmosphere so I could only use 180 magification but the Planet and Rings was crystal clear and fantastic.......made the waiting worthwhile!!
The skies were cloudy half an hour ago but now they've cleared completely.....should be able to get some views of it when it's darker!!
I saw one single bright star in the sky last night (west-ish?) and wondered what it might be - is that Saturn?
It's dark outside!!! Sorry, Jenny, couldn't resist. I'm not set up for astroimaging at the moment. I'm thinking of doing so next year, but that will mean getting a CCD camera, a Laptop, and sitting in front of the Computer for hours to process the images
Hi FC, Jenny was just saying the same thing in the Weather Thread. But, as I said to her, I'm pretty sure it was Arcturus, which is a Double Star, and about 36.7 Light Years away [or 215,796 Trillion miles].
Oh, B*^$£^, it's gone cloudy again after the skies being clear and I can only get a glimpse of anything for a few seconds!. Frustrating, when you think that that light has travelled all those miles and then gets blocked by Clouds of Water Vapour!!
I finished with a yawn and a smile at around 2.35am, Jenny. Afraid not, John, but I do have Battles to see the skies at times.
