by Chuck
April 23, 2013
Astronomy Observation Record
| Date: 4-23-2013 |
Time: 10:30 p.m. |
Location: Brambly Hill |
| Instrument: Northstar |
Aperture: 76mm |
Focal length: 700mm |
| Eyepiece/Magnification: 17/45 8/58 |
| Transparency: |
Seeing: |
| Conditions: |
| Object |
Notes |
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Saturn
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Saturn is at opposition this week, so I went out to see what I could see.
At first I tried to see Saturn by pointing my telescope at Arcturus. While Arcturus is a beautiful star, it certainly isn't Saturn.
Saturn was about 26 degrees above the horizon -- quite low, but culmination is only 35 degrees so I wasn't losing too much.
I found Saturn easily with the 17mm eyepiece. With averted vision I could glimpse Titan low and to the left of Saturn. The gaps between planet and rings was clear.
Using the 8mm lens Titan came into view without using averted vision. after about 10 to 15 minutes I could start to see other faint speckles around Saturn with averted vision. Several of Saturn's moons are theoretically within range of the Northstar -- I might have been picking them out.
The moon was 92% of full tonight. It washed out a great deal of the sky. In the sky around Saturn only the very brightest stars were visible. I put the NELM about 3.5, but that might be low.
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