A Satisfying Night of Observing at Fremont Peak (12/1/02)

by Peter Natscher

Derek Stonich and I, and the SW parking lot steward--the gray fox, had a good 3 hours of observing after successfully waiting out the worrisome peak clouds and overcast. We arrived by 4pm only to find area hikers and a total fog out with threatening clouds above that. We agreed to stay parked until 6pm to see if things cleared up. The Peak once again surprised us with a nearly total clearing at twilight, so we quickly set up to enjoy our observing. I had my Starmaster 20" and Derek had his 7" Intes Mak-Newtonian. The observable part of the sky turned out to be from Polaris and the meridian overhead to the east and all the way down to the horizon. We had half a sky to observe in.

Transparency remained average with some brightness from the high humidity in the air and the 48°F temperature being close to the dew point. It wasn't that dark but there was no wind. The naked-eye stars weren't twinkling very much, and my initial observations of 1" to 3" doubles at 280x confirmed fairly steady air above. I went on the use 430x on the doubles and saw fairly even diffraction patterns of these stars.

With the average transparency condition, I chose to observe a few mag. 9 to 11 planetaries during the time I waited for Saturn to rise over the tree line. Due to good seeing, I used 430x on various planetaries. Namely, NGC 2022, at the neck of Orion, showed a lot of interesting annular mottling at 430x. There is a dark opening in the center of this planetary.

By 8pm, Saturn had risen above the tree line and was now positioned for my first good look for this winter apparition. The seeing was still good and a dry breeze from the east began keeping any more dew from forming on our scopes. Starting at 280x, I was able to work my way up to 430x in observing Saturn by using two 10mm Zeiss Abbe's and a TeleVue Bino. Plenty of detail became visible on Saturn in moments of stillness. With larger aperture (20"), the globe's color appears a beautiful soft yellow-pink, distinct from the surrounding rings. The globe's shadow cast onto it's rings is almost gone from our view now since Saturn is close to opposition. The Encke minima was plainly visible mid-A ring along with a beautiful Crepe ring (the C ring). The B ring exhibited a few ringlets and I could spot mottled bands on the globe south off the dominant equatorial band all the way to the s. polar region. The family of moons: Orange-colored Titan, Dione, Tethys, Rhea, and Enceladus where all there to been seen surrounding Saturn. I'm going to have to come back to Saturn soon again!

By 9pm, the encroaching clouds from the west and dew were softening the seeing, so we decided to pack up and call it a night by 9:30pm.