2009 March 12 Titan shadow transit

Bob Jardine

Observed from my front doorstep in Cupertino, early AM on March 12.

The weather finally cooperated (I missed the previous couple of Titan transits due to the clouds). Still, I didn't have quite the success that Peter had. I also applied some fine optics to the situation, although not in the same aperture class as Peter's. But I had real trouble seeing the shadow... and not a prayer of seeing Titan itself.

I had left my scope (7" Teleport) out overnight so that it would be at thermal equilibrium, but I didn't have a lot of control over the seeing. It was just about as bad as I've seen it -- on the suck-factor scale, I'd rate it as "yucky-sucky". I tried using around 300X (3.2mm TMB Planetary), but mostly stuck with 250x (4mm TMB Planetary).

I set the alarm for 2:30 and was observing by 2:45. The moon was bright (1 day past full?) and very near Saturn, but I don't think that mattered much. I got my first "hint" of a glimpse of the shadow at about 3:30, but I'd call this "suspected" only.

Finally, I got one or two more occasional glimpses at around 3:45 that I would call pretty solid, but they were only momentary glimpses as the seeing occasionally fluctuated up from yucky-sucky to bad or maybe just plain poor.

I gave up around 4:00 (just before mid transit, I think) and tried to get a few hours of sleep before work.


Observing Reports Observing Sites GSSP 2010, July 10 - 14
Frosty Acres Ranch
Adin, CA

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