Several weeks of cloudy skies and poor viewing conditions led me out to my backyard for a quick "look and see" last night. I've been wanting to have a look at Saturn for some time now as I haven't seen in through a telescope since I was just fourteen years old. The skies were mostly clear and the moon was full. At 10:30pm Saturn had not yet risen above the low clouds over the East Bay hills, so I waited patiently and had another look a few hours later. I quickly assembled my short tube 80 and a found a niche by the side of my house were I could see both Jupiter and Saturn. The scope was up, I took a quick look through the finder, popped in the 7mm Nagler and there was Saturn! I could easily make out the ring structure at just 57X although the view was very small so I popped in my Celestron Ultima Barlow to have a closer look. Right away I was awestruck by the subtle beauty of the amber jewel of a gas giant that is Saturn. The majestic view just about took my breath away and I was yearning for more detail and more structure, but clearly 114X is about the maximum useful magnification of my little short tube, not to mention the fact that I didn't have a shorter focal length EP.

After several minutes of viewing Saturn, I decided to have a look at Jupiter as the seeing seemed to be pretty steady. I swung the scope around and Jupiter was in my sites. Again I was amazed at the view. Normally I've not been able to make out any more than two equatorial bands on Jupiter, but this night was different. During the really steady periods of seeing - it was fluctuating somewhat - I could see swirling festoons and additional detail I've never seen in Jupiter. I took one last look at Saturn before I packed up my gear and headed inside. As I walked up my steps, I was already thinking of a new telescope and the wonderful views of Saturn. I closed the door behind me but I could not forget her beauty: she was hovering in my imagination with wings outstretched, beckoning me with the siren song of the evening sky.