| Reports | TAC | Join mailing list |
For those that wondered where I was Saturday night, I went to the Lick volunteer appreciation. I missed last year's, and you never know about next year, so I didn't want to miss the opportunity.
The first part of the volunteer appreciation was a tour of the 120". I had never seen it before. We even saw the grinding and sputtering machines in the basement. I am very impressed! Then at the 36" we viewed Altair, Albireo, NGC 7331 - a nice edge on spiral galaxy with a very bright central core, M57, M11 - a nice tight open cluster, Jupiter, M15 (I missed this one - you snooze you lose), and Saturn.
During the summer I saw M57 in the 36" with more magnification, and the central star was quite clear. This time we had less magnification, but the star could still be seen with averted vision.
The detail in Jupiter was great. When I saw it during the summer in the 36" they had too much magnification and it looked very bright and washed out. Another TAC member was there with his 6" reflector that night and I thought his scope performed much better. Last night I saw as much or more detail than I did last weekend at Coe. The great pale spot looked awesome. I even saw a bit of pinkish color. There were a lot of white spots in the grayish area in between the equatorial bands. I have never seen any detail in that area before. There was also a lot of detail in the bands. I wanted so much to draw a beautiful picture!
The division in the A ring and 5 moons of Saturn were very clear. I also saw a 14.7 mag star in the crepe ring. One of the guys had his laptop there which clued us in to look for the star. This was the first time I had seen Saturn in the 36". It was stunning! I have never seen a better image of Saturn through a scope. It was so steady and perfect!
Cassini's division was wide open with very sharp edges. The division in the A ring was very clear. (The "division" in the A ring did not appear to be a gap. It looked more like a dark path on the ring.) Some people did not notice it, but could see it easily when I told them what to look for. The B ring was bright near Cassini's division and somewhat dimmer near the crepe ring. I like to call the crepe ring the "fog ring." That's how I describe it to others so they can find it. It did look like fog, but the inner edge was very crisp and defined. There was also a lot of detail on the surface of the planet. The faint star in the crepe ring could barely been seen with averted vision.
By the time we got to Saturn there were only about 15 people left. I was hoping to see one more object, but most of the people kept getting in line over and over again for Saturn. Some people were on there 5th or 6th look by the time I left.
Even though I am chomping at the bit to go out with my new scope, I'm glad I went to Lick for the views of Saturn and Jupiter. The tour of the 120" was also impressive.
I am dying to take my new scope out, but this weekend I will be on a business trip. Then the following weekend is full moon. I will probably be out anyway! The first object I looked at when the scope was delivered was M52. I don't know if that counts as first light because I had not yet paid for the scope, so it was not technically mine yet. Of course I have looked through this many times when Peter was the owner. I'll have to think of something good for "first light since I officially took ownership." M52 was beautiful!