This report is not worthy of a formal header. I just thought I would report some informal observations made with my son early on Saturday evening (15:00-16:00 PST; 3:00-4:00 2/4/01 GST) with the new 12.5" Dob ATM project. We had a dramatic warming on Saturday and Sunday due to what our local weather man calls a SOSA (Sort Of Santa Ana) condition. It was in the 80s on Sunday afternoon and the nights are now in the mid to high 40s. We took the scope out under a first quarter moon early to get a glance at it and the planets. Despite my lack of shroud we had some absolutely stunning views.
At 150X the Cassini division was easily visible all the way around Saturn and there was a nice patch of deeper rust color on the orb. This is despite the planet being relatively close to the moon and there being no shroud to deflect its glancing light. Many moons were visible including what I believe was Mimas (I think) which is very close to the rings (about the diameter of the orb away). Need to confirm in Starry Night Pro.
Jupiter's bands (NEB and SEB) were beautiful across the orb with festoons easily visible. The moons were very distinct and seemed to have dimension.
I felt foolish attempting to look at the trapezium under these conditions but amazingly both my son (9 yrs) and I immediately saw six stars with significant clarity.
Our moon was breathtaking. The contrast available with this mirror is quite amazing although I have nothing in the same size range to compare to. We looked along the terminator for a while but the striking thing was the detail on the surface of the fully illuminated area. I am going to spend more time with Rukl's in the next several nights.
I didn't get back out until almost 11 PM. By that time seeing had degraded significantly and I was very tired so I took a few more glances and rolled the scope into the garage for the night.