by Shneor Sherman
I awoke at 3:30 a.m. this morning to try and do a bit of binocular astronomy with my 26x70 Kronos. I checked the sky, and it looked reasonable, with a few clouds to the south. So I dressed and set up my tripod and parallelogram mount, attached the binoculars, and went to my back yard. When I looked up, of course the sky had clouded over, although there were a few gaps here and there. I had a few quick and inconclusive glimpses of Jupiter, Saturn, the Pleiades and M42 over the next half-hour. So about 4:30 I went back in, retrieved the newspaper, had breakfast and read the paper. A bit before 6 I checked the sky, and found it mostly clear. So I set up the binos again, and had some very nice views.
Saturn and it's rings were clearly visible, as was Titan. The separation between the rings and the planet was obvious, although no detail was observable on the disk of the planet. Jupoter and it's moons, all in a line, was a pretty sight, though only an elusive hint of banding was visible. However, I noted that except near the center of the field, chroamatic aberration spoiled the planetary images. The Pleiades were a stunning sight, and almost had a three-dimensional quality against fainter stars. The view of M42 was good, but not as spectacular as I would have wished, as the sky was beginning to feel the effects of dawn. The trapezium was just visible.
By now, about 6:30, the sky was brightening up so I took the binos down and went in.
Hopefully, I'll be tired enough tonight to sleep in an extra hour Sunday.