A Surprising Night at Houge Park

Rob Jaworski

That was my 8 inch Orion that baffled Mark. And he was right about the seeing, it got dramatically better within minutes.

My own experience with that fortunate change last night was that Saturn was really murky and fuzzy and not exciting to look at with my highest power (10mm with 2x barlow in my XT8). Earlier in the evening, I remarked to a visitor that my barlowed efforts are never as crisp as people usually describe. Why?, she asked. I thought for a second and admitted, I don't know! Well, I have some ideas, but they are all conjectures. Anyway, that's another topic.

Later in the evening, once the seeing sharpened up, I barlowed up and trained my scope on Saturn again. Got the focus dialed in, and wow, it really was working like it should! I could see the ring across the face of the disk, and I could also see the gap between the ring and the disk on at least one edge. In addition, I was able to notice some bands on the gas ball itself. The fact that I don't have tracking didn't stop me from spending some time on this sight. (Other than more time to pursue this hobby, tracking would be high on my wish list.)

There was a good turnout of people, families. That's the whole point of Houge Friday Nights, IMO. But it started to get more chilly as the evening wore on, and the moon seemed to continue to brighten, so I was out of there by 11:30.

Mark, I'm up for some sidewalk astronomy if you are!

-Rob