Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 23, 2010 22:27:25 GMT -6
Short Saturn, Mars and Lunar Imaging session under poor skies
23 March 2010
23 March 2010
Although it was a bright sunny day in Chicago this day, the evening clearly showed upper atmospheric haze...but still...I set up the C11 beast and tried for a brief imaging session.
Mars was high, Saturn still in the muck and so it was some Lunar time to start.
Under low 40mm power, the entire 1/4+ Moon seemed sharp, but kicking up the mag to a 25mm and even more under a 17mm....the conditions for a decent imaging session was not to be.
But Plato crater showed excellent shadowing and surrounding peaks casting their own shadows in the Sea of Shadows quite nice.
Rupes Recta (The Straight Wall), off Mare Nubium - was very pronounced and made a good target.
...And a montage of various lunar images
Mars was at zenith and although awkward using the 9 x 50 straight through finder scope, it was gonna be the best time of the evening....which wasn't all that good....
Using a 25mm eyepiece and a red filter, it just barely brought out some surface features, but the Ice cap did show well.
I attempted to kick it up in magnification using a 10mm, but conditions just created a muddy mess.
Onward to Saturn...
The ringed planet was still in the muck, but let's do it anyway...
Not good images and even at low mag, the image was not steady at all.
With intense alley lights pouring into the C11 SCT, I used a eight second exposure, overexposing Saturn - not only catching Titan, but satellites Dione, Tethys & Rhea - as confirmed by Stellarium...
Sweet...
And with that, I was not gonna do any better this evening...and another session in the bag.
