The Dutch Observatory

Tonight (2/23-2/24) was the night of the Saturnian quadruple moon transit. The only transit visible from our location was the beginning of Titan’s transit with the moon as well as its shadow being visible against the surface of Saturn an hour before sun rise. However, the planet would be behind the trees at my house at that time. So I imaged Saturn as Titan was moving towards Saturn before the event. 

It has been cloudy and windy lately.  Tonight the transparency was better but the wind made the scope vibrate every now and than.  This image made just after 11:00 p.m. local time.

It has been coudy and windy but finally, the clouds gave way and the wind gusts slowed down.  Except for the high winds in the jetstream and the associated turbulence, the conditions were OK.  I was looking for the bright spot around CM 145, but at the time Saturn cleared the trees around my house, I missed it.  Titan however was in the FOV, which made up for it.

Tonight’s forecast was better in stability and transparency. So had to give Saturn another try before the weather would turn again.  The image taken just before midnight February 6, local time, shows a little more banding because of the increase in stability as well as transparency.

Well, January was shot for observations with the CPC because of a defective AZ motor.  The replacement motor sent was an ALT motor with cables which were too short to be used for RA.  So in the first week of February I got the correct stuff.  Saturn rose nice and around midnight I made a few images.  The stability and seeing started out being relative nice, but detoriated as the imaging went on.  And because the 23 degrees F.  made me wonder what I was doing out there. So I went back inside, instead of waiting for it to clear up again and try for more…..