[Chaos-l] Farrington- Clear and Dry!

[Robert Nielsen]

Michael,

Yeah ... I've seen a couple of nights where there was no dew ... it's 
nice, isn't it!

Sorry I couldn't make it.  Sounds like your views of Saturn were better 
than what I've seen lately ... likely because the air was still.   I'm 
interested in what else you saw!

Robert

Michael Hrivnak wrote:
>
> Tonight was the clearest I've ever seen Farrington. The air was still 
> and very dry. Even when I left at 2:10am, the humidity was only 57%. 
> There was not a drop of dew on anything!
>
> Let me say that again. At 2:10am, there was not a drop of dew on anything!
>
> By request, I paid special attention to Saturn. I saw four moons: 
> Dione, Titan, Rhea, and Tethys. I knew where Enceladus was supposed to 
> be, but I could not see it. I pushed the magnification up to 410x (18" 
> f/4.5 scope with Burgess 5mm eyepiece), and the view was still very 
> clear! If I'd brought my barlow, I would have gone for 600x. The rings 
> mostly looked like straight lines extending from the sides of the 
> planet, but in moments of exceptionally still air, I could see dark 
> space through the rings on either side of the planet! I doubted myself 
> at first, but I was able to repeat the observation many times. There 
> was a distinct band across the planet, about 25% of the way from the 
> equator to the north pole. I felt like I was on the verge of seeing 
> some detail in the southern hemisphere, but it never materialized. 
> There was also a very distinct but thin shadow, which appeared to be 
> immediately under the rings where they cross in front of the planet. 
> The planet and rings appeared bright yellow.
>
> It was an incredible evening. I was out there for nearly 9 hours, so 
> now I must sleep. More to come later.
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chaos-l mailing list
> Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
> http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l
>