[programmer]

I never thought I'd say this, but weren't the conditions in Melbourne quite good last night? In my admittedly minimal experience, the transparency was good and the seeing seemed to be excellent. I had the best views of Saturn that I've seen, with the Cassini division easily visible (first time for me!) with solid, clear views at over 300x (not sure if it was 4mm native or 9mm Barlowed.. really have to get my recording act together). There were not the dreadful wobbles of a few weeks ago. I even thought I had a glimpse of an inner ring (edit: division), or was I dreaming? And that's with my generic GSO Plossls! (The view with my Orion/Vixen Lanthanum Barlowed for 200x was also excellent, very bright and sharp.

I guess this means I might even have my collimation done pretty well? I did a star collimation test (as described in Astronomy Hacks) and it seemed to even pass that. I say 'seemed', as it was bloody hard to keep the star in the EP at the high powers required (up to 625x for me) and the optical quality of my 4mm, barlowed at that, is questionable.

I still don't have my planning act together, so wasted a lot of time seeing not much, but with the help of Carte du Ciel I'm hoping to get that together.