What a crazy night...
Sydney was clear sky in the early evening but I was pretty slow getting outside and predictably, by the time I had the kids to bed and ready to go there was a stack of high cloud rolling through. What the heck I say and turn to c14 toward Saturn at 160x.
The cloud had come over but behind it Saturn was still pretty bright, but more impressively, incredibly stable. Progressively cranked it up to 300x, 400x. What the heck, I've now got the binos out at 450x and Saturn (still behind high cloud) is the most stable and clear I've seen it this year, and in those brief holes in the sky, maybe the best I've ever seen.
The Cassini division was crisp, and beautiful detail in the darker brown northern hemisphere bands, some interesting detail in the brighter region just above the rings, plus a nice view of the north pole showing a darker redish/purple region at the pole. In addition, I thought I could see the C bands in close to the planet, and maybe, just maybe, glimpses of the Encke Division out wide, but really needed to get to higher mag to confirm this. I was just amazed at how stable the image was even with all the high cloud. Absolutely exhilarating viewing. Until...
Well, the high cloud turned to medium cloud, and then out of absolutely nowhere it starts pouring rain!!
I've got everything out, and by the time i've got the covers over the scope and the eyepieces inside, absolutely everything is soaked..
The light bucket had turned into a...bucket...and I had water in the mount, water in the scope, water in everything. Rain only lasted a total of about 3min, now I've now spent the last 3 hours pulling everything apart (even had to take the corrector plate off the c14), drying it out and put it in my dehumidified storage room where it'll stay for the next few days. Just hoping the ASIAIR and eq8 are electrically ok.
Regrets? Nah!!
