Brilliant Observation of Saturn and Mimas

[ausastronomer]

Last night I had a long enjoyable observing session, spending a lot of time on Saturn. Just after midnight seeing conditions improved remarkably, as if by magic. Seeing conditions were superb, as good as I have ever experienced. I was able to crank the 18" Obsession up to 1680X on Saturn using a 5mm Pentax XW in a 2.5X TV Powermate, stacked into my 1.6X 2" Antares Barlow. This was the highest magnification I have ever been able to use on Saturn. This unusually high magnification enabled me to spot intricate surface detail on Mimas (one of Saturns inner moons), that I had not previously been able to detect. I was able to make out the large impact crater Herschel which is approximately 130km in diameter, for the first time. I was also able to make out significant cloud banding in the atmosphere of Mimas, which I had not been able to do before. One of my truly great observations :)

Cheers,
John B

[iceman]

Wasn't it raining all night? Where did you get clear skies? :)

It's after 12pm too, April 1st jokes can't work after 12pm :)

[pgc hunter]

lol the first half of the post is actaully beleivable but when I got to the part about Mimas....naaaahhhhh!! And I'm pretty sure it's been hammering down up your way :P

Last night I had my 12" dob at 1,516,071x on Pluto. I stacked my 3.5mm Vixen LVW, a Televue 3x barlow, 2.5x powermate, 2x barlow, another 2x barlow and three Meade 5x TeleXtenders, and I could see a bunch of ugly intergalactic space reptiles playing blackjack and a creature looking like a green version of Jen waving back at me. I then flashed my 100 billion MW green laser pointer back at her in a friendly Earthly greeting. I then saw Hydra and Nix filling the FOV as if I was right there in a spaceship. I was like WOW fully sick bro.

Nah this really happened.

[Blue Skies]

:confuse2: Mimas. Atmosphere. I don't think so.