Venus & Saturn

[Osirisra]

Couldn't sleep last night so after looking at Astro webpages at 4am in the morning I decided to see what the week long storms and clouds were up to. Was blown away to see big ol bright venus burning through some cloud and a clear patch coming across:eyepop:. After screaming like a school kid I bolted inside to get the grab'n'go to have a peek. Whacked in the Zoom piece and had a great gawk and the Venus half crescent, was surprisingly bright and clear even through the horrid atmosphere, dew and a setting 99% full Moon. With no time to waist I took the chance to jump onto Saturn and was warmly greeted with a great view of the giant and even a couple of moons. Had a few more minutes of great viewing of Saturn and Venus then the clouds closed back up and the Sun starting to burn up the little darkness left. I then happly went to sleep for a few hours after my Venus and Saturn sleeping pill.:D

[Liz]

Sounds great ken!!
Havent seen any planets for awhile up here. :(
There is a comet lurking above Venus at the moment, Skyhound has it at about mag 8.3. Havent heard any more recent estimates. :)

[Osirisra]

If the clouds go away now I surely won't be getting any sleep, me got a comet to hunt, Thanks Liz:P

[Suzy]

Best sleeping pill I know - costs nothing and even sends us off :zzz2: with a smile on our faces :D. Your enthusiasm in your report put a big fat smile on my face too :) :lol:. Glad to hear you had such a great night, sometimes we only need a couple objects to do the trick nicely don't we?! ;)

[ngcles]

Hi Ken.

Nice report mate.

I know you only used the grab-n-go (I assume the 90mm refractor) but did you see anything of note on Saturn's globe? There are reports of a new white storm that erupted a bit over a week ago:

http://astro.christone.net/saturn/

Certainly worth waking up a bit early for (particularly as it's not cold) (unless you live in Melbourne or Tasmania).


Best,

Les D

[Trixie]

My cat woke me at 4am this morning and instead of ignoring him I remembered this thread so inspired, I went out with my telescope! It is the first time I have seen Saturn and Venus and I am still on a high about it! Thanks for the inspiration!!

[Osirisra]

It sure is a awesome sleeping medicine! I was so happy to be able see anything that morning as the weather had been atrocious here with a cyclone stirring everything up.



Unfortunately I couldn't make out the storm as I did only have the refractor although I was looking for the storm as I did see the report on a website somewhere. When I considered grabbing the SCT the clouds had different plans and closed up the sky.



My 4am cat alarm hasn't been working to well lately, only seems to go off around 6am. It sure is a spectacular view this time of year and I am itching to have a good look with my Dob or SCT but the clouds, heat and wind here are not making it to easy to achieve not to mention the short window of opportunity and moon light. 40C during the day and mid 20s at night with 30knt winds are not the most ideal, but soon...oh yes...soon...it will be good.;)