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