Don't know what the hell is going on here, but once again, I've experienced awesome seeing for the second observing session in a row. That is a personal record.
So, I took the 8" dob out to cool last night. A little spider decided to inhabit the focuser, complete with a nice little spider web....... so before anything else was done, I whipped out my lighter....
The plan was to observe Mars and Saturn in the morning. Went to bed early (wasn't feeling well and was tired) and 5 seconds later the alarm rings at 1:30am.
So, out I go, after 3 hours of sleep... set up the scope (after brushing off another couple of strands of spider web) and all my stuff.
But before I commit to hauling out anything else, I decide to check the seeing. If the seeing is crap... then you know, no real point in doing planetary observation. So in goes the 8mm eyepeice in the focuser, aim at Mars... and well, nice and sharp. It's a goer. It was a cold morning, had to wear a light jacket, and it's supposed to be 35C in the afternoon?
Well, seeing again was fantastic. Did a sketch of Mars at 342x (will post later)... two patches of cloud were clearly visible at the western edge of the planet as was a nice bank of white mist along the eastern limb. The North Polar Cap appeared to have shrunk considerably since my last session, but that is due to the fact that it's late spring mars' northern hemisphere. As good as the seeing was, Mars is an excruciatingly low-contrast target and is very sensitive to even slight turbulence in the atmosphere so to sketch it took over half an hour to really get a good look at its features. Mum came out at about 5:00am, Mars by then was quite low but still quite nice at 342x.... showed her the polar cap and the clouds along the limb. She was thoroughly impressed!
Saturn was the highlight. Again, using the 3.5mm eyepiece at 342x, it was razor sharp, I had to check the label on the eyepiece to make sure it was infact the 3.5mm, rather than the 8mm which is normally what provides the sharpest views in typical seeing.
Well, the Cassini Division was easily seen all the way round infront of the planet, and subtle cloud bands were seen, greyish against the pale brown globe. The polar hood was also visible, but very subtle.
There were numerous planetaries and galaxies available for observation, which in this seeing conditions I should've taken advantage of, but when Saturn is deadset picture perfect sharp at nearly 50x per inch it's kind of hard to pull away!
Not only was the seeing a class act, but transparency was crazy aswell. The sky just seemed to sparkle. This would've been THE night to really hunt down planetary nebulae and certainly those Abell and Hickson galaxy groups! But.... the 8" doesn't quite have the horsepower of the 12".... which I don't have yet, but... the mirror is due to arrive at SDM ready for fitting today....
Also took a quick peek at Antares and Beta Musca. Antares was easily split. 600x afforded a good view of the companion, some people say it looks green , to me it is a pale blue. Beta Musca was cleanly split, nearly equal brightness, quite a sight at 600x. A very lovely double star.
cheers
) I too got to see some wonderful features- dark shading and wow that polar cap was so bright and striking. No misty wisps though, I'm not that god yet 
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