Titan transit of Saturn tonight (Feb 24)

[Davekyn (David)]

hey Erick,
What set-up were you using? Your 12" Dob? If so, what EP & Barlow. I got to caught up with Lulin & although I had reasonable views of Saturn...X2 Barlow + 12.5mm; my 12" dob was facing into head winds giving too much shake. Guess I will look forward to transits with Jupiter...do they happen more often?

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Davekyn

hey Erick,
What set-up were you using? Your 12" Dob? If so, what EP & Barlow.

Yes, the 12" dob. Apart from moderate seeing (mostly due to the low elevation I think), conditions were good until cloud cover commenced around midnight when I packed up. I would have liked to wait for the last two moons, but I couldn't even see them so doubted I'd pick up their shadows.

I finally settled on a 13mm Ethos (borrowed - I'm not that rich!) in a Televue 3x barlow - making around 350 magnification. I had been working with a 10mm Vixen LV in a GSO ED 2x barlow (300 magnification) which was not bad. I tried using the Vixen 10mm in the Televue 3x barlow, but that was just too much (450x). I was nudging the dob while twiddling the electric focusser so started to struggle with the limited field of view of the Vixen. So I pulled out the Ethos and put it into the Televue 3x barlow. Apart from having to stretch now to reach the dob, I was sitting so far from the OTA (not really but it was a tall stack! ), the sharpness of the Ethos glass plus the much wider FOV made life much easier. In the moments of good seeing, Titan was very obvious against the planet with a strong shadow transiting across the polar region.

I spent a while earlier in the night tweaking the collimation with laser and cheshire, then checking it against close/double stars to see how good the separation was. Looked pretty good by the time I moved to Saturn.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Davekyn

Guess I will look forward to transits with Jupiter...do they happen more often?

Yes, as I recall, single and double transits are fairly common. I've seen both a few times over the last two years. Much easier than Saturn as well. If seeing is good, you'll enjoy Jovian moon transits.

[pgc hunter]

Jovian transits are far more common. You see these regularly during any jupiter apparition, whereas for saturn they'll only occur during these edge on events, as the moons line up with our line of sight towards saturn only during when the planet's rings appear edge on.

[iceman (Mike)]

Transit on Jupiter are even better this year thanks to us being in the ring plane again - we'll get Jupiter moon occultations and eclipses!

[Greenswale (Wren)]

Went to Snake Valley to catch this, and for the first time in ages had a clear sky. BUT, as the time approached, the seeing went off.......

Despite that, had occasional reasonable views of the planet, rings' shadow and Titan shadow at 170x (as far as I can go at this time). Rewarding, but a bit disappointing - we all hope for 10/10 seeing for events like this!

Sky clouded over completely at about 1.00am, just as I was trying to find the Blue Planetary.

Very pleased with the new scope, when the seeing was reasonable, views were magnificent.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Meanwhile, back in Perth:

Despite threatening cloud from an approaching cold front, ten ASWA members met at an eastward facing lookout in Whiteman Park to view the event. The shadow transit of Titan was already in progress when Saturn rose. Viewing conditions weren't the best, with a murky sky and Saturn low to the horizon for us, but we kept trying to spot the shadow after it cleared a cloud bank around 9.45pm. The biggest telescope on site was a 10" dob and several 8" SCTs and the best view we got was ...with a the ol' cheap Meade video eyepiece and a barlow in an SCT! We could just make out the shadow from time to time as a slight darkening near one pole, then Titan would appear briefly as a bright spot. No signs of the smaller moons at that level of quality. Still, all agreed it was a fun night, something out of the ordinary in a different location in the park than to where we normally meet for Lunatiks.