Quote:
Originally Posted by robz
Went outside last night to turn off the front lawn reticulation system and................................ I seeeeeeeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuuuuuu.................... .SATURN!!!!!....................... ..........................''THIRD LIGHT - PLANETARY''........................ .......COMING SOON !!!!!!! 
But so is some brief bad weather................typical  |
FINALLY!......................but only briefly, I managed a 15 minute session looking at Saturn before the clouds rolled in
............same thing...........a slight fogging up of stars, then a thin, visible cloud bank invading!
I started off at 108X..........and quickly decided on bumping up the power to 380X.
Anyhow, what I saw can only be described by this :
NEVER!.........and I repeat ''never'' in all the scopes I have owned or looked through, have I seen Saturn look so pin sharp that even my wife had a peek and came out with that famous phrase that we all love to hear:'' oh wow.............it looks like a picture.........I can't believe it''.
The temperature difference must have been minor between inside the house and outside because the scope only had a 1.5 hour equalization period outside before I started observing.
The seeing must have been VERY good also as the image of the great ringed planet was indeed like a high quality photo............very sharp, color graduations on the surface were easily seen as well as some banding.
Unfortunately I did not get to study the ring system as the clouds made this impossible in no time at all.
I can now clearly and confidently say that the optics on these Meade ACF SCT's are absolutely outstanding
Eye Opener
