Blue Mountains - Katoomba Airfield 29th March

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Perhaps another call to Rod at 3 PM?

[-George-]

Can't believe it was canceled.

I mean, the sky is absolutely gorgeous. I just went outside with my 10x25 pieces of toy junk binoculars that have the red (ruby) coating, i squatted down to the ground, held them up against the top of a chair... yeah it was wobbly, but, i managed to get it still enough that I actually saw a moon of Jupiter!.

I looked at mars... not much to see, just like Venus, just a bigger bright shiny dot. I looked at Saturn, still fairly close to horizon, I can see the planet but not the ring. The ring is 3 times the size of Saturn no? From my understanding, all the pictures we have of Saturn are false. I heard that 3 Saturns side by side would be the total length of the ring, while all the pictures show it to be smaller than that.

Either way I can only conclude that I need more than 25mm of aperture to resolve the ring, so the planet may be visible, but no ring is (even though its 3 times longer than the dot im looking at).

Anyways, it was a good night for it and Im bummed out!
Cry over.

[icytailmark (Mark)]

NSW weather has been crap for months. I have not even had a chance to image mars. Hopefully the weather improves this winter

[-George-]

Got up at 12:30 to go view Saturn, as it would be higher.

Not a star in the sky.

Guess it was only clear for 2 hours.

Lucky I live on other side of blue mountains (going from Sydney over the other direction). Generally always have good views. Noticed clouds all over Sydney direction, out towards Dubbo direction, Orange/Oberon direction, etc, clear skies where I am, must be in the perfect spot.

[Wavytone]

Originally Posted by -George-

Got up at 12:30...Not a star in the sky.

Where's home, George ? You could be a very useful "cloud bunny" - the westernmost sources we have are a webcam at Katoomba and Rod at the airfield. The BOM automatic weather stations are useful for wind speed and direction but don't provide a photo unfortunately.

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Alex, it was great to meet you (and Steffan) at the IISAC. As discussed, I'd like to drive north and visit you guys sometime, as we're often in the Dural/Hills district of Sydney visiting family. I'm subscribed to this thread now Cheers, Logan, Canberra.