Thanks, Everyone for sharing those stories of stellar excitement. Saturn is definitely a big leap in the deep sky of the solar system. Jupiter is really great & Venus the crescent is grand but Saturn is just so far out!!!
Astronomy bug bit hard last night. Spent 2A to close to 6A checking out the sky...mostly trying to get a view of Saturn from just an approx location & my internal radar. Finally Saturn again at 90X. Better!!!
Spent the entire night up until about 6AM. Lucky I could sleep on & off until noon.
The SV 90/9D has really good color. Moon was white no color fringing but very turbulent. I don't think it was the telescope but the smaller 72mm doublet apo really was killer sharp & steady. Probably conditions of a bit of both better glass.
Changed over to the Raptor on the Porta Mini/Bogen 3036. Very shaky. Much more so than the Bogen 3046 with the SV MC2. Well, that's a plus that I'm going in the right direction.
Last night was very turbulent. The air made the photons dance & the even the Moon was in a dense shifting wave. It's edges just a superposition of where it was & where it was not. Really pleased to have two nights that were clear & not cloudy so can't complain about the turbulence. 90X last night so Saturn was bigger a real nice fat dot & the line of the rings.
Expect to see this again after 2:30AM if conditions allow. The Moon & Saturn in excellent view with Neptune being a small star.
The Porta Mini is maxed. Last night it would not hold the 90 mm carbon scope up when i brought it inside. Have to check things out with that but it really should not be at or above 8 lbs even though it was handling it but add a 2 inch TV diagonal & it's pushing the limit.
I even tried to 3X barlow a 15mm but it was dark & not detailed at all. Oh well, I suppose 5mm was too much for the conditions.
All in all it ended on a high note. Very frustrating in the beginning trying to get Saturn & balance the scope again. Taking the tube out to focus with a diagonal & ep really shifts the balance. Hard to view when you're trying to balance a heavy scope in the dark at 3AM. I guess that's part of the learning curve,
Question: Do objects encounter more turbulence when they are lower in the sky or was last night just a really rough night? At one point the moon was just wigging all over the place as the light waves were making a mesmerizing delusion.
Hope to sleep & get up 2:30A tonight & get a quick look with a better set up. Saturn is just darn too cute! Would Neptune just be a tiny faint starlike pinpoint? That's all I observed to the left of Saturn but it seemed to be closer next to it not above as in the chart. Couldn't be a moon?
Edited by Universe XY, 17 June 2025 - 05:10 PM.