Observations of object "Saturn"

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Observations of object "Saturn":

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.0, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Feb 10 01:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1623

This evening I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. Right around opposition, the sunlight reflected off saturn's face back onto its rings causes the rings to look brighter than they usually are. The brightening shows on the part of the rings that are directly in front of the face of Saturn. This is called The Seeliger effect and it will continue to be relatively easy to see for the next few days.

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Teleview eyepiece. I was able to see the south equitorial belt of Saturn fairly well. The cassini division is still easy to see despite the lessening of the rings tilt. Also, the south polar hood doesn't look nearly as dark as it did a month ago. I was also able to make out the disc of Saturn's moon Titan. The disc had a slight orange tint which is the haze of titan's atmosphere.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.1, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Jan 21 17:30:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1616

Tried, in vain,for the 2nd weekend in a row to get a decent glimpse of Saturn. Using multiple eyepieces for different magnifications, the sky just would not be still. Discolored and "boiling" I could only see 2 of Saturn's moons and could not even see the Cassinni Division with any reliable clarity. Hopefully the view will be better soon. In early February, Saturn reaches opposition. Currently Saturn is 0.1 magnitude and spans 20.0 arcseconds. It is 770 million miles from the Earth presently.

Last night, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Televue eyepiece. The first thing I noticed was how Saturn's rings are much less tilted than last year. I also noticed the south polar region has a much darker hood than it did last year. The hood was also very dark two years ago. I also got a very good look at Titan. Since I was in the area, I also stopped by to observe Regulus which is an easy to see double star. Even at low power the double is easy to split. Finally, with my naked eye, I enjoyed the close encounter of the last quarter moon with Regilus above it and Saturn above Regulus. It was quite a sight.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.5, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Dec 9 06:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1596

Viewed Saturn late Friday Evening (actually Saturday morning) with my binoviewers. Conditions were VERY crisp and I let the scope sit outside for an hour before I viewed. The viewing was, in my opinion, perfect. No wind, crystal clear and extremely dark were the conditions I was favored with. I could easily see the Cassinni Division as well as a single obvious equatorial belt along the southern hemisphere. All this without even using any filter! I tried getting a picture of it with the LPI but my camera's USB connection started going bad. I had to wait until the following night to take pictures with new USB cables I bought that day. The atmosphere was nothing like the night before so I decided to pack it in for the night.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 8-inch refractor   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Fri Apr 7 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1522

This evening, my friend Mike Dzubaty and I took a ride to the observatory at Yale to observe Saturn and Mars in their 200 year old 8" refractor. Saturn's belt was easy and crystal clear to see. There was also a subtle dark shading that extended from the south polar region to the south equitorial belt. The Cassini division was very sharp and clear. As for Mars, the planet was obviously gibbous and to my shock, I was able to see dark subtle markings on the planet. Why can't I have a telescope like this?

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.1, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Mar 30 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1516

Viewed Saturn last night during the first pristine night in a long long time. A very distinguishable cloud band was apparent as well as the Cassinni Division. Apparent disk size was 19.1 arcseconds. Following advice on how to stack images from another site, I successfully got a few shots with the Meade LPI. I was completely blown away! I have posted the shots. They are magazine quality.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Mar 8 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1507

Beautiful conditions last night allowed me to view Saturn with excellent results. Through binoviewers at 142x, the Cassinni Division was visible. Though there was some turbulence, it remained for spurts of 5 seconds or so before disappearing for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. Also visible was a single thick equatorial belt and 5 moons. I was able to snap a series of pictures with my LPI and have posted the best one on my website. Though the equatorial belt is slightly visible, NO picture can ever capture the breathtaking views of the real thing.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Feb 20 02:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1497

Simply the best viewing of Saturn this season thus far! The Cassinni division stuck out like a sore thumb. Bright and crisp as I have ever seen! I caught glances of 2 equatorial cloud belts. Moons easily visible were Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione and Tethys. Viewed at 71x, 142x and 203x. While viewing Saturn I took time to admire M44 nearby. At high power there appeared 3 trios of stars in the middle of the cluste. One trio appeared as a right triangle, the 2nd trio appeared as an eqalateral triangle and the last one was an isosoles triangle. All the stars were of similar magnitude. Never noticed them before because I never viewed on such high power.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.1, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Feb 9 23:15:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1489

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. The big storm that was very close to the south polar cap now seems to be weakening. Even with the yellow filter, I couln't see much of the storm. However, because of the good seeing, I did observe two belts on Saturn. I think the big storm will be gone very soon now that it is abating.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Feb 6 23:15:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1487

This evening, I decided to try to observe the big storm on Saturn's south pole with my 127mm MAK. The storm, which was discovered by my friend Joe Caggiano, is located almost on the south pole of Saturn. With a bright yellow planetary filter, I was able to see a very large bright area not quite on the south pole. It looked like a martian polar ice cap on Saturn. This storm looked to be a third as large as the huge storm I saw on Saturn around 1994. anyone with a yellow planetary filter will have the best chance to see the storm. Earlier, just before sunset I was able to see a huge sun pillar shooting straight up from the setting sun. Also my morning observation of the sun showed no sunspots what so ever.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Jan 30 02:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1484

Viewed Saturn last night before the clouds rolled in. At low power, Saturn once again was beautiful right at the fringe of M44. Viewing at 203x it was harder to make out the Cassinni Division than it was a few nights ago. Also, no equatorial cloud belt could be seen. Though I should have been able to see 4 of Saturn's moons, I only saw 3. Titan, in a far orbit at about 5 ring diameters, was easiest. Rhea and Dione , much closer to Saturn, were on the opposite side as Titan. I took some pics w/ the webcam and I will post the best one later today (Monday).

I just realized that my picture of Saturn has a storm that just started. As reported by NASA, a storm swelled up on January 27. Here is the report on it. The pic on my webpage was shot Jan 26, the night before.http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060127.html

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -1, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: good
Time: Fri Jan 27 00:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1482

Viewed Saturn last night at 71x, 142x, 178x and 203x throughout the night. It was perched beautifully next to M44. At low power it appears in the same field of view as the Beehive. With binoviewers at 178x the Cassinni Division as well as a single tan cloud belt in the southern hemisphere showed up. 3 moons were also visible in a scattered array. I did not check my software or magazines to see which 3 they were because I was trying to get some shots with my webcam. I did manage a string of shots posted on my website.Ended viewing around 10:00 EST.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -.5, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Jan 26 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1481

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. I noticed the south polar cap is not nearly as dark as it was last year or the year before. Usually around opposition, the south polar cap is much darker than it is now. I also turned my scope onto Sirius in order to try to see its companion Sirius B. I couldn't split Sirius but I did notice that in my telescope, Sirius looked completely white but with my naked eye, it looked blue green. Next year, Sirius & Sirius B will be wider apart and splitable in many amateur telescopes.

Saturn (Planet, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Jan 16 02:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1470

Last night I viewed Saturn near M44 (Beehive) cluster. At 15x Saturn was easily within the same FOV as the cluster itself. The nearly full moon was close by, partially drowning out all but the brightest stars of the cluster.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -1, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 20 16:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1445

Viewed Saturn through new binoviewers (and moderate cloud cover). Using both eyes (hooray!) I could make out alot more detail than squnting. Through the clouds I spotted 4 of Saturns moons, Titan, Rhea, Dione and Tethus. The binoviewer gave the impression that Titan and Rhea were on the Earthside of Saturn and that Dione and Tethus were on the far side of Saturn (behind the planet itself.) Though this is not necessarily true in reality, the brain "perceives" the brighter objects close up and the dimmer objects further back. Thus the view is translated as 3d.

Saturn (Planet)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Dec 20 03:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1442

I went outside last night to brace Connecticut-like weather to view M42 and Saturn. The temperature was down to single digits and frost started forming on my primary mirror. (Maybe it's time to invest in a dew cap). The nebula looked like a blur through the frost on my primary. Come to think of it, so did Saturn. I caught a glimpse of the rings of Saturn and 2 moons before my breath condensated on the eyepiece and made things worse. My focuser froze in place after that. I miss summer.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -1.0)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Nov 13 08:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1399

Had an incredible oppurtunity to view Saturn early Sunday Morning. At around 3:00 AM it was high in the eastern sky. Not only was it a treat at 203x, but using a barlow and a $39 webcam I acyually got some decent pics at 406x. I could not believe what magnification I could push. The Cassinni Division was easy as day and the whole disk was huge at this power. I am currently having problems with the LPI as the only really good pics I have are of the moon. I am starting to favor the webcam I am using b/c these pics were on my first try and they are infinetly better than the LPI (whose pic of saturn came out looking like a white diamond no matter how I had the exposure and other settings set). The pic can be viewed at http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/joeshomepage/index.html. This is a single shot with no processing and no stacking.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.5, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: poor
Time: Mon Oct 31 06:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1388

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. The view was not very good. Only for brief fleeting moments was I able to see the south equitorial belt and the Cassini division on the rings. Other than those brief moments all I could see was a featureless face on Saturn and a featureless ring. One fairly bright moon was close to Saturn. I think it was Titan.

Saturn (Planet)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Oct 31 06:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1386

Viewed Saturn after midnight. As dark as it was there was still some difficulty seeing it. Upper atmospheric turbulance left the image "boiling." Even so, I could make out the gradually closing angle of the rings and 4 of it's brighter satellites. No Cassinni Division nor Equatorial bands could be seen.

Saturn (Planet)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 2.8-inch refractor   Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Oct 29 07:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1381

Saturn sat low in the ENE. The planet appeared like a jewel amidst the blackness of space. The rings were impressive. In a 70mm scope with 10mm Explorer (70x) and 8mm Plossl (87x), the rings appeared as one solid ring, but there were tantalizing hints of the Cassini division. Similarly cloud bands were not clearly visible but merely hinted at in the eyepiece. I also believe that I saw a tiny moon near the planet.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.1, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Sat Apr 16 00:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1219

This evening, my friends Joe Cseh, Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I attended a local star party. Since the moon was nearly first quarter we mainly observed Saturn, Jupiter and the moon with an 18" dob at over 300x. We used binocular viewers on the dob. On Saturn, we were able to easily see the south equitorial belt and also the south temperate belt. There is also a dark patch over the south pole. The Casinni division was outstanding. The Encke division was also seen without too much difficulty. We then observed Jupiter. There was a white oval adjoining the south equitorial belt. The moon at more than 300X was utterly great. The Craters jumped out at you. The Proclus and Messier bright lunar rays were outstanding. Finally, we observed a -2.5 magnitude earth grazing meteor whose color was blue white.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1183

After we finished observing Mercury, My friends Mike Dzubaty, His son Mike and I turned Mikes 6" dob on Saturn. The view of Saturn was one of the best views I have ever seen. First of all, the planitary shading including the south temperate belt was very easy to see. The north polar cap continues to be much a much lighter shade than last year.The real shock was after we pushed the power to 200X, we could see the Cassini division very easily and even the Encke division without too much difficulty. A section of the ring was covered by the shadow cast by the planet itself. I doubt that I will ever see Saturn this well again.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.1, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Mar 6 00:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1178

This evening, My friends Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty and I observed Saturn at 133X. Now that Saturn is past opposition, a fairly large shadow has appeared on Saturn's rings. In a newtonian reflecter, the shadow appears on the ring on the right side of the planet. The shadow is fairly thick. Also, the south equitorial belt remains easy to see. The Cassinni division is also very easy to see.

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