The skies did not clear much over the weekend. Venus was very bright in the West on Sunday afternoon and could be spotted well before dark. I decided to set up the SV80 for a quick look. A thunder storm to the northeast was producing a lot of lightning so I decided to call it a night pretty early. Ended up viewing 3 planets, 2 of them well before dark.

From my observing notes:

Venus – Very bright and was easy to find even before the sun had set. Easy to see the phase at 9mm, 7mm, and 4mm. I think it is waxing since it appears there is more of the planet lit than in other recent observations. A purple halo was visible around the planet – not sure if this was because of the atmospheric conditions but if is not something I have noticed before. The halo was apparent in all eyepieces. The sharpest views of the planet were with the 9mm. The 7mm and 4mm views were not very sharp and showed a lot of wavy movement – similar image as looking down hot asphalt.

Moon – Very nice 1st quarter moon. Bright, white. Very sharp views with the 9mm and the 7mm. Some wavy turbulence could be seen at the edge with the 7mm but not bad at all with the 9mm. Very nice detail of craters and ridges at the line between dark and light. Sharpest most stable view with 9mm, the moon filled the FOV of this eyepiece very nice.

Saturn – Found Saturn well before dark in the 9mm eyepiece. Even before the sun went down I could make out the detail of the ring shadow on the planets surface. I was surprise to be able to see a single moon even before dark. Looked nice in the 7mm, but not as sharp. The 9mm was sharp and showed nice detail.

Mars – Not visible until dark. Orange disk in the 9mm. No other details visible. Tried to crank up the magnification with the 4mm but could not get a sharp image.

A satellite crossed nearly directly overhead (maybe a degree or 2 south of directly over head) at approximately 9:07 PM.

Visually Mars was very easy to observer and I was able to get some good detail even at medium to high magnification. Large, red-orange, and bright. I could even see the white polar region. The air was just not still enough for imaging. I was able to get good focus and the scope was staying on target but the images just came out a bit blurred. So below is the image I ended up with, it is 120 seconds at 5 frames/second stacked through the AT66ED 400mm scope with a 2x Barlow with the Celestron NexImage camera. I tried imaging through the Celestron 8″ SCT but the seeing was not very good to image at that high magnification.

Mars - January 27, 2010

After spending some time trying to get a decent image of Mars I turned the scope to the Moon and took a few stills. I think several of them turned out right well and you can see some good detail. I will identify the major features in the photos when I have more time. There are also a couple other images on my flickr page.

Moon - January 27, 2010

Moon - January 27, 2010

Moon - January 27, 2010

The moisture took over both scopes about 2 hours into observing. I have got to get a dew heater!

Jupiter and Mars are very close together in the southwest and I was able to easily get them both in the 105mm’s field of view.  Both planets disappeared quickly over the horizon.

Jupiter and Mars - 5:44 PM EST - 105mm ISO1600 1/10 f2.8

The Moon and Venus are more south-southwest and higher in the sky with a bit more space between them. I was not able to get a good shot of them both with 105mm. The 50mm picked them up quite nice.

Venus and the Moon - 5:53 PM EST - 50mm 1/50 ISO800 f2.8

These are a bit hurried, but hopefully tomorrow night will be clear and I will have a little more time. The Moon and Venus are suppose to meet up in the sky for a conjunction tomorrow night and Mercury and Jupiter should be nearly side by side.

Can’t wait to piggy back the 105 on the scope!

My wonderful wife also got me the t-connector and t-ring to be able to do prime focus photography through my C8.  I am looking forward to a good clear sky and some time to try that out!