Just a reminder that Saturn will at Opposition this weekend.
Precise hour is 23 hrs UT on January 27th, i.e. at 7am on Saturday 28th Janaury 2006 Singapore time, see:
http://www.skymaps.com/articles/n0601.html
So, at that moment, the Sun, the Earth and Saturn will be in a straight line millions of miles long.
I did some observing of Saturn late last night, with single eyepieces and a binoviewer in an 8" SCT. The view at around 300x was superb! I'm almost certain that I saw the "C" Crepe ring for quite some time: a very faint grey patch between the "B" ring and the globe, with a black area next to the globe. Hope it was not an optical flaw or my imagination, though.
I can just imagine what Saturn will look like in larger apertures, e.g. an 11" Dob, or even 14".... wow!
Hey, with the coming year being the Year of the Dog, a nice theme for a star party would be: "View Saturn and the Dog Star!"
The New Moon (lunar conjunction) will be at 14:15 UT on January 29th, i.e. 10.15pm this Sunday S'pore time, the First Day (why, of course.)
Saturn Opposition on the 27th/28th
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