A June Night: Excalibur Observes Saturn's Moons

Monday, June 8th late afternoon: The sky's blue contrasted beautifully with the sunlit green of the Ponderosa Pine trees. If conditions held, the night should be reasonably decent.

Around the time of sunset I got busy and set up Excalibur in the "Colosseum" in preparation for a bit of observing.

Time passed.

In deepening twilight the sky bordering my western horizon sported a hint of red. Three 'stars' formed a nice, long, straight, evenly spaced, bright asterism. Brilliant Venus was lowest followed to the upper left by a less brilliant Jupiter and an even fainter (but still bright) Regulus.

Seeing conditions weren't too great. Nevertheless Saturn became Excalibur's primary target. The hunt for Saturn's moons began. Titan, east of Saturn, was obvious and easiest. Rhea was on the other side of the ringed planet. Tethys and Dione (west and east of Saturn respectively) were more difficult due to their fainter light and closer proximity to the much brighter planet. North of Dione, more distant from Saturn than any other moon excepting Titan, was the lonely point of light from the world we call Iapetus.

High magnifications were a disappointment due to the relatively poor seeing conditions. Yet, not too surprisingly, from time to time conditions would settle to reveal a beautifully sharp, crisp image for a few seconds.

At one point a satellite (of the manmade variety) was seen cruising through the telescopic field. A glance skyward at another point of time revealed a brief, bright, white flash of light - perhaps from sunlight glinting off another satellite, or a nearly head-on meteor.

With the steadily increasing glow from a rising moon infringing upon 'my' sky, the session ended. Excalibur was 'broken down', returned to its case, and brought back inside.

Sketcher,
To sketch is to see.

On Tuesday, 9 June 2015 22:46:47 UTC+2, Sketcher wrote:
Monday, June 8th late afternoon: The sky's blue contrasted beautifully with the sunlit green of the Ponderosa Pine trees. If conditions held, the night should be reasonably decent.

Around the time of sunset I got busy and set up Excalibur in the "Colosseum" in preparation for a bit of observing.

Time passed.

In deepening twilight the sky bordering my western horizon sported a hint of red. Three 'stars' formed a nice, long, straight, evenly spaced, bright asterism. Brilliant Venus was lowest followed to the upper left by a less brilliant Jupiter and an even fainter (but still bright) Regulus.


With the steadily increasing glow from a rising moon infringing upon 'my' sky, the session ended. Excalibur was 'broken down', returned to its case, and brought back inside.

Sketcher,
To sketch is to see.

I'm curious as to your latitude and local timing of your observations.

It is never really dark here at 55N in June.

I was woken by the dawn chorus at 3.30am[CET] yesterday morning!

How the birds time their racket from such subtle gradations of light must quite a puzzle for them.

Hi Chris, my latitude is 9 to 10 degrees more southerly than yours - resulting in at least 3 hours of dark sky (sun lower than -18 degree altitude) for June nights. My telescopic observations fell within that 3 hour window - mostly after my local midnight (12am).

Sketcher,
To sketch is to see.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 11:21:43 AM UTC-6, Chris.B wrote:
I'm curious as to your latitude and local timing of your observations.

It is never really dark here at 55N in June.

I was woken by the dawn chorus at 3.30am[CET] yesterday morning!

How the birds time their racket from such subtle gradations of light must quite a puzzle for them.

On Thursday, 11 June 2015 03:09:08 UTC+2, Sketcher wrote:
Hi Chris, my latitude is 9 to 10 degrees more southerly than yours - resulting in at least 3 hours of dark sky (sun lower than -18 degree altitude) for June nights. My telescopic observations fell within that 3 hour window - mostly after my local midnight (12am).

Sketcher,
To sketch is to see.

Thanks. I enjoy reading your observation reports. They gently remind me [us] that complexity only gets in the way of being out there under the night sky. The sky is the thing. Not how we go about registering the myriad gifts of its presence. Setting rules for amateur astronomy is to completely miss the point. Each observer comes to the sky bearing their own education, imagination, environment, equipment, temperament and unique viewpoint.

Light pollution is an insidious racial handicap on our ability to bring balance to our world view. Denying us the ability to measure our true size and worth against the night sky is to rob us of the meaning of our short lives.. The more sophisticated we pretend to be, as a technological race, the further we seem to distance ourselves from the only real measuring stick of human progress.

The irony is that we sleep when the sky's riches are best able to show us how shallow our lives have really become. Meaningless toil to en-richen a few others too blinded by greed and avarice to ever glance up from their glistering hoards to see the sky.

We constantly seek the soporific opiates of empty entertainment. Anything to avoid facing our own mortality and the utter futility of our mind-numbing, commercial drudgery. As we constantly strive to remain in lock step to the blaring marching bands of endless hype, mind control, product loyalty and targeted advertising.

John Dobson democratised our instruments only for us to miss the point entirely. So now we guild his unsullied lily with unnecessary ornament to placate and entertain our fragile egos. As we strut the forums like tin-pot dictators. Showing off our collected beads and trinkets as if they gave us some authority to demand respect from others. Modern man is measured almost entirely by what he owns. Rather than what he can create with his own hands and unique talents. His skills have no value in a commercialised technical hobby. Not unless they can be hyped and sold for a profit. To those who merely have the necessary funds to obtain slavish copies. But produce absolutely nothing of lasting value themselves. Nor do they, themselves, contribute anything to human, technological progress. Ownership produces nothing but false pride. Our society is built almost entirely on it's shaky foundations.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 1:21:43 PM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:

I'm curious as to your latitude and local timing of your observations.

It is never really dark here at 55N in June.

That's what you get for choosing to live within spitting distance of the Arctic Circle.

OTOH, you do get 12 solid hours of darkness most nights in December.

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 2:59:07 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:
On Friday, 12 June 2015 14:59:50 UTC+2, wsne... wrote:

OTOH, you do get 12 solid hours of darkness most nights in December.

Tell that to my rural neighbours!!

thinly veiled anti-US propaganda deleted

Not that you can get a second mortgage in Denmark these days.
Nor even a first one under most circumstances.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-0...e-out-mortgage

And so [finally] that's basically why Danish Hamlets are badly overrated for amateur astronomy.;ø]]

Well, all of that and, of course, the crummy weather.

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 2:59:07 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:
On Friday, 12 June 2015 14:59:50 UTC+2, wsne... wrote:

That's what you get for choosing to live within spitting distance of the Arctic Circle.

I didn't choose. It was forced upon me by the terms of my exile.

The UK govt had the right idea, for once.

On Saturday, 13 June 2015 14:40:56 UTC+2, wrote:

The UK govt had the right idea, for once.

No, my own thieving countrymen and two useless police forces set the terms of my leaving.

Try being robbed several times over, hundreds of miles apart, on the same weekend!
Neither police force gave a damn despite claiming to know the perps.

The mortgage link is a complete nonsense where Danish rural properties are concerned.

On Fri, 12 Jun 2015 23:59:04 -0700 (PDT), "Chris.B"
wrote this crap:

On Friday, 12 June 2015 14:59:50 UTC+2, wrote:

That's what you get for choosing to live within spitting distance of the Arctic Circle.

I didn't choose. It was forced upon me by the terms of my exile.

oooh, exile.

Were you exiled from the United States of Barakistan? Like Snowden?
Were you kicked out of your country club? Do tell.


This signature is now the ultimate
power in the universe

On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 07:17:10 -0700 (PDT), "Chris.B"
wrote this crap:

On Saturday, 13 June 2015 14:40:56 UTC+2, wrote:

The UK govt had the right idea, for once.

No, my own thieving countrymen and two useless police forces set the terms of my leaving.

Try being robbed several times over, hundreds of miles apart, on the same weekend!

Those vicious *******s!

Neither police force gave a damn despite claiming to know the perps.

Do tell. Do tell.

The mortgage link is a complete nonsense where Danish rural properties are concerned.

Let me know if you need help. I'll be having martinis at my club.



This signature is now the ultimate
power in the universe