Saturn Observation Night

Saturday night, Feb. 23, was our observance of the Saturn Observation Campaign's international Saturn Observation Night. At Stephens Memorial Observatory we officially opened at 8:00 PM --though there were visitors at the door well before then-- and had good skies for the occasion. Immediately after opening the first of the night's 33 visitors had a look at the beautiful stars and clouds of the Orion Nebula. The dome's aperture was pointed south in its parked position and, when I opened the shutter, there was Orion in all his glory! One young boy was single-minded in his interests. He didn't care to see the nebula, he was there to see Saturn! Nothing else would do! He complained repeatedly to his mother who assured him, as did the astronomer, that we would soon see the ringed world. Once everyone had a look at M42 I turned the dome to face east, swung the century-old, 9-inch Cooley Telescope around and began our viewing of Saturn. The young enthusiast was pleased.

We had a good, clear night with decent seeing conditions. While the rings, as viewed at this time, are approaching edge-on, we could make out the gaps between the ring system and the limbs of the planet and careful observers were fortunate to be able to glimpse atmospheric banding. At least four moons were also seen. It's always gratifying just how impressed visitors are when they first see Saturn through a good telescope. I quickly lost track of how many folks exclaimed, "Oh, WOW!" as they peered through the eyepiece. "Just like a picture," was also happily repeated. Everyone from grade-schooler to grandmother was delighted with the view. It was cold in the dome --about 28F degrees-- so once most visitors got a good look, they took off for home. Many happily took home JPL picture sheets showing an excellent planetary portrait taken by the Cassini spacecraft, doubtless to show others what they were fortunate to see with their own eyes.

Most visitors arrived in the first hour, then there was a long period of quiet when only one or two people were in he dome with me. A couple, the man being an amateur astronomer, stayed long enough that we stepped outdoors and, with unaided eyes, spotted The Beehive (M44) star cluster. It looked very fine through my 10x50 binoculars!

Though we were supposed to close at 10 PM, we had a group of late visitors who not only stayed to see Saturn but the Orion Nebula and the rising waning gibbous Moon, as well. Saturn and the Moon are always crowd-pleasers.