Date: 25 April 2007 U.T.
Time: 2:31 - 4:42 U.T.
Telescope: 80mm f/5 refractor
Magnification: 105x
Filters: #58 Green, #12 Yellow
Seeing: Good
NELM: Bright Twilight (later 5.3)
Temperature: +45F (+7 C)
Above is Venus as seen with the small refractor from 2:31 until 2:36 U.T. North is up. Preceding is to the left. A 90 degree, mirror diagonal was used, resulting in a mirror-reversed image. A #58 Green filter was also used for this observation.
The planet's phase was slightly gibbous, almost quarter. The sunlit limb of the planet (to the left) appeared to be a little brighter than the rest of the planet. Two darker regions were suspected as shown in the above sketch.
Above is Saturn with Titan to the upper right. This observation was made from 4:22 until 4:42 U.T. As with Venus, north is up; and preceding is to the left. A #12 Yellow filter was used for this observation. (The Venus and Saturn sketches are not to the same scale!)
Visible features include the C-ring where it crosses in front of the planet, the shadow of the planet on the ring system, the Cassini Division (appearing as ill-defined, somewhat darker arcs near the outer edges of the ring system), and the South Equatorial Belt (the subtle, dark 'band' running parallel to the planet's equator (and ring system) in the planet's southern hemisphere.
After observing Saturn I took a look at Earth's Moon, which was near Saturn in the sky. A tremendous amount of detail was visible at 105x. Some of the lunar mountains were casting long, pointed shadows. I was tempted to sketch the crater Cassini; but instead decided to end the session early.
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