by SkyWatcher17 » Thu May 07, 2015 5:27 pm
I got the Maksutov out early this morning to watch Saturn and the Moon low in the south-west. Saturn was a bit of a washout, too much cloud to see much. I watched the moon from transit at a 19.5° altitude to 04:30 BST at 26.2°azimuth south west with around a 96% illumination 388,285 kilometres away. I used 15 & 13mm Celestron Plossl EP’s sometimes combined with a 2x Barlow.
Tycho was surprisingly bright, Copernicus was easily discerned and the Seas of Tranquility and Serenity were superb. The waning gibbous phase allowed me to view some excellent crater shadows including Hercules, Atlas, Posidonius, Macrobius, Santbech and Rheita.
I’m still spam aren’t I?
Sky-Watcher Explorer 130M, EQ5 Deluxe, AZ5 Deluxe, SkyMax 102mm, SkyMax 127mm, Orion/SW ST80s (both modified), Vixen Porta II/Vixen SXG Hal-130, Orion 90mm StarMax , Celestron NexStar Evolution 9.25", TS Optics/GSO: SVD series 150mm, f/6.