Rising Early for Saturn

This morning I defied the odds of being able to wake up early after a night of movie watching and a couple of Guinness's! I woke up at 4am and dragged the LX200 out to the front yard (as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the neighbors). My intention was to image Saturn, but the air was extremely unstable (at least it seemed that way through a barlowed webcam). So, I settled for a visual session. It was the first time I have seen Saturn with the rings tilted at such a shallow angle. It was a nice site, actually. I could see some hint of the ring's shadow just above the ring itself from my perspective, and the ring was a narrow, lighter band that pierced the planet. I could also clearly see Titan to the right, and above the ring to the left could see Rhea.

Despite the frigid conditions, I observed Saturn for about thirty minutes, then foolishly attempted to image it for about an hour or so. So, rather than an image that I took, below is a representation from the wonderful Calsky website of how Saturn appeared through my scope this morning.