The Jodrell Plank Observatory: Saturn at Opposition

Tuesday 10 July 2018

Saturn at Opposition

Saturn at Opposition June 2018 in amongst the stars of Sagittarius - Meade ETX 90Ra with QHY5-11 planetary camera on Star-Adventurer mount.

"This year and because Saturn is so low in the sky, we have been unable to use the big Meade refractor here at the Jodrell Plank Observatory to capture images of Saturn. 'The Boss - Kurt' therefore asked me to undertake minor alterations to stabilise the tripod we use for 'widefield imaging' away from the Observatory. Clearly a planet, even a 'gas giant', requires imaging at a relatively high F ratio and this asks significant questions of the mount and equatorial mount. Kurt decided to utilise the old ETX 90Ra Mak telescope at F12.5 mounted on the 'Star Adventurer. I was pleased to brace the tripod's thin aluminium hollow legs with a piece of plywood and a number of steel bolts" - Jolene McSquint - Instrumentation Engineer.

The Meade ETX 90Ra Mak mounted on the Star Adventurer Equatorial Mount on the recently braced tripod

" Although the weather in the UK has been exceptionally warm and stable, here on the East Coast the nights have been mixed to say the least. We managed to image Saturn over two nights around the time of opposition. The first night was difficult because of intermittent cloud, the second however, was clear. Strange enough the best image captured on the first night is much better than those obtained on the second. Presumably the atmosphere was more stable on the first evening." - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.