Had a great "first view" of Saturn tonight at about 11pm. No pics I'm afraid. Haven't quite got there yet!! It was very clear though with the rings at an angle of about 45 degrees across the face. Very chuffed!! :)

Glad you got to see it John, was looking good through the McClean telescope as well last night
Kate

I didn't tell you the full story. I had taken the scope out into the back garden through the patio doors in the dining room. Lynne was inside checking some stuff and I was so excited at seeing Saturn I tried to run in to tell her. Unfortunately I forgot I had closed the patio doors and promptly ran straight into the glass doors. Still got a sore nose and bent glasses! Ouch!!

It was worth it though.

HaHa

Good to be enthusiastic but check the door next time John

Dave

Well I was told to "Keep looking up" but I guess sometimes I need to look ahead. :-)

Steve has that problem with the benches at the NLO.

Well had another look at Saturn tonight (avoided the patio doors!) I got the mount polar aligned and moved the RA and DEC to get on Saturn. Turned on the RA motor and the scope tracked Saturn beautifully! Then I tried to get the webcam to work but no matter how a tried I could not see anything in sharpcap. Gradually reduced the eyepiece size from 32 mm to 10mm and had Saturn bang on. Put the webcam back in and tried to focus but still no joy. Fiddled about with gain, exposure etc then gave up!! Still, had some good viewing!

Will need to show you how to get it going John. seeing tonight is terrible
Steve

Thanks Steve! I'll look forward to that. We actually had a few hours of very clear skies in Exeter tonight.

If it's clear on Friday you could bring your kit up and we can have a play with it to see if we can get it working.