The Planet Saturn
Monday, March 22. 2010

 On Monday 22 March, 2010, Saturn was at its closest to Earth and was fully illuminated. The rings, however, are approaching their edge on position and it will soon be difficult to see any details. The ring position as viewed from the Earth varies with the relative position of Saturn to the Earth and with Saturn’s orbit round the Sun. The planet is at its brightest when the rings are at the maximum inclination to its
orbital plane and at present these are moving gradually to a position where they will be edge on as viewed from the Earth. Saturn’s poles are tilted 26.4 degrees to the plane of its orbit, as are the plane of the rings. Due to this configuration, Saturn’s rings present a different and progressive picture to the Earth throughout its 29 earth-year orbit round the Sun

On 31 December 2003, Saturn was of magnitude -0.5 when its ring angle was 25.5 degrees, while on 22 March 2010 its magnitude was only 0.5 when the angle of its rings was 8.7 degrees Saturn is the second most massive planet, and the second largest in size. It is a Gas Giant, with a rotational period of 10-11 hours (depending onlatitude), and with an orbital period of 29.5 years. Its rapid rotation flattens Saturn at the poles by about 10%, making it the most oblate planet. Its composition is mostly hydrogen and helium and is largely liquid but it is likely to have a dense rocky core, probably 15 to 20 times as dense as that of the Earth’s. Saturn has an internal heat source, and radiates more energy than it receives Saturn has the lowest overall density of any planet in our solar system, of 0.7 g/cc, which is less than that of water. The interior is probably similar to Jupiter, with metallic hydrogen responsible for the strong magnetic field of Saturn. The
concentration of helium relative to hydrogen is somewhat less than that of Jupiter. This is thought to be due to the colder temperature of Saturn. The volume of Saturn is 755 times that of the Earth and 95.2 times as massive.
To date, 61 moons have been found orbiting Saturn. The largest and major ones in order of size are: Titan 5800 km. in diameter, Rhea 1450 km., Japetus 1800 km., Tethys 1200 km., Dione 1150 km., Enceladus 630 km., Mimas 485 km., Janus and Hyperion 300 km., and Phoebe 200 km.

1610 - Galileo Galilei becomes the first to observe Saturn's rings with his 20-power telescope. He thought the rings were "handles" or large moons on either side of the planet. He said "I have observed the highest planet [Saturn] to be tripled-bodied. This is to say that to my very great amazement Saturn was seen to me to be not a single star, but three together, which almost touch each other "

 1883 - The first photograph of Saturn's rings is taken by Commons.

(Information obtained by courtesy of  The Hamlyn Guide to Astronomy and graphics from the NASA website –“Historical Background of Saturn’s Rings”)

This article was submitted for Griceland Observatory by research astronomer Dave Robinson.

Main image taken on the 23rd March 2010 with a Philips Toucam and Meade 12" LX200 Classic telescope. 1000 images were taken in K3CCD and the best 300 were aligned and stacked resulting in this composite. Final processing done in Photoshop CS2....

On 21 February 2010 the star TYC-1800-2007-1 close to the Pleiades open star cluster, will disappear behind the dark lunar limb. Whilst our events only list stars down to magnitude +6.0, it is worth while noting that several fainter stars within the Pleiades cluster will be occulted earlier in the evening.

10 frames of the moon were taken with the Canon 40D and Stellarview 102ED Refractor at ISO100 with exposure time of 1/160th sec. Aligned, stacked and processed with Nebulosity.
3 frames of M45 taken at ISO400 with exposure time of 60 seconds. Aligned, stacked and DDP processing with ImagesPlus.
Moon and M45 images merged in Photoshop by Richard Green. 2010

This is my latest and best image of Saturn, taken 25.04.07. with Philips Toucam Pro Webcam with I.R.filter. The webcam is attached to the eyepiece holder of the 12" Meade LX200 Telescope..2500 images taken, and processed in Registax. 300 of the best were stacked. Final processing was done in Photoshop C.S

The Moon                               

THE APENNINE MOUNTAINS

The Apennine Mountains on the Moon are a majestic site. The range is 950 km.long and 100 km wide, with Mount Huygens being the highest peak,5500 m. Mount Hadley is at the top of this image at 4500 m. In the shadow of Mount Hadley is the area of the Apollo 15 landing site, and close to it is Hadley Rille, the area the astronauts visited. The Apollo 15 mission showed that the inner parts of the rille slope at 45 degrees and have a curious strata of mysterious origin. Image taken with a Philips Toucam and 12" Meade LX200 Telescope with I.R. filter

This image is a close up of the Hadley Rille area of the Apollo 15 Landing site. Apollo 15 landed on July 30th 1971.

The landing site selected for Apollo 15 was on the eastern edge of Mare Imbrium, with the objectives of sampling material from the rim of the Imbrium basin and of studying the volcanic processes that produced Hadley Rille.                                               

This image was taken on 03.01.09 at 18.00hrs gmt., with a Canon 300D camera, attatched to an 80mm Skywatcher Refractor.The Refractor is mounted on a Meade LX200 Classic.The image was captured with DSLR Focus software,at 1/250th x 800 ISO. The image was then loaded into photoshop CS2,and an unsharp mask was applied, Radius 3 at 100%.
The Moon is in the first quarter with about 43% of the surface showing.

The magnificent Capernicus is also known as the Monarch of the moon and is without boubt the finest crater of all craters. Because it is almost full on, all it`s finest detail can be seen. Samples from the Apollo missions show that it was formed about 810 milloin years ago, making it 700 million years older than Tycho.There has been little meteor activity since it`s formation as the crater is well preserved. There is a 20 km long double crater, Fauth close bye, indicating some bombardement. The crater of Capernicus is almost a hexagon, 93 km wide and the wall collapsed to form a series of terraces over 4000 m. high.The mountain range in the centre stretches for some 30 km and comprises three main peaks with gentle slopes rising to about 1200 m., well below the crater rim.

Both these images was taken on the 16th Feb 2008 at 17.40 hrs. The nine day old moon was almost overhead, there was no wind and the seeing was about 8/10. I used a Philips Toucam Pro webcam attatched to the 12" Meade LX 200 Telescope. I took 1000 images of which 200 of the best were stacked in Registax. No barlow was used in this image.The image was resized in Photoshop CS.

      Clavius, one of the largest of lunar craters, lies in the southern regions of the nine day old moon.You will immediately notice two 45 km craters which have smashed into the 4500m high wall, one is named Porter, the other Rutherfurd. On the floor of Clavius notice the arc of four craters of decreasing size.Now try and spot the three 2 km craterlets close to the south wall.
On the south west of the outer slopes of Clavius lies Blancanus, 105 km wide with a fantastic terraced wall 4000 m.high. The other, Moretus is 115 km.dia. The slopes on the side walls do not exceed 30 degrees.
This image is the result of 1000 frames taken with a Philips Toucam Pro Webcam, 2x barlow lens and the 12" Meade LX 200 Telescope. The image was downloaded using K3CCD,then stacked and processed using Registax. It was then loaded into Photoshop CS and resized for web use. The image was taken on 16th Feb.2008, the Moon was almost overhead, the time was 19.30hrs.

  Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina, are among the marvels of the lunar surface. Three craters of the same size but different appearance. Catherina in the south is the oldest of the three. This 100 km. wide crater has virtually no terracing left, but it`s walls rise to more than 3000 m. It`s floor is covered with many craterlets and it was smashed by the near-ghost crater in the north. Cyrillus in the centre, a 98 km.crater, has terracing and a central mountain. To the west is a small 17 km. crater. The mountains rise to about 1000 m. 
Theophilus, the most spectacular of the three, overlies Cyrillus. The ejecta in the north rises to 1200 m. from the force of the impact.Landslips can be seen in the south, and terraced walls rise to some 5000 m. high. The mountain range in the centre is really interesting. It extends over 30 km. and  peaks at 2000 m. There are also three peaks of decreasing size to the north.

  South of Mare Frigoris lie the Alps Mountains,250 km.long and 80 km.wide with many peaks averaging 2400 m. The Alps are split in two by the Alpine Valley.The crater at the top of the image is the crater Cassini,  60 km.wide with a ringed wall, 1300 m. high with bulging outer slopes. There are two smaller craterlets, 12 and 8 km.in diameter inside Cassini.

  Plato,a 100 km crater overlies the Alps mountains, its floor is covered by the same lava as is found in Mare Imbrium. It is suggested that Plato was formed after the Imbrium impact but before the basin was flooded by dark, molten lava.Notice the jagged shadows cast over the crater floor. The crater wall is 1000 mts high but has one or two 2000 mt. peaks.To the right of the crater are The Teneriffe Mountains, with Mount Pico casting a long shadow.Mount Pico is 25 x 15 km.with a 2400 mt. high peak, and its slopes, which are no steeper than 5 degrees.
This image was taken on the 20.12.08. with the 12" Meade Telescope. Attached to the telescope is a Philips Toucam 840k pro webcam.I took 2000 images using K3CCD software, and alligned and stacked the best 50 images. The final image was given an unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2.

    Full Moon taken 08.04.09 with my Canon 300D mounted on the Skywatcher ED80.Imaged at ISO 100 at 1/125th second.Unsharp Mask applied in Photoshop CS2.
copyright K.Grice 2009.........

.".The biggest full moon of 2010 will rise in
the east tonight, and it will appear with a bright star like object, Mars
wil be just to the left of the supersize moon.,,SEE IMAGE BELOW,,

The 2010 moon will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than any
other full moon this year, because our cosmic neighbor will actually be
closer to Earth than usual.

The moon will be at its closest perigee-the nearest it gets to our planet
during its egg-shaped orbit-for 2010 at 4:04 a.m. ET Saturday, reaching a
distance of 221,577 miles (356,593 kilometers) from Earth.

At its farthest from Earth, the moon is said to be at apogee. Perigee and
apogee each happen generally once a month, but the moon's wobbly orbit means
that the satellite's exact distance at each of those events varies over the
year. The moon's phase can also be different during each apogee and perigee.
                                                                                                                                                                
"This month has the largest full moon of 2010, because it coincides with the
special moment when the full moon happens to occur on the same day as it is
at perigee,"

And in a remarkable coincidence, Mars is at opposition tonight-directly
opposite to the sun in the sky-so that as the sun sets in the southwest,
Mars rises in the northeast.

Around opposition, the red planet gets closest to Earth. This year Mars was
near at just 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) on January 27, and it
will still appear remarkably bright during tonight's sky show.

"To the naked eye it will appear as a bright, orange-colored star right next
to the full moon.".......................................
.On the 29th January 2010 at 22.00hrs.I took the image of the full Moon with the 102ED, with a Canon 40D dslr..one image, 0.002 @ ISO 100.......Mars was taken with the 12" LX200 and a Toucam...1500 images and the best 750 used, stacked and aligned in K3CCD......Final production was done in Photoshop....no tweaking, nothing fancy, just as it is........a bit of fun to see them both together........This is my first attempt at Mars, I think I need a Barlow to get a bit nearer. I like the image because, it shows the full Moon and Mars together in a clear sky, and I`m chuffed at my first attempt at imaging Mars with a modest webcam, and I think my results are O.K........well they are to me........K.Grice 2010