A Request…

Hi Folks

Look out for the conjunction between Saturn and M1 (Crab Nebula) in the early hours of the morning of 25 July 2002. Saturn rises at 4.15am but we should see a good conjunction from about 4.45am onwards until twilight.

Let me know what you see.

Dave Gordon

…and a Report

Hmmm…got up at 04h20, was outside by 04h35, and awake by 05h00. Saturn rose above my horizon just as I started to get my wits together, so that was well timed.

The seeing near my horizon was dreadful, and the Cassini division was not discernable in my ETX 105, although I was able to split Rigel easily. I could see (at least) 3 moons of Saturn. M1 is on the limits of visibility in dark skies, so I wasn't too hopeful.

Using averted vision, I (may have) glimpsed M1 about half a field of view away from Saturn using a 12 mm eyepiece - i.e. roughly 15 mins of arc separation. Saturn was south of M1. The moonlight coupled with high altitude cloud didn't help.

"The Sky" claimed that Saturn would be within 1.5 mins of M1, so I'm not sure whether what I saw was floaters, artifacts caused by the light cloud cover, or my imagination. It could also have been M1.

Clear skies

Bruce Dickson