Hi,

I was out Friday night 11/7/03 with my 114mm reflecter, my assortment of GTO and Orion Sirius plossls, and a 2x Celestron barlow. The temp was in the mid 30's with a clear sky. I noticed Orion coming over the houses in the East and set out my scope to cool down about 11:00.

I spent a good bit of time on Orion enjoying the Nebula and the stars in the general area. I had a pretty good view of the cloud, the best when using my 25mm ep.

I noticed the Plaiedes almost directly over head and had a great view. Using the 32 mm I could take in most of the cluster and had great contrast. A very wonderful sight.

I next turned my scope toward Saturn which was just clearing a two story house in the east. I had my 32mm using it as a finder ep and could tell right off I was going to have a great look. The image was very clear and distinct. I went to a 15mm and than barlowed that to 7.5 mm which gives me a mag of 120X. Just a tremendous view. I could see Titan, the Casini Division, a slight cloud feature in the Southern Hemisphere, and a bit of a shadow of the planet on the rings.

I put in a 6.33mm ep giving me 142X and lost very little detail despite the jump in mag. The trade off was worth it as I had an even better look at the Casinni Division.

The division was clearer around the edges of the planet. While looking at the rings straight on the division would come and go per the seeing. The shading of the planet against the rings was very apparent occurring on the Eastern portion of the ring system. The markings on the planet was harder to see and at times would fade out.

I put in a 9 mm ep and used the barlow going to 4.5mm. At that power(200X) I did lost too much detail so I went back to the 6.33mm.

I stayed out till about 2:00 AM..

Lenny