Saturn reached opposition on May 10th, 18:15 UTC. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy at that time. This image was taken the following evening, around 27 hours after opposition. Around opposition the rings brighten quite suddenly and quite a lot; this is because the rings are illuminated from directly behind the observer. This effect is often called the Seeliger effect.
From the same evening, my only Mars image so far this year. Pretty unimpressive...
It's been quite a while since my previous post - almost two years. During this time I have only occasionally done some observing. The reasons are many; work, other interests (I have been very interested in calisthenics the last couple of years), being tired of mosquitoes getting into my flat every time I open the door to take out or take in the telescope, being plain old lazy, and simply not finding the same joy as before in astronomy. Nevertheless, I do not intend to let this blog share the fate with so many blogs that die after a few posts. So, for starters, here is an image of Jupiter from some time ago. Captured from Ederi hilltop on 19th March 2014, 1741 UT.
