From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: October 3, 2007 3:36:12 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Uranus satellite transits?

All:

I didn't take any video of Uranus last night for a couple of reasons:

1:  I "oopsed out" and forgot to convert S&T's conversions from UT to

EDT to PDT, until I got home and realized that Uranus was too low in

the sky when the two key transits were underway.

2:  I realized that my house would block the view from where I

typically set up my 12.5" Cassegrain, so I opted for the Nexstar

9.25GPS in my roof.

I got the 9.25" trained on Uranus about the end of the 2nd transit,

and by the time I was focused and scaled with the appropriate barlow,

it was over.

The image through the 9.25" is not sufficiently bright for my typical

seeing to try to resolve detail on Uranus that small.  I couldn't get

enough light with less than 1 second exposures.

Regrettably, the seeing wasn't too bad - better than the night I

imaged the planet with the Cassegrain.  So, I probably could have

improved on the prior image if I'd set up the Cassegrain instead of

the 9.25".  But then, there wouldn't have been any shadow transits to

look for when Uranus was out from behind the house.

Did anybody else try this?  Or anybody aware of other amateur

astronomer's trying this?

best,

-Tim.