I took the opportunity to set up the 8 inch before the Mirror Grinding Class last evening and looked at the planets. What a glorious sight! I only had a 16.8 mm orthoscopic with me, so I was limited at 161X. I wish I had had more. The evening certainly would have supported it. The seeing was very steady, and the transparency excellent. Jupiter, aside from being very bright, yielded a view of spectacular detail. The shadow of (I assume) Io was a round, black blot against the detailed cloud tops. Jupiter didn't hold much back, as the GRS showed a vivid pink center surrounded by a bright vortex of clouds. If I'd had a higher power eyepiece I may have been able to see the white oval nearby, but the brightness was too great. There were other white ovals elsewhere on the surface, however. Saturn was a tan, three dimensional globe with more cloud bands than I can recently remember seeing. Cassini's Division was visible all the way around the ring, except for 5 or 10 degrees where it was hidden by the disk of the planet. The Crepe ring was stunning, and even Enke's Division was there. I did not see any spokes, however. The differences in the several rings was very obvious. Overall, it was a great night of observing! I'll have to get the scope out more often. Brent __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com