Saturn in the morning

After last night's test I left the entire scope setup. The forecast was clear for the next two days so I wasn't worried at all about rain. I put the eyepieces away, took the diagonal off, covered the objective and went to bed, setting the alarm for 5:20AM, which was just went Saturn should be up above the horizon. I hoped it would be up above the trees!

I woke up several hours later with the idea that something was wrong. The sprinkers! I hadn't turned them off. I jumped out of bed and ran outside in barefeet and a robe. My eyes were fully dark adapted and I expected the wonders of the heavens. Uh oh, a thin haze had come in. This is not at all uncommon where I live, surrounded by the sea. So I went back to bed and waited for the alarm.

When it went off I dressed quickly and was outside. I knew I had very little time before the sun rose. Indeed, the sky was light already. I had hibernated the scope the night before so I didn't need to re-align. A slew to Saturn put it in the trees. Drat. But still, I could look between the leaves but still, nothing. I couldn't even focus, there was nothing to focus on. So I manually slewed to Procyon (I could see that star along with Sirius, all of the main Orion stars, and many whose names I didn't know) focused and aligned.

I then slewed back to Saturn. Got her!

I took the 30mm Paragon out and put the 9mm Planetary in. Nothing. Drat, she wasn't centered. I looked around but couldn't find her. So I put the 30mm back in, centered and aligned on Saturn. Then the 9mm was back in.

Trees.

She had risen from the branches into the full leaves. It looked like I had about 15 minutes before she would clear the tree tops. Well, I guess I'd gave a full daylight Saturn test then. I went in to make some tea and wait it out.

When the eyepiece show blue again, well, the trees were gone but so was Saturn.

(I later learned in a Cloudy Nights forum that daytime Saturn sights are difficult and were not favored right now.)

A few hours later during a diet coke break from work I went out and slewed to Sirius, just so say I could. She pointed to the ground. I tried M42, same thing.

There was either a power glitch or the heat of the sun had warmed the electronics enough to cause the GoTo to fail. This was a work day so I couldn't play anymore. I put the Burgess in its case, put the eye pieces away, and left it all outside for that night's observing.