Saturn

This is what Saturn looks like at 120x from the polluted atmospheric swamp that is the central valley. On really clear nights, like right after a rain, it looks a lot better. This is my first Saturn photo ever. Not outstanding, but recognizable, which is pretty great considering that all I did was hold my camera up to the eyepiece of the telescope. And that if I had a tall enough ladder I could cut blocks of polluted air right out of the sky and sell them on the black market. As what, I don't know. Star-blockers, I guess. Constellation simplifiers. Troubled by that annoying Milky Way thing? Just look through one of these!

Actually it is just sad, because pictures are so flat compared to the experience. It is easy to look at a photo--especially this one--and think, "Meh." But every single time I find Saturn in the telescope my first thought is, "Holy shit, that's freakin' Saturn!" I will keep banging this drum as hard and loud as I can: the difference between seeing something in a picture and seeing it for yourself is as vast as the gulfs of space.