moonwatcher

there's a nice picture in philip's solar system observer's guide 2005 by peter grego on page 149 it details uranus & 3 of its moons (i think) using a 6" refractor at x188. the picture is about 63mm or 2 1/5" square and uranus 4mm or 1/8" wide and is green. now this is a picture so it will show colour but as you mentioned lack of colour I was wondering whether the dob vs refractor is any thing to consider??? ie no-colour with mirrors vs colour with refractors??? i don't have exp.with mirrors so don't know much about them...but i would guess that it is a very faint kind of green and maybe just looks white maybe??? try some filters, ask around for advice about the diff's between Mirros vs Refractor and get back to me please...i was thinking of uping my 4" refractor to a 6" after seeing that picture i mentioned...also planning to make my own 8" dob/newt at my astro club...

went to my astronomy club's public show (public come along look through scopes, you know the thing)...there was no luck with uranus but was informed that with a 4" you will see a greenish smudge - but an 8" is what you want (mirror that is) hope this helps folks.

your 8" should be fine, I'm 4" at the mo, but uranus is visable with the naked eye on perfect nights with a 5-6mag seeing...so you should see it as a faint star-like thing that is greenish (so the books say) even with 10x50 bins.

spent a couple of hours trying to see uranus tonight...no luck. I know where its supposed (ish )to be but can't find it or my elbow...lots of clouds and clear moments interrupting my viewing so i go back to computer and try another asterism to guide me...found it hard to find Pices with all the cloud (that's my excuse)...better luck (preparation) tommorrow. don't know what to expect other than a green looking star, must have "seen" it but didn't regognise it as such. Jupiter's good though, and the moon of course...I compared my apo barlow and meade swa in 3x mode (x140ish) on moon it was a lot better than than my 6mm (x166) its in the light transmission that it wins hands down...upgrade time...mars is around at around 4am I really should go to bed though...

yes! my fav const is back! but this time I got a 4" refractor telescope!!! ... I just realised it is 4am and that there are quite a few double stars to split in orion. had a go at rigel and mintaka and alnitak. not much luck as was inside through double glazing...will have to go outside on a proper session when better prepared.

hey Isabelle no offence meant - just wanted to know what you were looking at...it could have been something really cool...star hopping aint easy I hope you dont use that 12" for that, a set of 10*50 binoculars are great to map out the sky to help familiarise yourself with the night sky...i notice you have a smaller scope too...have you ever set up the two together using the smaller one as a kind of star finder - you get to view the night sky at different aspects of mag/fov etc, may be easy than the finder scope on the 12" alone...just a suggestion not a criticism...

nice blog. keep it up...err isn't m31 & m32 in the andromeda constellation? and not " ... deep within the Great Square of Pegasus."??? what were you looking at ???

AAAHHHHH!!! bad weather again. however the other day I managed to see the terminator on the moon and was really awestruck how simple shadows bring life to the Moon's features.

yep

saw jupiter at x3 with new meade #140 barlow & meade 24.5 swa 67deg ep...