starhopper13

Wait till you see Saturn. It'll surely knock you off your feet!

A series of cloudy nights had begun to make me rather depressed. Your post reminded me how fun it is to go observing! Thanks for it. Now I can't wait to go outside myself 😊

5 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Even still on me after the decades of seeing it.

I hope I will have decades ahead so that I can say the same. It's rather sad to realize how little time we have to observe this vast universe. 

10 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Saturn definitely makes an impression on everyone.

 

Sure does!

11 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

As far as seeing the Cassini division, I didn't actually see it until I got the 8" SCT... to date, still gave me the best view of Saturn.... I think you should be able to pick-out the Cassini division and perhaps a cloud band during the clearest, stillest nights.

 

Whoops! I might have to wait a long time then. But it's well worth the wait 😄 

And I actually showed saturn to my elder sister who is about 8 years older than me. Even her reaction was priceless. 

6 hours ago, antariksha said:

I do recollect my first view of Saturn in my 3" home made telescope. This is quite a few years back. But I still recollect it.

Over the years, as my equipment got upgraded, it is interesting to recollect the better and better views I have been getting.

Thanks for helping me recollect all these views due to your post.

Absolutely glad to have helped in bringing back so many pleasant memories, sir. Wish you many more better views in the future!

7 hours ago, Philip R said:

My first view of Saturn was via a Tasco 4ETE (40mm refractor/40x magnification) during the late 1970's/early 1980's... I could just about separate the rings from the body when conditions allowed.

With my equipment it's rather easy to separate the ring and the sphere, but I couldn't see anything more 😅 perhaps if I look a little harder..

7 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Oh, for your latitude in Dhaka. 

Yep! It's great for observing planets. Not too high, nor too low. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences and advice, everyone! I guess I'm lucky in this regard that from my place the planets go quite high up in the sky. It's been cloudy lately and I can't wait to go observing again. 

Clear and dark skies! 

Hello ella! I'm another female with the same hobby and i'm rather young (20years old) and inexperienced compared to you. I'm still learning the way. I hope i will be able to learn loads from you and someday be of some help to you too!

Astronomers often describe their first sight of Saturn as being unforgettable. Now I understand why.

Few days ago I saw Saturn with my celestron 130mm reflector. It looked so unnaturally beautiful and rather eerie against the starry background. 

I would really love to know your first experience of seeing Saturn and what impression it left on your mind. 

Also, it would be really great to know how I can see the divisions and gaps in Saturn's Rings. I only have two eyepieces for now, a 10mm and a 20mm. Should I switch to higher magnification or just look harder with the current eyepieces? Can I even see divisions with a small scope? 

I have a celestron astromaster 130eq which has an RDF. I've been meaning to buy a 6x30 finder and fit it on it. Currently i'm thinking of buying this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Meade-Blue-6x30mm-Crosshair-Telescope-Viewfinder-w-Tall-Bracket-New-Old-Stock/362503357396?hash=item5466e243d4:g:hR4AAOSwxZxcCapY

The question i have is: will the tall bracket cause any problem? The RDF is pretty low and i'm planning to make a wooden adapter because my scope has an unusual foot (is that what it's called?). 

Wow it looks stunning!

Lucky for me that all planets go quite high up where I live. I must reap all the benefit I can. 

Hello, Aryan and welcome to the forum.

I'm new to astronomy as well and coincidentally we have the same instruments (minus the kit). I'm a neighbour of yours from Bangladesh, and despite all the light pollution (bortle 6), the equatorial belts are easily visible through my telescope with both of the eyepieces. When the conditions are good I can even spot the Great Red Spot. 

It may be that your place is more light polluted than mine, but I'm not sure if it can obscure obvious details like the belts. Though I noticed that when it's hazy the belts seem less obvious and the planet just looks like a bright disk. You said that It's been cloudy, so perhaps you should wait till it becomes clear and hopefully less windy. 

Another suggestion will be to take a chair with you so you can sit down comfortably and look through the eyepiece for a long time. 

Clear skies and best of luck with the hurricane. 

I guess I'm not done looking at Jupiter just yet 😄

Oh boy!

Excuse my ignorance but this is the first time I've heard of festoons on Jupiter! I'm not sure if I saw one of those, but that's definitely something to look for next time. Thank you so much, Stu!

10 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Have a play with this one starhopper13.....https://shallowsky.com/jupiter/

Seems like the first spotting of the GRS might've been correct. What I saw later was probably wrong. Thanks a lot for the tool, Barnes. It's really helpful. 

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

@starhopper13 what time were you observing? I see you are in Bangladesh but we can check to see what it was you are likely to have seen.

The first observation was at 10:00pm local time. I think that's 16:00 UT. The second observation was done after 11:00pm local time. 

Is there any tool to see when the GRS is visible? That would be helpful 😁

16 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Hi starhopper13, It takes the spot about 4 hours to transit across the face of Jupiter, I think it does a complete orbit in about 9 hours.

It may well have been a shadow transit of one of Jupiter's moons which would cross in an hour or two, especially if it was nearer the top corners when you saw it, the Great Red Spot sits nearer the equator of the planet.

Thanks for the reply, Barnes! I doubt it was a shadow because the moons were quite far off to be casting shadows. The spot was just above the lighter band (inverted view), where I saw it to be in pictures. Also I checked using the tool of sky and telescope that the moons were not casting shadows on the planet at that time. 

Perhaps it really was my eyes playing tricks? 

Last night I went stargazing and saw Jupiter in all its glory. Though I have a confusion..

I use Celestron's astromaster 130 eq. First I pointed at Jupiter using my 20mm (correct) eyepiece, then switched to the 10mm (not correct) eyepiece to see it better. The belts were obvious, and the lighter belt seemed to have a dark "spot" near it, on the top left corner of the disk, which I assumed to be the GRS. I looked several times and it seemed to stay so I guess it really was there. 

However, after an hour of trying to point at fainter stars with my RDF, my eyes had become somewhat fatigued. When I tried to look at Jupiter afterwards, the spot seemed to have moved to the upper right. What struck me was, does the spot really move that fast or was it my tired eyes seeing wrong things? 

It looks splendid, Fraunhoffer! Can't wait to get my eyes on it. Wish the clouds would subside soon!

I already use Stellarium but I'm still having a tough time finding Antares! Guess I just need to try harder as I'm new to the business. I'll try again tonight. 

Thanks both of you for your reply  

So I've been trying to find M4 since yesterday. Last night was quite cloudless but I failed to find the cluster because it was misplaced on the star chart I was using. 

Today I cross checked its position on several maps and planned to use Antares  to star hop, but for some reason I couldn't get the star in my fov. Once I thought I had found it but it didn't look as bright as I had expected it to. Tried to go south from it to find M4 but didn't find anything. 

I live in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It's quite polluted here(database says class 6 bortle, I suspect higher) and I'm using celestron astromaster 130eq reflector. Even pointing at Antares is quite difficult from here. If anybody here can share pictures/sketches of what the fov looks like when pointing at m4 and Antares, I'll be very grateful. 

It's alright and thanks!