PeterStudz

Yes, I also saw a meteor at the same time and place. I’d put money on it being the same one!

Just popped in for a quick coffee. For once I have good seeing here in Southampton. My experience has been much as @Stu describes.

Don’t worry! I think it’s good that you’ve posted your experience and effort. Amongst other things it gives people starting out a feel that it’s not that simple. And Jupiter, Saturn too, is very tricky with just a single shot using any camera.

Surprisingly steady here in Southampton. But plagued by high clouds and iffy seeing. At one point Jupiter completely disappeared, then reappeared about 5 mins later. But I could see the shadow and occasionally seeing would suddenly go good for a few seconds at a time. At the end I could also see Io close to Jupiter plus the shadow which was nice.

I haven’t given the moon a good look in a while and with the moon getting higher in the sky the views are generally getting clearer. I took this yesterday morning at the end of a Saturn and Jupiter watch. Seeing reasonable but could have been better. The Sea of Crises (love that name) looked beautiful up towards the terminator at higher magnified. And best to make the most of the conditions. If the forecast is to believed there’s a change something more autumnal with cloudy and showery weather next week. Skywatcher Skyliner 200p, sIngle shot, iPhone 12, basic smartphone mount, 12mm BST Starguider, standard camera app, small about of editing in app.

Similar here in Southampton. Looks clear, Saturn & Jupiter very bright but not a patch on yesterday. No wobbles but the views are hazy. Yesterday I could get 300x on Jupiter. Tonight 170x. There’s also a lot of dew.

Some of the best seeing in Southampton for Jupiter and Saturn that I’ve had since I started looking at these two at the start of June. Yet the night before was complete rubbish with a ton of wobble. How quickly things change! @Nik271 - I know what you mean about that darkish band on Saturn. I hadn’t seen it like that before and assumed it was shadow. But I think you might be correct in that it was the inner c-ring. It was quite obvious too. Also had a quick look at although the moon at the end of the session. Although it was nearly full I got some excellent steady views of craters and mountains along the edge. I haven’t seen the moon like that in a while. And of course the moon is starting to get higher in the sky which helps.

Thee wobbles I had yesterday are all gone And my daughter is staying up too even though it’s a school night. Ah well!

Much better here in Southampton tonight. Well, so far!

Clouds cleared now! I can see it but very wobbly.

Clouded over now. But a possible clear slot coming in - frustrating!

I’ve been observing from Southampton to. But like others seeing is horrible, although I can make out the GRS. Signs of high cloud increasing too. Fingers crossed.

Should work now. I think that the GIF file name was too long/wrong. Please ignore the video file below. FullSizeRender.mov

Not sure how this will look here. First attempt at taking a video (well, taking anything) of Jupiter. with the assistance of my daughter we made an animated gif with a sort of eyepiece view. Seeing was reasonably good until the fog came in. Zoomed in a little but I don’t think it’s too bad for a smartphone video. A little tricky to get the moons showing too. Skywatcher Skyliner 200p using an iPhone 12 and basic smartphone mount.

Keep at it. And it’s good that you’ve posted your first attempts. One other thing that you might appreciate already. The moon is still relatively low in the sky. You should be able to get better results later in the year/early next year when it’s higher up. Less atmosphere to go through.

What ever you buy you’ll probably believe that maybe something else would have been better. I think that’s a common theme with people starting out. But just make the best of what you’ve got and have fun. I actually enjoy finding stuff that I can’t see with the naked eye. Can be frustrating but It’s quite a skill and thrill when you do find what you were looking for. And my daughter can now find the brighter objects with a dob, getting it to the centre of the eyepiece. Harder than you first imagine.

We’ve been through the box phase

This is true. Although it’s nice to have a shared interest however small. And as @Kon pointed out it’s often “quality time”. Sometimes little things like my daughter coming into our bedroom at 12:30am and saying “daddy, I can’t sleep, can we see the planets”. The planets being Jupiter and Saturn.

We just use a cheap inflatable air bed. It’s provided enough insulation during late spring, summer and early autumn. Although this September has been warm and dry so far. Alice is also an outside person which helps. Some children aren’t. Although a negative is that much observing is done during the winter. Even in early May the telescope was coming back inside with ice on it. Getting/expecting children to hang about outside when it’s -2C is a tad too much. Even with lots of warm clothing & hot drinks.

Well, my wife thinks I’m just a big kid Another thing that’s helped is using a smartphone camera as an aid to observing. These days children are media driven. I’ve used the example of the Orion Nebula before. At first it was just a fuzzy grey “cloud” through the eyepiece. Alice was not impressed. But hovering my phone camera over the eyepiece showed colours. This image (without taking a picture) had my daughter literally jumping up and down. We’ve even got pictures of globular clusters, galaxies that you couldn’t see with the eye at the eyepiece and of course the moon. She’s shown these picture to friends, teachers at school (during the pandemic that was via zoom). Some of her friends have come over to look in the telescope on the back of these pictures. The teachers have been impressed. Now, I don’t even consider these pictures astrophotography but it’s something fun to do and it keeps an interest going.

To make it more fun and child friendly I try (when possible) to make observing an event. Eg camping in the garden, making cups of hot chocolate, toasting marshmallows, with the telescope just part of the event. Some of the garden camping has been done without a tent. Then we can look up at the sky (dark adaption comes naturally), search for meteors, scan the sky with binoculars. Of course this is more a summer thing when most DSO aren’t in a good position and the sky isn’t truly dark. But Saturn and Jupiter have been great fun. Alice hasn’t got bored at looking at these. Eg to get her to look in the eyepiece for more than 5 mins we played “who could spot the Great Red Spot first” as it appeared on the edge of the disc. You can get the timings of this in apps or the internet. Then watched as it slowly tracked across the planet.

I’m relatively new to this having started out last December as my then 9yr old daughter had a interest in astronomy and I thought that a telescope (well, telescopes, we now have two) would be a fun thing that we could both do. This has turned out to be the case but it’s been hard work. One event that got more excitement and “wow” than using a telescope in an urban sky was going to a truly dark site. Sure, this was in Crete but maybe travel somewhere in the UK where the sky is dark. And I’m mean dark. Before Alice did not understand what “dark” was. After all, it was so dark in our garden that daddy had fallen down the patio steps while setting up Seeing the Milky Way and a sky completely full of stars is stunning even for an adult. The Andromeda Galaxy could be seen with the naked eye and was even better in the small binoculars that we had with us. DSO that we couldn’t see with an 8 inch reflector in our Southampton garden were visible with the naked eye. She still talks about it now. And no telescope necessary. And don’t forget the sun when there’s sunspots. With a decent solar filter and precautions. I’ve got a better reaction and “wow” from Alice than most DSO. And of course it’s during the day with all the advantages for children that brings.

Yes, @Dark Vader is correct. I use a cheap phone mount. Getting the sweet spot does take trial and error. But once I found it I screwed/glued everything down. Possible for me as I use the same make of eyepieces. Many people recommend the Celestron NexYZ as this is easy to adjust in all axes. However, it’s expensive. I did splash out on this mount but for my small telescope I found it far too heavy. With this, plus a standard iPhone 12 the weight is almost half a kilo. This weight would throw everything off balance, pulling on the draw tube/optical train and making images noticeably blurry - the weight was basically putting the collimation off. But if you have a more substantial telescope it might work for you.

@Kon Like you I prefer the visual aspect over photography. I’m happy to spend a couple of hours outside in the freezing cold observing just one object - changing eyepieces, waiting for my eyes to adapt, using adverted vision, waiting for the object to move higher into the sky where it’s darker, hoping for the seeing to improve… I rarely look at more than 3 objects during a night. But it’s hard for kids to appreciate that. My daughter is a little older than your 6 yr old which helps. One way I got my her to take part in this is to make observing an event - eg camping in the garden (when it was warmer), making hot chocolate, toasting marshmallows, learning a load of info about the “fuzzy” object we are looking at and then telling a story. Jupiter and Saturn have been a big help. We have been looking at both at every opportunity since the middle of June. For these there’s no need to get dark adapted, the weather is warmer and she hasn’t got at all bored at looking at them. Last night was a great example as we also looked at the moon, then Saturn and finally Jupiter. With Jupiter the GRS was due to appear and we played “who could spot the GRS first” as it appeared at the edge of the disc. Then watched as it moved towards the planets meridian. Interestingly, with Jupiter and Saturn, we haven’t bothered taking any pictures/videos. Just observing has been more than satisfying so we don’t really need to. I consider the picture taking more of an aid or part of observing. A good example of this is when, back in January, we first looked at the Orion Nebula in our little 4.5inch Newtonian. Looking through the eyepiece it was just a slightly disappointing fuzzy blob (not helped by the light pollution in our bortle 8 sky). Then Alice asked if we could take a picture. Not expecting much I hovered my phone camera over the eyepiece. As soon as I did colours popped onto the screen. Even without taking a picture this view had her literally jumping up and down. Of course the disadvantage of doing this is that it ruins all night vision, so best left towards the end of a session.

@Shipmate it is a tad worrying, especially in parts of the UK. In order to get a proper dark sky I’d need to drive a long way. And then there’s the issue of British weather - I could get there and find it cloudy for the week - although that’s really something else. And I have friends in their 50’s, mostly those who have lived and been brought up in London or it’s suburbs, who have never seen the Milky Way.