Neptune....

[Nexus 6]

After reading this thread..http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-planetary/147588-finding-neptune-2.html#post1876205 it seems worth a try to start another on peoples impression of it and when they had managed to observe it, as its the planet furthest away and has only now completed its first orbit of the Sun since its discovery it seems appropriate to give it some of the limelight.

Just post here if you wish and include any details of the equipment and conditions etc if you want.

Clear Skies and good luck!

[DarkerSky]

Good idea for a thread. I'm a big Neptune fan!!

I bagged Neptune from my garden with my 12" scope last November. I have a gap between a house and some trees to my SSW. It was just enough to get a positive id on Neptune and a sketch of it too.

Conditions were really very cold and frosty. -3c ...brrrr

At x150 magnifcation I got a wonderful pale grey-blue disk of light. Very distinctly a disk. It was close to Mu Capricornis at the time, which made for a nice contrast of relatively bright objects in the same FOV.

This is my sketch. Neptune is at centre.

[Nexus 6]

Hi Seb, nice sketch again!, you do post some cracking ones

I hope to catch it between the gap in the house here, Stellarium shows it climbing to around 24 deg for me for the forseable future.

Only other option is to get to my local observing site were I have a lower horizon

The thought of -3 C right now is painful well done in braving the cold, mind you there is something about being out observing the winter skies. Am kind of looking forward to them

Clear Skies

[4lefts]

@Darkersky - thanks for posting that. lets me know i'm not wasting my time trying at 150x. maybe i should buy a shorter fl ep just for moments like this. dunno.

it's hard to remember at the moment what -3 degrees is like, and i keep seeing all these threads wishing the summer away...

[lukebl]

I'm going to have a closer look at Neptune over the next month. In particular, I'm hoping to catch the satellite Triton visually, rather than photographically. Should be just about do-able with my 10" Newt in good transparency. Here's an image of it I captured last year.

[Nexus 6]

its only the darker skies we want back 4lefts not the temps of around -18 which is what my garden temp sensor was telling me last winter

roll on darker skies!

good luck with Neptune, I did find 180x, 13mm Nagler/ cpc 925 was about as good as it got for Saturn this time around, not sure what I used when I first tried for Neptune last year but maybe the 9mm Nagler giving me 261x will give a decent view

will post here when I get the chance to have a look at it

[Nexus 6]

Brilliant Luke, lovely image, would be something to pick out Triton as well as Neptune itself!

hope you post your findings on Neptune here

[daz]

Happy Birthday Neptune!!

164 earth years old

[DarkerSky]

That's a cracking image Luke. Triton visually...now that's a challenge!

Alan - good luck with the gap! I'll be giving it another go I think when it swings round to a better spot for me in about a month's time. Would be nice to plot its movement among the stars

[4lefts]

its only the darker skies we want back 4lefts not the temps of around -18 which is what my garden temp sensor was telling me last winter

amen. i love the summer. i also love being able to see cool stuff in telescopes. this is the duality of man, an eternal struggle, never to be resolved.

[4lefts]

@lukebl - awesome photo. i'd love to see triton visually (i love that phrase - see visually. as opposed to with your ears.)

[swamp thing]

i love the summer.

I don't mind it either, do you know when it's due?

Never gonna see Neptune at this rate. Flaming cloudy all the time.

Regards Steve

[4lefts]

I don't mind it either, do you know when it's due?

Never gonna see Neptune at this rate. Flaming cloudy all the time.

Regards Steve

yeah. this year they decided to call it 'april'. just for a giggle. love it when they do that.

[Neilius]

Is there any chance of seeing Neptune with an 8'' reflector? I thought I'd seen it the other week, but it was probably another star. However, the star was a brilliant blue colour - I imagine Neptune to be dark blue

[Nexus 6]

Is there any chance of seeing Neptune with an 8'' reflector? I thought I'd seen it the other week, but it was probably another star. However, the star was a brilliant blue colour - I imagine Neptune to be dark blue

Hi Nellius, am sure your scope would do the job, the best thing to try is get to as dark a site as is possible, seems to be as good as having a scope twice as big. It looks like I will have to do the same as my southern horizon is blocked by around 25 deg although I may catch it between the bungalows, luckily my dark sky site is only 5 mins away.

I guess you used a high power ep when you had a look for it last. Good luck for next time.

Clear Skies

[Neilius]

Hi Nellius, am sure your scope would do the job, the best thing to try is get to as dark a site as is possible, seems to be as good as having a scope twice as big. It looks like I will have to do the same as my southern horizonis is blocked by around 25 deg although I may catch it between the bungalows, luckily my dark sky site is only 5 mins away.

I guess you used a high power ep when you had a look for it last. Good luck for next time.

Clear Skies

I may be taking my scope out into the country at the end of next month, so that would be ideal. One of the problems I face is all the light pollution; unless I use the backgarden, the view from the balcony is South, South-East, and with the city of Leeds to the East, there is a lot of light pollution in that direction so that at least 20 deg of the sky is a permanant orange haze, no matter what the seeing conditions.

Last time I used a 6.3 on my candidate for Neptune, but I won't be seeing it tonight - The moon is far too bright for it, I would imagine.

[Nexus 6]

Hi Neilius, bad luck with the lp!

Good luck with the trip to the country should really help with your pursuit of Neptune

A 6.3mm ep with your scope will give around 159x, you could try for a touch more, perhaps a 5mm giving 200x of even a 4mm giving 250x for using when the conditions are really good.

[astroeddie]

Excellent reports and image/sketch.

Lets make this sticky for the Ice Giants. So you don't have to go through the pages to add your report. We get lots of Jup/Sat etc but only a few of these. Maybe a Sticky subject will "prompt" more observations of these two planets.

I'll have binocular reports on my return from sea in December.

Ed

[lukebl]

Is there any chance of seeing Neptune with an 8'' reflector? I thought I'd seen it the other week, but it was probably another star. However, the star was a brilliant blue colour - I imagine Neptune to be dark blue

You willl be able to see Neptune easily with your scope, even with the light pollution. At mag 7.8 it's easy even with binoculars, although with a diameter of only 2.5" it doesn't look much even in a big scope.

[astroeddie]

DAZ,

Hope you don't mind my pointing out

Happy 165th birthday, 1846 - 2011.

Ed

[Nexus 6]

Anyone had any luck with it yet?

Its a shame from my latitude its a bit low but I do have the chance for a better look when I go down to Astroadventures in a few weeks, Devon is a bit more like it from that point of view...and they do have that 20" dob.

[4lefts]

I'm going to have a crack as soon as it stops being cloudy. Haven't been out for 2 weeks, except for a little look at the the moon between two tree branches and from under a streetlight...

[Nexus 6]

Got my first view for a few years this morning, luckily it was on show between our home and next door so I only loose around 10 deg latitude on my southern horizon.

had some nice views of both it Uranus and Jupiter which had Europa appearing from behind it at around 2.00am, anyone else see this?

best views cpc 925/13mm Nagler

hope for a few more in the weeks ahead

[Nexus 6]

Anyone had any luck with observing Neptune recently?

[lukebl]

Anyone had any luck with observing Neptune recently?

I captured it a few days ago. Here is a quick image from 2nd September, with Triton showing very well close to the planet in the 11 O'clock position. A rough and ready RGB image taken with an SXVF-H9, but shows the blue colour nicely.