Another newbie - Saturn virgin

[richmace]

Hi,

My name is Richard Mace, and I live in Timsbury, England. I am 33 years of age.

I have been fascinated by space and the stars since I was a boy, but have never followed this up enough to be called a "hobby".

A few months ago I got a secondhand pair of 10x50 binoculars, and armed with the Kstars linux planetarium program, I started learning the major constellations.

My first success was viewing the Maia Nebula through my binoculars - fantastic!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to buy a budget refractor telescope (I often flip between interests - being a classic aeries - so could not spend much money). My telescope is a 50mm apeture, 600mm focal length refractor. I have 6mm and 20mm eyepieces and a 3x Barlow.

I had similar problems to flapjackboy the first night I used my telescope (2 nights ago). lol. If I would have read his post then it would have saved me a lot of time, but where would the fun be in doing things easily .

Was slightly miffed that I could not see a clear image of the moon at midnight, but that was solved during some daytime testing, by adding the 90 degree prism and adjusting the finder telescope, and experimenting with the 2 eyepieces.

The last 2 nights have been spent watching Venus and Saturn (very predictable). My back garden has a large tree to the west, so Venus is difficult to get a clear shot at. Luckily the views to the south are good.

I managed with my extremely basic telescope to get an sighting of Saturn, with the rings clearly visible (as a thin, solid ring). This is a major acheivement for me .

It was quite funny, the first time I saw Saturn, I kept going to get my wife so that she could view Saturn, but each time there was nothing there by the time that she looked. I went to be that night puzzled and frustrated.

Tonight, I discovered that using my 6mm eyepiece (x100 magnification), that Saturn passed from the right to left of my field of vision in 30 seconds - that explained my problems the night before .

I have learnt so much during the last 48 hours (I'm sure that this will continue for a long time...), and I am happy tonight.

Apologies for the ramble.

Rich

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Welcome to SGL Rich.

Captain Chaos

[Brass n glass]

Welcome to SGL Rich. First observations are often frustrating. I remember searching with my first astro telescope in vain for the Cassini division in Saturn's rings and thinking: "If Cassini was able to find it 300 years ago, why can't I see it now?" Things certainly gallop through the field of view when you use a high-power eyepiece. When you first try to show something to somebody else, their first comment is often something like: "Well, I can't see anything at all in this thing, and it's too cold to hang around out here." We've all been through it, but it all comes out right after the first few times. By the way, is that Timsbury near Bath?

[Cloudgazer]

Hi Rich and welcome to SGL..

Scott

[SteelRat]

SGL welcome from me too

[richmace]

Welcome to SGL Rich. First observations are often frustrating. I remember searching with my first astro telescope in vain for the Cassini division in Saturn's rings and thinking: "If Cassini was able to find it 300 years ago, why can't I see it now?" Things certainly gallop through the field of view when you use a high-power eyepiece. When you first try to show something to somebody else, their first comment is often something like: "Well, I can't see anything at all in this thing, and it's too cold to hang around out here." We've all been through it, but it all comes out right after the first few times. By the way, is that Timsbury near Bath?

Yep. 4 miles or so SW of Bath

I was quite satisfied last night, that I was able to track Saturn in my 6mm eyepiece, using the azimuthal mount. Today I going to try out my Barlow, I'll test it during the day to get a feel for it.

I'm really pleased that even with my basic £30 telescope, that I was able to get a clear (albeit small) view of Saturn.

I am finding it tricky switching between my 20mm and 6mm eyepieces, it can be fiddly getting the object centered accurately enough, plus my telescope wobbles A LOT and it's difficult to achieve very small azimuthal or altitute changes. This is probably me getting used to things...

I'm thinking that if I bought 9mm and 12mm eyepieces then I can "zoom in" on somthing easier because it will be smaller jumps. Does that make sense?

[Whippy]

Welcom Rich .

Back in the days when I used to make music for a hobby, I remember reading an interview with Coldcut (who? ask me about them if you really want to know!) and they basically said that when you first start out producing music, you have loads of enthusiasm, loads of ideas for tracks, but you have limited abilities to actually produce the sounds in your head. Over time you learn your equipment, learn techniques etc etc and while your initial enthusiasm wanes, you get to know what you're doing and the satisfaction comes from knowing you've got some kind of grasp of what you can do rather than what you would like to do. Stargazing is a lot like that! Takes time and a lot of patience!

[tom.yates]

Welcome to stargazers

[geppetto]

Welcome aboard Rich

Make yourself at home

[FLO]

Welcome to SGL Rich

[trudie]

A very warm welcome from me too'

The seats are comfy and the company is second to none.

Trudie

[dazza1639]

Welcome to SGL Rich. That scope sounds very similar to the scope I had when I was about 15. I spent many happy hours in the garden viewing the sky with that scope. I recently got it out of the loft, gave it a good clean and passed it on to my 10 year old nephew. I think I've created a new addict.

Darren