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Chalk up planet #1

andyc277

By andyc277
in The Astro Lounge

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andyc277

andyc277

Posted
Posted

Finally got some decent skies last night and managed to get a good look at jupiter. I even got to see 2 moons, Io and Europa i believe. So thats 1 of 8(9) that im counting. I dont have the best scope but i think i could just pick out some different colouring of the bands of Jupiter.

What do people class as having seen a planet/messier object?

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swamp thing

swamp thing

Posted
Posted
What do people class as having seen a planet/messier object?

I think a lot is down to the interpretation of the individual observer.

You can see something quickly and miss a great deal, or you can see everything that there is to see. Depends how you look at it.:)

Regards Steve

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Ender Of Days

Ender Of Days

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As with Comets I will note a possible sighting down (with a percentage of how confident I am) and then get a 2nd view within a few days to confirm it,

Ive not seen Pluto yet :)

but Ive seen all the other Planets,Neptune being the hardest although I drew it down on 3 seperate nights before realising what it was and then followed it over a few weeks,

JJ..:)

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banner001

banner001

Posted
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As with Comets I will note a possible sighting down (with a percentage of how confident I am) and then get a 2nd view within a few days to confirm it,

Ive not seen Pluto yet :)

but Ive seen all the other Planets,Neptune being the hardest although I drew it down on 3 seperate nights before realising what it was and then followed it over a few weeks,

JJ..:)

for pluto, unless you have a 20" apperture you will need to take a long exposure photo of it...i think its mag 15, which is well outside of 10-12", a good 14" or 16" might show you a tiny, tiny dot...but pluto is in a massive starfield (from the pictures i have seen) so its really hard to discern it from everything else.

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umadog

umadog

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Pluto is mag 14, actually. Your main problems seeing it are the elevation and light pollution. Right now it's in the Sagittarius area so you're looking through quite a lot of atmosphere. When it's a little higher in sky (or you're further south!) then it should be visible in a 10" under mag 6 or better skies for most observers. Remember that the central star in the ring is visible with a 12" under exceptional conditions, and that's a much harder target (mag 15 embedded in nebulosity). I've tried once to see the central star in M27 (mag 13.5) in mag 7 skies with a 10" and failed, which was disappointing (should have tried harder!). It was very clearly visible with a 14.5", however, under similar conditions. With an 18" you can get the central star even under relatively light polluted skies (e.g. mag 5.5). Again, that's a harder target than Pluto because the contrast with the nebulosity works against you.

With Pluto, you just need a good finder chart and some patience. As it happens, this coming new moon weekend Pluto should be fairly well positioned for observation. It will be in a little patch of sky containing few other stars of similar magnitude. Most in the immediate area will be at least half a magnitude dimmer. I'll probably give it another shot that night.

As to the OP's original question. I find I tick off objects as I see them but I come back to them many times. For instance, I've seen the Eagle Nebula quite a few times but it was only last month that I saw the Pillars of Creation. There's always more to see!

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Slim

Slim

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Congrats on the sighting of Jupiter. I saw it for the first time with three moons on Saturday night. Could see definite colouring in the bands as well. It was an awesome sight and made the lack of seeing the supernova well worth it.

I'm also fairly sure I managed to get a look at Uranus, didn't have long before the clouds rolled in so will have to look again to confirm.

I really need to start making a list and ticking things off, as I've seen quite a few Messier objects and I'm still to make a list.

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JonnyP

JonnyP

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I've been thinking the same, having managed Jupiter, M13 and NGC637 in the last couple of weeks. (Stop sniggering, older pupils!!)

I've decided against ticking off lists just because that seems a little too train-spotterish, if you know what I mean? (Apologies to train spotters, but it seems an apt description. And perhaps apologies to those astronomers who are working through the various lists.... )

However, I reserve the right to change my opinion when I complete the Messier list. And see more planets.

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umadog

umadog

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I agree that if you're very obsessive about lists then maybe you're missing the point of the venture. However, I do think that logging is useful. You get more out of your observing by writing down what you saw. Once you've started logging, it's trivial to just add up the number of objects seen from each catalogue. I find this has two useful effects. Firstly, working to see all the objects in a catalogue maintains motivation when observing conditions are challenging. Secondly, working to see all the objects on a list gets you to hunt down stuff which you may otherwise have ignored. Therefore you see more of the sky.

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Slim

Slim

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I've been thinking the same, having managed Jupiter, M13 and NGC637 in the last couple of weeks. (Stop sniggering, older pupils!!)

I've decided against ticking off lists just because that seems a little too train-spotterish, if you know what I mean? (Apologies to train spotters, but it seems an apt description. And perhaps apologies to those astronomers who are working through the various lists.... )

However, I reserve the right to change my opinion when I complete the Messier list. And see more planets.

I think a list is needed really. There is so much out there to see that you could spend your time looking at the same couple of hundred without realising it and miss out on a load of stuff your not even aware you haven't seen.

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Collyer911

Collyer911

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I've been thinking the same, having managed Jupiter, M13 and NGC637 in the last couple of weeks. (Stop sniggering, older pupils!!)

I've decided against ticking off lists just because that seems a little too train-spotterish, if you know what I mean? (Apologies to train spotters, but it seems an apt description. And perhaps apologies to those astronomers who are working through the various lists.... )

However, I reserve the right to change my opinion when I complete the Messier list. And see more planets.

i thought it was just me

in a rush to see everything that my goto has pre programmed i,ve decided that im going to look at everything on the list...

quickly goto the next object and then when i,ve learned the night sky start ticking off objects......

although that could just be an excuse for a lazy astronomer!!!

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Pug

Pug

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I don't have a messier list (although I ought to) I do have the lunar 100 though. I've found having it gives me goals and has made observing the moon more interesting (and, at times, frustrating!) :)

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