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First Saturn viewing imminent..


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Well, after owning the dobsonian for about 8 weeks, I've been waiting for an opportunity to catch Saturn for the first time ever. It's only recently been visible at a decent hour, but it's been 3 weeks of solid fog/cloud here. Then I went away for the last 2 night and it was perfect - typical!

But tonight, I'm home, the doby is outside set-up and ready, and Stellarium is informing me that Saturn has just breached the horizon, so I guess about an hour or so until it appears above the house currently blocking it's view...

I'm excited ;) waited for this moment for a long time ;)

Jupiter and 3 moons look good tonight, Mars is a blob can only just make out a bit of the cap, just hope I'm not disappointed with Saturn :o

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It will be a memorable moment. I remember my first time last year. A friend of mine had just lent me his 40 year old newtonian. My brother and I set the scope up in my garden. As we scanned the sky a very blurred Saturn hoved into view. My brother and I were leaping around going nuts with excitement. Anyone who would have seen us would have thought we were bonkers. It was a magical moment......

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It will probably appear smaller than you imagine, but the deflation you may feel from the size of it will be changed around to sheer elation when it hoves into view. I have only seen it a couple of times this season and it is stunning. Also it looks sharp now as I am using a brand new telescope on it compared to the blurred view I had last year.

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Well, after owning the dobsonian for about 8 weeks, I've been waiting for an opportunity to catch Saturn for the first time ever. It's only recently been visible at a decent hour, but it's been 3 weeks of solid fog/cloud here. Then I went away for the last 2 night and it was perfect - typical!

But tonight, I'm home, the doby is outside set-up and ready, and Stellarium is informing me that Saturn has just breached the horizon, so I guess about an hour or so until it appears above the house currently blocking it's view...

I'm excited ;) waited for this moment for a long time ;)

Jupiter and 3 moons look good tonight, Mars is a blob can only just make out a bit of the cap, just hope I'm not disappointed with Saturn :o

Well if Jupiter and it's 3 moons look good, and even better still that you see the ice cap on mars, I can say you will fall in LOVE with your view of the jewel of the sky, Saturn.

Nothing is more astounding than seeing a planet - with rings, and it's real, and with your own eyes!

ENJOY!

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My first view of Saturn was around 15 years ago with a Bresser 120mm refractor. Anyone remember the old black tube ones on the GEM mount?

It was breathtaking to say the least and I spent a good few hours that first night studying it.

Then I upgraded to a Celestron 9.25 SCT and I fell in love all over again. Sadly I had to sell that scope to pay Mr Council man ;).

Saving for a new scope now which I should get next month if I can ever make my mind up lol

It will be worth the wait ;)

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Thanks for the nice words ;) I'm genuinely excited, have wanted to see it with my own eyes for years!

Still waiting for it to arrive above the houses. I have Arcuturs (I think), and Mars in view, and Stellarium says it should be between them, but lower obviously - is it fairly bright? I can see a whole load of very faint ones, but nothing that I would call planet size yet... the wind is a bit harsh tonight, but it's very clear, so crossing my fingers it will appear soon ;)

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Well it finally appeared - and wow! An amazing sight, it really is. Wind was making it a bit shaky, but when stable the rings were clearly defined, the black between them and the planet were clear, and 3 moons (I assume?) were clearly visible - what a sight!!!!!! ;) hands are numb with cold so had to come in - I can't wait to get back out again in the week and see again, hopefully with a little less wind.

Awesome, totally awesome!

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just had my first viewing,i thought jupiter couldnt be topped,i was wrong!saturn looks amazing,clear gap between the rings and the planet and a nice yellowish colour.i was looking with a 12mm ep(100x) and a 7mm (171x) and it looked better at 100x and not much smaller than at 171x.the skies local to me are pretty polluted but was decent amount of stars out so assuming its just the limit of good seeing on this given night with my 8" dob.regardless,still stoked to add another planet

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Ah, I was using 10mm and a 2x barlow, so 240x - it must have been very small at 100x? I'm lucky to have little polution when the seeing is good, so am hoping I can get even better results with a quality 8mm, barlowed to 300x.

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