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Beautiful Saturn


Vince1963

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Hi Guys, What a great night for observing last night. managed to get some great views of Saturn in the constellation of virgo, the tilt is magnificent (cant remember the tech term at the moment) i had to take advantage before it moves out of the night sky for the summer months (and the great British weather). While setting up on low mag a satellite move right across its path, Is this a irregular occurrence?, Wish i had caught it on camera it would have made a great photo, Not that i know the first thing about astro-photography. after bringing on the magnification i could make out Titan and Rhea and two more specks of light which i think would be Tethys and Dione but i cant say with any degree of accuracy the may have been distant stars or my mind playing tricks on me as i so much wanted to see them. After about an hour of looking at Saturn with different combinations of EPs and my 2x barlows, I moved across to the constellation of Leo to take a look at Mars and i'm sorry to say I can never get a good view of Mars, It as never impressed me, Maybe i need some sort of filter and higher mag than my 8mm (is my scope up to the task?), I just don't know I found the colour good though a nice salmon pink but as i say i bit insignificant. Anyway that's that for now:icon_salut:

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Sounds great Vince. I must get some more time on Saturn soon.

I quite often see satellites passing through the field of view, there are plenty of them up there. The occasional shooting star too which is exciting.

Mars is getting tough now as it moves away. I think your 8 mm gives x125 so if you were barlowing that then you should be in the right sort of magnification range to get the best out of it. How good is your barlow? Worth getting a decent one as they can degrade the image alot.

Mars is always tricky and needs good seeing and a well cooled and collimated scope to pick out the detail. I use a neodymium filter which I find helps alot, cuts the glare and highlights the detail. You should be able to see the ice cap and surface markings though

Enjoy

Stu

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well done on saturn. did you see the casini division? dont worry about mars even in my 16" Dob i dont get good views its all about the seeing conditions with mars and at the minute its moving away from us your scope is more than capable so dont worry

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Hi Daniel thanks for the input... I cant believe i didn't look for the Casini division, I was too engrossed in Saturns moons i never thought about the Casini and Saturn is at the right position too. I will try again (weather permitting). Stu says neodymium filter help with viewing Mars...Expensive filter though. Maybe my expectations are too high, I will keep persevering and weather permitting and Mars being at the right opposition and the sun at the right angel to Earth and Mars and then the right atmospheric conditions then maybe just maybe i'll see something impressive lol. Kind regards Vince

PS.. Great scope Daniel wish i had an apature like that...

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Yes, they are relatively expensive but plenty of people on here who rate them highly.

Seeing has a very big impact on the views, sometimes you only see a mushy orange ball, on rare very steady nights, the detail can be surprisingly clear.

It is well past it's best now so the views won't be that great until the next opposition. Best make the most of saturn :)

Stu

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Hi Stu thanks for the advise I mentioned to Daniel that i think the barlows that came with the scope is just to get you started and wouldn't be up to much and that i'd be looking at buying a better one (wallet permitting). I have been looking at a neodymium filter but with the price tag of £45 its put me off, Are these filters any good for most observations? I dont know much about them as the price put me off. I did try my moon filter and polariser but they didn't make a lot of difference. Kind regards Vince

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I Have Try'd to find some DSO but i am not good :) at it lol, I did try to get to see the Andromada Galaxy but the weather as been rubbish for the passed two months and i've missed that boat now. I am hoping to see the lagoon nebular soon going to have to wait up till 3am though ( unless i got my facts wrong).. i wanted to see the crab nebula too, is that too far away for me?. kind regards Vince

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I have mainly used mine on Mars but they are good on Planets, particularly Jupiter and also the moon. They are good at cutting background sky glow so make a useful all round filter for dso's too. Not much good on Saturn interestingly.

For Mars, you could also try cheaper orange filters as these have a useful effect too. Others may recommend which ones specifically are best.

Stu

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Thanks for that Stu... can i Ask you a question and Daniel if he's still on here.. i have been looking at modding web cams so i can stack images and i was wondering if you might know of which web cam is best for modding?

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Can't really help you on that one, I'm a purely visual observer, haven't been tempted to the dark side.

From my limited knowledge, the SPC 880 or 900 are favourites for planetary imaging but are difficult to get hold of now and are expensive 2nd hand. There are other webcams which are taking over now but I can't recall the names. Someone else will be along soon to let you know, or maybe start a new post to get a better response.

Stu

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