Neptune ?

[Charlie_132]

hello, ive got a skywatcher heritage 130p telescope and going to try to find neptune on the next clear night, will i be able to find it or isnt my telescope powerful enough ?

[DirkSteele]

Neptune is approximately 8th magnitude. Well within range of your telescope, though given its small angular size (only around 2.4 arc seconds) you will need pretty high magnification for it not to look stellar. And it will never more than a small bluish disc.

Clear skes,

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

You should be able to spot Neptune with a 130mm scope, but even in my 8" it is a barely resolved disc. The blue-green colour is the most striking feature.

Happy hunting!

[Charlie_132]

i ll have a look in the next week whenever its a clear night

would i be able to see it with a 2x barlow aswel or would that be too hard ?

[JamesF]

My experience is the same with a similar size scope. You can see it, but with a small scope you may struggle to get enough magnification to spot it amongst the background stars. When I first found it I was only sure it was Neptune because it was where Stellarium said it should be and there were no other objects of a suitable brightness. It's nice to find and really challenges your star-hopping skills, but it's not an incredibly rewarding target otherwise

Jmaes

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I used 230x and 290x when I last spotted Neptune (years back). In your scope I would not go beyond 200-250x, whether you do that using short focal length EPs or with a barlow is immaterial. The main issue is to get a good finder chart for Neptune (try Stellarium, which allows you to make charts of what the star field should look like in your telescope, with your EPs).

[NGC 1502]

Hi, as others have said, your scope is capable of showing Neptune. To definitely confirm you have found it, if it resolves into a tiny bluish disc at high mag, or better still, do a very careful drawing of the star field and what you think is Neptune, and do another drawing the next night or as soon as you can (yes I know the weather makes that difficult at the mo ) but it can be done, and Neptune will have moved relative to the background stars.

I did that many years ago to find Uranus with my 4.5" reflector, it's actually quite a buzz to find these outer planets.

Regards, Ed.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I used 230x and 290x when I last spotted Neptune (years back). In your scope I would not go beyond 200-250x, whether you do that using short focal length EPs or with a barlow is immaterial. The main issue is to get a good finder chart for Neptune (try Stellarium, which allows you to make charts of what the star field should look like in your telescope, with your EPs).

Never knew you could do that with Stellarium, definately going to have to look this up.

[faulksy]

i have seen it and as said you will need high power and then you will see the lovely blue tone like pastal shade

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

In Stellarium the Ocular plugin provides the functionality

[umadog]

Good luck! Let us know when you get it!

[magic612]

I did a star hop to this in my video from last week, which should make it easier for you to locate.

Hope that helps.

[paul schofield]

I would be very interested to know how you get on. I have never tried to see Neptune or Uranus due to thinking they would be really small. As NGC1502 says it must be a real buzz to see them, especially when you consider the distances. Good luck and let us know.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I remember when I first spotted Uranus and Neptune on the same evening (1996, I think). The solar system seemed to become a bit bigger for me.

[swamp thing]

Neptune has always been my favourite planet, it's a great challenge. First off finding he little fella then trying to resolve the disc.

It doesn't give up much detail except noticeable limb darkening through even larger apertures but it's fun to try

Have fun checking it out.

[Freddie]

Paul, you should have no problem with a 200p. Go for it !!

[Charlie_132]

im deffently going to give it a go soon, just the weather is frustrating me at the moment and not getting any better any time soon !

thank you for all the replys thoughm helped me alot

will i basically just see it as a tiny blue pin [removed word] or will i see it more as a bluish disc ?

[faulksy]

bluish disc but smaller than mars

[seigfriedwilson]

Both Neptune and Uranus are testing to find, but you'll know when you've got them.

Wonderful planets to view. Not do much of the wow factor as Saturn, Jupiter or even Mars - until you realise the phenomenal distances involved.

For fun, I like to work out the total time it has taken light from the sun to reach them and then travel back to me. Consider what you were doing when it set off on its journey.

Seigfried