First night out with TAL 150P

[kestrel1960]

Date 13/3/13

Sorry it's taken so long to post this. I did on the night of the event but all my comments were lost when the website (or my computer) crashed.

Have since been in for an eye op (my 4th for a detached retina) so I'm out of action for a while.

I must have set up my telescope incorrectly because the moon was too low in the sky for my telescope to reach (it kept hitting the top of the mount).

So I concentrated on the very high very bright star directly above me which I originally thought was Sirius. As I changed eyepieces & eventually used the Barlow I realised this wasn't a star at all but Jupiter. Amazing. I could make out the faint brownish bands across the planet.

At lower magnification I saw three stars in alignment (two to the left & one to the right of the planet) although I'm not sure what they were named (need to do some research on them).

I have to admit that at highest magnification I had not anticipated the speed of the Earths movement & had great difficult keeping Jupiter centrally in vision. I have a steep learning curve to make.

All in all I was very pleased at my first night out. My heart was beating heavily at the end of it all (perhaps 90 minutes that's all but felt much longer).

Cannot wait till my eye is sorted so I can do it all again. In the meantime I keep trying binoculars for that comet but it eludes me this far....

[JamesM]

Hi Phil and congratulations on bagging jupiter no less and I'm glad that you were able to make out some surface details too! If you haven't done so already, I would definitely recommend that you download Stellarium as it's a great tool to help you find objects, to identify objects you discuss (such as jupiter which can also supply position and labels for its moons) and can help you learn the constellations which provides a useful overview of how the night sky is organised. Most importantly, Stellarium can be configured to match the sky as seen from your own observing site making planning your future observation sessions really easy.

Viewing planets at higher magnifications takes a little practice as they really do move across the eyepiece but remember that increasing the magnification isn't always the best way to observe planetary detail and sometimes it is better to use an eyepiece that yields a slightly smaller image but one that that is sharper. Your scope can only collect a fixed amount of light and it is this that is 'stretched' when we use more powerful eyepieces and so it is logical to assume that the more we stretch the light, the more image degradation we are going to see and the darker the final image will be too. One last thing, it takes a bit of practice to 'train' your eyes to tease out every last bit of detail and so its worth persisting with longer sessions on planets to help get your accustomed to this and you will be surprised what details are released when our atmosphere provides split second moments of clarity!

Wishing you a speedy recovery from your operation and look forward to reading about other objects you have managed to locate with the help of Stellarium.

James

[tibbz2]

Very nice, Jupiter is a great sight! And are you sure they were stars? Jupiter has 4 moons which are usually visible as star-like points of light around the planet!

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice first light report.

Jupiter is a great sight.

Thanks for sharing!

[twotter]

Jupiter was the first astronomical target I viewed through my telescope when I started stargazing as well....beautiful sight

[kestrel1960]

Thanks for everyone's comments above. Believe me I was shocked to discover it wasn't "just another" star.

James I will take more time next time as suggested. It was only tiredness & the current state of my eyes that forced me to stop observing (coupled with the speed things were moving !!). It will be a while before I can use the scope again. But I'm definitely gonna try binoculars for that comet before it completely disappears. Anyone had a successful sighting yet?

tibbz2 - I hadn't thought of the moons because they were somewhat distant from Jupiter & were just like stars. They were all on a parallel line with the planet though. Could I have really seen the moons too?

if so that's the icing on the cake !!!!

[Anweniel]

Hi Phil congratulations on getting your first look at Jupiter. From your description is does indeed sound like you probably saw three of the Galilean moons, although ofc there is the possibility that your saw some nearby stars too! It is hard to distinguish sometimes between the two but as JamesM suggested a program like Stellarium will reveal all and you can even 'go back in time' to the point you were observing to confirm what you saw.

Nice report and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[tibbz2]

Yes I think you must have seen the moons, they are very bright and easily visible alongside the great planet!

[kestrel1960]

Wow everyone I just checked out Stellarium thanks James. What a great piece of software. I'm hooked !!!

Went back to the exact date & time I was viewing Jupiter & guess what? Ganymede, Europa & Callisto all line up parallel to the planet as I remember seeing it. (Except two of the moons were to the right of the planet not the left).

Awesome - I cannot believe it but I'd made out 3 of Jupiters moon on my first night. Blows my mind. Definitely have the stargazing bug now.

Thanks everyone for all your help & suggestions. I am so pleased !!

[JamesM]

A reflecting scope will show an inverted image (upside down) and one that is back to front (left is shown on the right) just to make things easier! :grin:

Glad you like Stellarium Phil and its accurate in what it shows at the time stated and (I believe though not 100%) that this includes the red spot on Jupiter. I'll have to check that one out.

Keep up with the food work Phil.

James

Edit: Just had a look and according to my version of Stellarium, the Great Red Spot transit tonight starts at 17:30 but Sky & Telescope calculator has it at 15:04 so maybe not that accurate.

[kestrel1960]

James,

Now you said that, I remember reading about inverted images but had forgotten all about it. That confirms the others were indeed Jupiter's moons. Thanks.

Will look at Stellarium again later. Wish I could get out with the scope but it'll have to wait till my eye is ok.

i wish you luck with the Great Red Spot. Let me know how it goes.

[Jim Steele]

I have heard good things about tal optics, i look forward to hearing your experiences with it. I used an old tal-1 in astronomy club at university and was blown away with the view of Jupiter and Saturn.