First view of Saturn! (and a glare/focus/ep question)

[guiseppe]

So, earlier this night I got my first glimpse of Saturn. It was, for lack of a better word; Freakin' awesome! I mean I've seen pictures just like everyone else. But to see it live with your own eyes, it was really something.

Now for the question; Whenever I view something with my scope, I seem to get this kind of strange glare around my object. It seems to rotate around whatever I'm looking at as I focus. I can get rid of it by focusing to a certain point but then my object is out of focus. So, is this normal? Or am I simply doing something wrong.

[Imd]

I agree Saturn through a scope is amazing

Could it be that you see a purple/reddish fringe around Saturn?

If so you are doing nothing wrong, its mostly noticeable when viewing bright objects and is caused by different colours of the spectrum focusing at slightly different points.

You can buy filters to help reduce it eg baader semi apo or fringe killer. If you have a moon filter you could see if this helps reduce the glare, or you might go higher magnification.

Ian

[guiseppe]

That could be it. Although it doesn't just apply to Saturn, but pretty much any bright object. So you're probably right. Thanks .

[ronl]

Congratulations on your first view of Saturn, the first and for me

every time It gives that WoW feeling, this time of year twilight

seems to last all night in northern parts and makes viewing

difficult at times, Ian is right a filter may help to reduce the glare,

dark sky's really help, so keep observing you may get lucky and

get that perfect view.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

[faulksy]

what scope do you own

[Pig]

Saturn is excellent and for some reason it looks better through my scope recently - it my be due to my eyepieces

[planet15]

First view of Saturn can be a bit dangerous. It got me into Astronomy fever.

[ChrisG3484]

I remember my first view of Saturn and then yelling everyone in the house to come out and have a look. It's now on the list of things to look at time and time again.

[Pig]

First view of Saturn can be a bit dangerous. It got me into Astronomy fever.

I agree Saturn gets very expensive

[Superdavo]

Saturn is awesome! It's so awesome that it almost makes up for the fact that the skies are too light to see the stars within a month of seeing it

[guiseppe]

what scope do you own

SW 150PDS on a NEQ3 mount. I used a 28mm ep, so it wasn't a huge image. But I could easily separate the planet from the rings. Unfortunately I don't know what kind of ep it is, all it says is "28 mm". It's the one I got with the scope, even though I was supposed to get a 10mm and a 25mm. I've written to the retailer about it, but they're closed until the 7th, so until then I'll have to make do with the one I got.

[AlexB67]

So, earlier this night I got my first glimpse of Saturn. It was, for lack of a better word; Freakin' awesome! I mean I've seen pictures just like everyone else. But to see it live with your own eyes, it was really something.

Now for the question; Whenever I view something with my scope, I seem to get this kind of strange glare around my object. It seems to rotate around whatever I'm looking at as I focus. I can get rid of it by focusing to a certain point but then my object is out of focus. So, is this normal? Or am I simply doing something wrong.

Congrats, Saturn is a great sight , It may also be the case that you are just suffering from poor sky conditions. The fact that you mention going in and out of focus sounds very much to me like an unsteady atmosphere, you got to wait for those stable moments or better skies on another day. Saturn is also quite low in the sky now, so you are looking through a lot of atmosphere, that doesn't help. Skies that may look okay to the naked eye are not necessarily stable, but you only really find out with practice.

High humidity can cause a kind of halo effect also, last week I was looking at the moon in hazy skies, it was very much evident then. I even pointed it to a bright star high up to see it also had this effect much more compared to usual.

[dark_marc]

Hey Guiseppe and welcome to the forum.

I did recently join the forum as well and made my first steps following Saturn across the southwestern sky. Have been out the first nights and Saturn has never let me down, easy to spot and - you are absolutely right - awsome to see with your own eyes rather than a magazine picture.

Have found out today that 10mm works best for me w/o loosing too much detail. Do use a 2x barlow from time to time (240x on my 200/1200 Dob) but does become difficult to get a crisp-ish image at this level of magnification.

Cannot wait until Friday when weather forecasters predict the start of the proper summer and spotless skies :-)

[KIGU]

Hi there

I am totally new to stargazing as I have just picked up a telescope from a car boot the other week, its a Carl Zeiss Jena Telementor with its equatorial mount and wooden tripod. Could someone tell me whereabouts Saturn is in the night sky, I live on the Lincolnshire Coast 300 yards from the beach.

[Cornelius Varley]

Download Stellarium from http://www.stellarium.org/ which will give you all the information you will need.

[KIGU]

Thanks Red Dwarf. Unfortunately tried the link but I got a Trojan virus warning from AVG so did not proceed as I was a bit concerned.