Just a beginner

[Golfer66]

Hi my wife bought me my first telescope as part of my Xmas and I was wondering if anyone can give me any information as how to locate the planets . My telescope is a celestron 60az and it came with a 4mm , 20mm and a 3x Barlow and what I wanted to know is should I be able to find the other planets using these eyepieces .

[Scott]

hi Golfer66,

I would think you'll have no troubles seeing the larger,closer planets as they are visable with just the naked eye. there is some free software called stellarium that can be downloaded which is almost a necessity for finding things in the night sky. at the moment, if you're out around 8-9 pm, look east. Jupiter is probably about the 2nd brightest star you'll see in that direction but definately download stellerium

Scott

[Twiggles]

Not famiilar with your telescope I'm afraid, but to help locate the planets you can get some useful phone apps that can help, or many here recommend a piece of software called stellarium which is free. You can set it to your location and get a rough idea of what you will be able to see each night at any particular time. Jupiter is very easy to find right now, its about the brightest thing in the sky after the moon and is located to the left of Orion.

[ronin]

Jupiter is easy.

Basically it is the bright thing in the East/South-East sky at 10:00PM.

Very difficult to not see it if the sky is clear.

After that Saturn does not appear until the morning hours, sort of 4:00AM. Personally I don't care how good it is I am not getting out of a warm bed.

Mars is around at the same time, but Mars is small. What you see is a bright red star, which if you get a scope on it becomes a small red disk. You need lots and lots of magnification to see more.

Find Jupiter with the 20mm then I have no idea. Think the 4mm may not be that good, but try. The barlow and the 20mm equally no idea how good the combination will be. If you get the hang of it all as in finding and getting things in view look at buying a 8mm plossl (nothing fancy).

Need to wait a couple of months for Saturn and Mars to be on show at a better time.

[Scott]

[Stargazer33]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

A good smart phone app is Google Sky Maps. It's nothing fancy, but it's easy to use and not too cluttered for a beginner. Either set your location - lat/long - or let the GPS do its thing. Hold your phone up to the sky and it should show you what is in the direction you are facing. There is a night vision option too that turns the screen red so that you protect your night vision.

There are a number of others including - SkEye and Astro Tools. Astro Tools is handy for setting up your polar aligning scope if you have one as it shows you the current relative positions of Polaris, the Plough and Cassiopeia according to the time and your location.

[LouisJB]

Use Stellarium, one of the many mobile night sky type apps and then going out and having a look with the naked eye and then often best with some binoculars, you'll soon get to recognise bits of the sky. Once you've found the target then try aiming the scope at it using your finder. For instance Jupiter is really easy to find with the naked eye, about the brightest thing in the sky at the moment ignoring the Moon, it's located to the East in Gemini at this time.

Other than Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon don't expect too much from the planets, most are small and show little surface detail. You might get something from mars with a _big_ scope. Neptune can show it's colour, other than that they essentially appear as dots in amateur equipment, or maybe fairly featureless disks under higher magnification.

Still the one's you can see detail on, Saturn and Jupiter alone plus the Moon which has loads to observe will keep you interested for some time I expect, glorious sights

As for the scope, normally start with the widest eyepiece (highest mm) to locate and centre the target, then switch out to lower mm eyepieces without moving the scope to reveal more detail. If you start with a high power (low mm) eyepiece you might be searching the same patch of sky literally all night!

Good luck.

[Golfer66]

Thanks for all the replies . I have actually downloaded sky view on my iphone which appears to show me where everything is . I have noticed Jupiter up in the sky with my naked eye but can't seem to see any off the rest and also when I try and locate Jupiter through my telescope I can't see anything . What is the best eyepiece to try and see it a 4mm or 20mm.

[LouisJB]

20mm, see above. Be patient, make sure you're focused well and you'll find it... Expect to see a bright dot followed by 2, 3 or 4 smaller less bright (still bright) dots approximately in a straight line. That will be Jupiter + some or all of it's 4 biggest Galilian Moons.

[Golfer66]

Thanks Louis you answered my question as I was typing it. So start of with the 20mm and once I find say Jupiter or the moon then change to the 4mm for more detail .

[IVAN TAPIA]

Also be sure your scope sight finder its aligned with your scope.

Call me Desdinova.

[Golfer66]

Also be sure your scope sight finder its aligned with your scope.Call me Desdinova.

I noticed this last night that when I have the moon on my scope finder I still have to move the scope to see it . Should it be if its in the scope finder it should be in the eyepiece

[Golfer66]

I managed to see Jupiter last night . But it only looked like a small version of the moon is that right .

[IVAN TAPIA]

Yep, align it during daylight, pick something far, like a light pole or water tower, etc. once you have it on your eyepiece adjust the finder to match it, it will make it easier for you to find objects at night.

Call me Desdinova.