10 mins...then BANG!

[New Star Gazers]

Hello,

This is coming from a very excited husband and wife in Warwickshire. Firstly, let me just explain we are very new to this...

So, basically we had our SkyWatcher 200p Dob delivered on Tuesday but until today it hadn't been used, due to dense cloud. However, we decided to have a go tonight as we saw a break in the sky. We managed to tune the view finder in to the Moon, which was beautiful and breathtaking. Will definitely need some kind of filter for better viewing next time, we had a look at that for about 5 mins until the cloud crept over it again, then we saw with our naked eye what we thought was a random star. My husband got it lined up in the view finder, looked through the lens and BOOM..Jupiter in all it's glory with it's 4 moons very clearly visible! 

We we're elated, couldn't believe that we just came across it and we only had 10 minutes viewing time, unfortunately both clouds and rain ended our fun. 

Just to add I was also excited at the fact that the Google Sky Map app I have downloaded seemed to perfectly tally up with the sky, (I checked against it, once we found Jupiter). Think it's really going to help us in the future. 

Claire and Hubby   

[JamesF]

Sounds like a very worthwhile ten minutes

James

[knobby]

Very happy you both shared a special 10 minutes... Well done on Jupiter :-) if you get up early tomorrow, about 6 ish you might catch Saturn in roughly the same place but much lower.

Good luck

[Mike73]

Congrats Claire and hubby!

Just think ..... that planet is 'only' 400 million miles away! 

[Bizibilder]

Well done - both Jupiter and the Moon are pretty awesome sights.  You could try "stellarium" (a free download) that is a good planetarium that gives very realistic views of the sky.

[davefrance]

Well done to you both. A neutral density filter will help reduce glare especially from a full moon. 

[Tinker1947]

Glad you had such a good first viewing...

[Crebles]

Congratulations! Amazing isn't it!

[DaveGarland]

Yup, she's a Solar System Super Star! I've had a scope about 3 years now and I still find it's the first thing I look at, and then the last just before I pack up. Welcome to the club

[andrew63]

Heres to a beautiful relationship...

andrew

[Special K]

You'll surely get more than 10 minutes next time and there's certainly lots up there to enjoy. Those apps are dead handy for getting started with understanding the night sky and how it all rotates around, etc. Especially when you point the camera of your device toward where you are looking and it uses the gyrocompass to show you the map of the sky.

Many happy returns!

[allen g]

Now you will look up and check the skies daily! Just the beginning. Enjoy

[Naemeth]

Congrats to both of you two, here's hoping for more clear skies for you both .

You're both into astronomy, there's the dream .

[Tiny Small]

Wait till you start looking at galaxies, nebulae and clusters.

[New Star Gazers]

Wait till you start looking at galaxies, nebulae and clusters.

Can't wait to find those, we did have a little play around trying to find something more last night, guided by our new book 'Turn left at Orion' but to no avail just yet...fingers crossed we will get there soon.

@Red Dwarf It is really good that we are both into it I agree, we were going down to introduce ourselves earlier to the people at our local Astronomers club, it was for Solar Observing, however it looked like it had been cancelled in the end.

Claire

[Cath]

Fascinating isn't it Claire

We are surrounded by all kinds of wonders out there in space.

Saturn is a lovely sight with it's amazing rings. I still find looking (actually through the eye peice, no camera) at the surface of the Moon with a decent amount of 'magnification' quite fascinating, to see all that detail with my own eyes of another planets surface is lovely.