Locating planets

[layarph]

Hi everyone. I had my first experience last week with stargazing through my new beginner's telescope, when I located the moon (through my moon lens) and was mindblown!

Now that was easy for me to locate, as I could do it manually, seeing as I can see the moon clearly with the naked eye.

But I am confused over how to locate planets that are not visible to the naked eye. Where do you start with that? I see that (and have maybe missed my opportunity) that Jupiter is great for viewing this month, for example, but I have no idea where to start in terms of locating it in the sky, based on my own geographical location.

I have found this interactive night sky website (http://www.astroviewer.com/interactive-night-sky-map.php) where you can enter your location, but I am still confused.

Could someone help me please?

Thanks

[davefrance]

It's a breeze with this http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/ Gives you everything you need to know

[AstroJOE]

Good advice from DaveFrance... Stellarium makes finding things very easy. Jupiter is easy to spot with the naked eye.. just look for the very bright 'star' in the east tonight... There you have it. Saturn, Mars and Venus are all equally easy to spot at the right time of year with the naked eye. But its not until you view them through your scope for the first time that you really get the WOW factor!

Hope you enjoy Jupiter and its moons tonight providing its clear.

James

[esxste]

If you have a smartphone, there should be apps that will tap into the phones inbuilt gps, compass and movement sensors to allow you to point the device at the sky and match what you see with the stars. 

I have iOS devices and use GoSkyWatch. 

[Beechiller]

I have Stellarium and Sky Map on my iphone both very good and make life very easy

[bambuko]

There is a lot to be said for Astro Viewer - simple, light and easy to print on paper for your observing sessions (as anybody who has tried will know - Stellarium doesn't print very well).

Don't get me wrong - I love Stellarium but it is very heavy, so well done layarph for pointing to a simpler option.

How to use it - print it out and take it outside and look at the sky trying to find/recognise constellations.

So, for example, if you are looking for Jupiter right now you will find it in the constellation of Gemini in the East (shown green here):

[ronin]

The ones you can see by eye are Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Having located them by eye you then turn the scope on them.

Venus will be Morning or Evening, it is inside our orbit and so is closely accompanied by the sun.

The other 3 are visible depending on their orbit and ours.

Jupiter is easy and obvious at the moment, Saturn and Mars appear at some time in the early morning, 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.

The other 2 (I have ignored Mercury) you will have to know where they sit in the sky at the time you are looking, then you would effectively star hop to where they should be. Either of Uranus and Neptune wil be very small and dim, very much a small dim star in appearance. You will be looking for a dim blue or dim green object depending on which planet.

Load stellarium up and look along the ecliptic for planets that are visible.

[Phil1313]

As a beginner myself I found Jupiter very easy to locate and got it in view pretty easy, once you see it with the naked eye once you'll spot it every time. It is very bright at the moment. As mentioned above if you have a smart phone or tablet there are a few programmes to assist with locating objects just by pointing your phone at it. I use android sky view I think its called (haven't got my phone with me at present to check!)

Hope this in someway helps! The moment you first see Jupiter through your scope will be one you won't forget

Good luck!

King regards

Phil

[cantab]

Mercury, Uranus and Neptune are the only planets that aren't easy to see with the naked eye. For Mercury you just need to pick the right date and time. For Uranus and Neptune, get a current star chart showing its position (which can be from a program like Stellarium), star hop to the relevant location and match up what you see with the chart. If you still can't identify the planet, sketch the field of view, then sketch it again a week or two later and one of the dots will have moved.

[Fahndar]

Sky and Telescope website has charts for finding Uranus and Neptune. I printed them out and plotted star hops starting from the brightest stars. I actually use binoculars for these two planets. You do not see too many stars that can get you confused and on the last hop I usually see only 2-3 stars at the area and one of them will be the planet. Both should be greenish-bluish color "stars" and easy to recognize. I find projects like these are very rewarding.  I always prepare a couple of projects beforehand for my next observing session.