A gentle warning

[dezmo1]

I love that old saying "you live and learn" so to help any newbies to astronomy (like me) from making the same mistake as i have, here's a little tip/warning.

IF you have a moon filter, and IF you have an 11 year old grandson just dying to have a look at the moon...remember to put the filter in!

The scream that the poor little tyke made when he looked through my scope sounded like a Banshee, with a fire cracker where the sun don't shine!

I felt awful for days afterwards...on the plus side, A. His eye was fine...B. He wanted another look (with the filter firmly in place!) so I hadn't put him off of "looking up."

When it came to the next viewing time, the Banshee howl of pain was replaced with some rather pleasing "coo's"  and "wow's" as he glimpsed the craters of the moon, and the rings of Jupiter. He's now "hooked!" 

Job done!

[Moonshane]

Lovely story. Be reassured that it's not possible to damage eyes looking at the moon with a scope. It's no more 'dangerous' than looking with naked eyes or bins.

[gkec]

The moon is not bright enough to damage your eyes.   Even through a telescope.  Glad he liked it in the end.

[swamp thing]

As above, don't worry the moons no brighter through a scope than with your naked eye. It's not possible to hurt ones eye looking through any scope at it.

[Mr Spock]

I never use a filter on the moon, it's only like a sunlit landscape

[Jon Sales]

I've never seen the rings on Jupiter.

[Langy]

I've never seen the rings on Jupiter.

+1 on that, waiting for my first viewing.

[Moonshane]

do you mean Saturn?

[John]

I never use a filter on the moon, it's only like a sunlit landscape

Same here 

Jupiter and Uranus do have rings but I believe they are beyond the reach of amateur scopes. Saturn on the other hand, might be a duller subject to view without it's magnificent ring system  

[Mike73]

Belts on Jupiter and rings around Saturn.

[Tinker1947]

If you out viewing leave the Moon until is it never hurt my eyes but  with a 14mm EP it filled the FOV and left my dark adaptation 20 minutes away... 

[Mr Q]

   Hummm...an 11 year old boy wanting to look through your scope - watch out for too much enthusism or else you will end up giving the scope to him and getting a larger one yourself

[Stargazer_00]

I observe the moon with a 14" reflector and I steafastly refuse to use a  moon filter ever as I prefer the pure coloration.

It can be blindingly bright for sure but awesome with it!

Maybe he was so surprised by the view and it's unexpected brightness.  It can appear very bright if you aren't expecting it.  I know when I change eyepieces..when I happen to walk back to the scope and get in line with the focuser it can look as bright as a light bulb shining out of the focuser drawtube!

Love it.

[nicks90]

through my 12" dob last night - without the filter in place- the moon was almost painful to view and left a white splodge on my retina for a few minutes afterwards. The back garden become pitch black as I lost all dark adaption (which is not much due to street lights nearby and the moon beaming down) and it was like being blind for a minute or two out of my right eyeball...

polarising filter in place, it was a remarkable sight. at x250 it was nice and steady and appeared very 3 dimensional. Utterly lovely.

but now it can do one, so I can get on with observing DSO.

[Reeny]

Belts on Jupiter and rings around Saturn.

I have seen some good stuff on the little 3-inch scope - although planetary detail can be very faint and a bit fuzzy.

Saturns rings blend into one, but they are visible at 100x to 150x mag.

And last night I had the little-un out to see Jupiters 2x dark bands of storm clouds.

Lunar views are good if I don't over do the magnification, and try to keep it below 100x.

The 76x700 scope is not as good as the 8-inch dob, obviously.

But the detail is just about visible if you know what to look for.

[CJ77]

There is a flip side to this story.....If you've been looking at the moon using a filter, and you decide to look at other celestial objects, say the more distant planets or faint fuzzies, then don't make the mistake that I did, and remember to take the filter off again....

It took me a few minutes of wondering why the heck I couldn't see the Andromeda Galaxy before I figured it out.....

[leelee970]

There is a flip side to this story.....If you've been looking at the moon using a filter, and you decide to look at other celestial objects, say the more distant planets or faint fuzzies, then don't make the mistake that I did, and remember to take the filter off again....

It took me a few minutes of wondering why the heck I couldn't see the Andromeda Galaxy before I figured it out.....

The same goes for leaving the dust cap on a scope, not that I've ever done that silly thing before (well, maybe  )