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I saw it!

ballistic

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ballistic

ballistic

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Saturn!

Yes ladies and gentleman, I you read right. I saw Saturn tonight :-) My first view of another planet. You guys are gonna think I'm crazy here. God I wish you guys could have felt what I did when I saw it. Nothing prepares you for a sighting such as this. Although it was small, about 7mm square in my scope, it was the most awe inspiring thing ever. Caught it by chance as I was viewing the moon, bumped my tripod and saw a oblong shaped object. Focused in and low and behold, Saturn. Could clearly distinguish the rings from the planet, sought of viewed it slightly above the surface of the rings, at an angle almost. Tracked it going behind the moon and she came out on the other side about 30 mins later, give or take.

Now, I need to get closer! And can u believe it, I spotted it with my elcheapo 70060. Please advise if I can get closer with my 114 Bresser reflector scope. Which eyepiece please. Wanna get a lot closer :-)

Regards
Cedric

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ballistic

ballistic

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Hi Micheal, it's unfortunetly the 500mm. I could see it, but never had the magnification of the cheapie. I'm thinking of getting a Astromaster 90, would that bring me much closer than what I have?

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soundwave

soundwave

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That's awesome!  :smiley:

I also was totally in awe when I first saw Saturn (less than a month ago!).

And I noticed that when watching Saturn with other people, the most uttered phrase (other than "wow") is: "Wait.. wait.. one more sec.."  :grin:

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ballistic

ballistic

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Thanx guys. My wife seems to think I'm crazy. It really cold outside here so she would'nt come out to see it. Next time maybe.

Oh, is there some sort of map/stratergy to finding it again? I mean, how would I know where it will be say in 2 or 3 days time?

Thanx

Cedric

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Pondus

Pondus

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Congrats to you, and quite amazing really: The first time you saw Saturn in a telescope, it was occulted by the moon, how about that.

(Astrologers would go errm ballistic, no pun intended , if you told them  :laugh: .

Rune

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romx

romx

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Saturn is jaw dropping every time i see it, to me its like an impossible planet due to the rings and it sure is an amazing sight and by far my favorite planet to look at and each new lens I get only improves my amazement of looking at something so magical and spectacular 

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woodmeister

woodmeister

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Hi ballistic, Saturn is definitely an awesome site and everybody who sees it sure remembers their first time of viewing it. I have not given Saturn any love recently so I should give it a good look when I am next out.

As for increasing magnification any eyepiece with a smaller focal length for example a 10mm would offer 50x mag in your Bresser (500/10)=50 and a 7mm eyepiece would offer 71x mag. the lower the focal length of the eyepiece the more magnification it will give. Alternatively you could use a barlow lens which doubles the focal length of your telescope effectively doubling your mag with said eyepiece.

I should note that some people like barlows and some do not. Just use the smallest focal length eyepiece you own. Though to much mag can lessen the details you can see on a particular night if the seeing is bad. Just see which works for you.

If you have trouble finding Saturn, try stellarium. It is a free software that shows the constellations, planets ect that are in the sky. Just put in your longitude and latitude so it can give you an accurate map of the sky and any object you are looking for.

All the best and clear skies.

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woodmeister

woodmeister

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Managed to get some tracking practice in too which was much easier than I thought it would be with a dob at 150x.

I used to be decent at tracking. Now it seems like I am drunk and knock mine all over before I center it in the eyepiece. I guess the mount is not as smooth as it used to be.

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OscarTheGrouch

OscarTheGrouch

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I guess the mount is not as smooth as it used to be.

There are so many inappropriate responses to that one, but I'll hold back because I'm in a good mood!!

Not got round to Saturn yet, but did find Jupiter on my first go.  Looking forward to an evening with Saturn once the nights start closing in and I can spend more time in the garden!

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kg4kpg

kg4kpg

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Cool stuff. I got a good view of it last week when a classmate and I visited a nearby observatory. I've seen it before with a cheap Meade telescope and that time was only able to distinguish the over-all shape as a white blob. This time we were using an Orion XT8 and like you, we could clearly see the gap between the rings and planet. Would have been nice to get to see it through their 23 inch refractor but they were showing school children craters on the moon.

Chris

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RT65CB-SWL

RT65CB-SWL

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Hi 'ballistic' and a belated welcome to SGL.

As quoted by me in another posting about Saturn, "It never fails to impress." or similar. My first view was with a Tasco 4ETE refractor (40x) when I was in my mid-teens.

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cutepetgroomer

cutepetgroomer

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I had a much closer view of saturn the other night using the barlow lens on my 70mm, 300 focal length and the 20 mm eyepeice. I have a 3x barlow so I loved that I was able to see saturn closer than normal. Unfortunately for me, I haven't had much chance to see anything else due to cloudy skies at night. but I feel that I too could benifet from a reflector scope in the future. 

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woodmeister

woodmeister

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There are so many inappropriate responses to that one, but I'll hold back because I'm in a good mood!!

Not got round to Saturn yet, but did find Jupiter on my first go.  Looking forward to an evening with Saturn once the nights start closing in and I can spend more time in the garden!

Fair enough I walked into that one.

Most of the planets are nice and easy to find, always good when you can't find the object you are looking for so you go back to a planet so you can think yay I found something. Have you viewed Venus or mars at all?

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Stu

Stu

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There are so many inappropriate responses to that one, but I'll hold back because I'm in a good mood!!

Not got round to Saturn yet, but did find Jupiter on my first go. Looking forward to an evening with Saturn once the nights start closing in and I can spend more time in the garden!

Don't leave Saturn too long, it is past it's best for the year now, at opposition again in May next year so have a go even before it is dark

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OscarTheGrouch

OscarTheGrouch

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Fair enough I walked into that one.

Most of the planets are nice and easy to find, always good when you can't find the object you are looking for so you go back to a planet so you can think yay I found something. Have you viewed Venus or mars at all?

I've found Mars, but it was too close to a very bright moon to get a good view.  Last night was a washout because I was just too damn tired.  Fortunately, there's nothing but football on the TV for the next month so I should have a chance to get out and spot some more planets!

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