More than I bargined for looking at Saturn

[PaulG]

We have broken clouds tonight so I set up my telescope up in the back garden and pointed it towards Saturn. I came inside at 20.46 to look at the ISS + ATV with my son as it was a longish bright pass. Went back outside to have another look at Saturn and after waiting for the security lights to go out it was looking good. I could see one of it's moons and reasonable detail when all of a sudden a streak of light lasting a milli second traveled through the FOV from left to right at a decline. I was so shocked I looked straight up in the air to check out what it was. Unfortunately this only triggered the security lights and nothing could be seen in the sky. Being a newbie it was quite a shock but I expect you will say "Oh it happens all the time".

Paul

[algol]

beleive it or not mate it does, happened to me on my first night although i wast lookin at m45 at the time.

happened a couple more times since then but yeah always a shock, not quite as shocking as when a plane wanders through the FOV but still

[thing]

You'll get satellites, meteors and all sorts of weirdness in your eyepiece, you'll get used to it!

[markenroj]

just come in from looking at saturn it looks great i can only see one moon though. i also had a look at mars cos with the naked eye i can see a star just below it but when i look through scope i can only see mars might be an illusion. whilst looking at mars i also saw a meteor, shootin star, sattelite ,aircraft etc it made me jump funny aint it. :saturn:

[ianporter13]

I must have seen at least 4 satellites wander through my field of view whilst observing last night.

it's quite a common occurance but one that always make me smile.

As for Saturn it was really good last night and I could make out 4 moons through the Vixen 103.

and Paul, are they your (in)security lights? if so I'd switch them off while your observing, dark adaption is everything.

if they are your neighbours why not have a word and see if they can switch them off or possibly shield them.

Ian

[dogfish]

Markenroj

Yup, Mars was just above a star last night - I was looking at it through 10X50 bino's last night. The star is Mebsuta in Gemini (looked it up in Stellarium ).

Cheers, Martin

[loron91423]

What eyepieces did you use? We have a six refractor with Brandons at our observatory.

[Xunil]

Markenroj

Yup, Mars was just above a star last night - I was looking at it through 10X50 bino's last night. The star is Mebsuta in Gemini (looked it up in Stellarium ).

Cheers, Martin

Saw that while out back @ work "getting some fresh air". Ended up finding an online planetarium just to work out what it was, as naked eye it looked almost like the star was pulsing/moving, although this was almost certainly just the seeing playing games with me. Wish I'd had my bins with me.

[PaulG]

Looks like it's something to get used too then, it was a bit of a shocker first time round though.

Just need to sort my own security lights out, need to wire in an override switch.

No doubt i will see an airplane soon as I'm right in the middle of the East Midlands/Manchester flight path

Paul