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First night observing.

Psychology

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Psychology

Psychology

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Hi All

Got myself Skywatcher Heritage 130p  and took it out for the first time last night. I had put it together the night before and took it into the garden fairly early, about 9pm, to try and get used to using it but not really expecting to see too much because of how light the nights are. Now not knowing much about Astronomy at the moment, and still working out how to use my planetsphere, I pointed it at the first visible bright object in the sky which I assumed was Venus and saw nothing. After 10 minutes re-aligning the red dot finder using the 25mm eyepiece I got it centered in the telescope. With some further slight adjustments of the Red dot finder and using the 10mm eyepiece with a 2x barlow I could make the planet out as a crescent and was very happy with myself!

Meanwhile another bright object became visible to the left and still having the 10mm and barlow on I swung the telescope to it to check alignment of the Red dot finder. It was of course Jupiter and its four Galilean moons lined perfectly to the right of the planet. I could clearly see bands and some colour and was, to be honest, awestruck that such a low priced telescope could give me such wonderful views.

I did try to find Saturn later on but using my Planetsphere believe it is low on the Horizon towards the south at the moment (please tell me if I am wrong) and this is difficult from my back garden.

My daughter is back from University and was as amazed as I was as is very keen to get out again to try and find saturn.

We are also off camping to Cornwall in august and the skies are amazing down there without a telescope so can't wait to take it with us.

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ronl

ronl

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Good to hear you enjoyed your first light with your new scope, Jupiter and Venus looked 

good last night, and Saturn too, pity you couldn't get it, it''s quite low and only gets to about

30 degrees, it is south east and is visible once the Sun has gone down, the same as Jupiter

and Venus it can be seen around 10. 15, hope you get to observe it, the Wow factor is bound

to happen. 

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

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astromackem

astromackem

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Good stuff Pyscho!

I was chuffed with seeing the crescent of Venus last night too.

I found the seeing for both Venus and Jupiter to be pretty poor but then I was up at 240x. I actually found it quite interesting to see how bad seeing can be- a mass of "heat haze" across the planets.

I hope you get to see Saturn- I made my debut last night- Wow incredible! It seems to take high mag really well too. If you go out about 11:30pm it seems to be about the level of Venus in the Sky but south obviously.

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Sonicfishcake42

Sonicfishcake42

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I can totally relate to this, I was very pleased with myself in realising that bright star was actually Venus. Seeing Jupiter and Saturn for the first time is simply gobsmacking! It was very crisp and clear last night... before the clouds rolled in for me! Good luck finding Saturn!

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astromackem

astromackem

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Thanks guys

Can't wait to see Venus and am also looking forward to having a good look at the moon.

What surprised me was how long I actually looked at Jupiter, an hour had gone by before I knew it!

Its weird isnt it? You can spend ages staring at it and you dont really know why you are!

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Psychology

Psychology

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Got up last night after 1am to try to see saturn. At first the view wasn't particularly good as there was some fine clouds, but these soon cleared and wow, what a sight, I could even make out the Cassini division. This was all without letting the scope cool down as it was so late and I have work today. The skywatcher Heritage 130p is a fantastic telescope to use for a beginner, it takes a couple of minutes to set up and you are away. Even though the sky wasn't completely dark I couldn't resist just pointing it at random parts of the sky using the 25mm eyepiece, the amount of stars is just amazing, and even saw some faint fuzzy objects. One day I will know what they are!

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astromackem

astromackem

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Got up last night after 1am to try to see saturn. At first the view wasn't particularly good as there was some fine clouds, but these soon cleared and wow, what a sight, I could even make out the Cassini division. This was all without letting the scope cool down as it was so late and I have work today. The skywatcher Heritage 130p is a fantastic telescope to use for a beginner, it takes a couple of minutes to set up and you are away. Even though the sky wasn't completely dark I couldn't resist just pointing it at random parts of the sky using the 25mm eyepiece, the amount of stars is just amazing, and even saw some faint fuzzy objects. One day I will know what they are!

Sounds like you had a similar experience to me the other night.. couldnt believe I could see the CD. It's millions of miles away for goodness sake.

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Jimtheslim

Jimtheslim

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Yes, Saturn was probably the best I have ever seen it, tolerating 140x and 180x well for the first time in my short astronomical experience. First time I had clearly seen the Cassini Division and a little colouration contrast on the disc of the planet itself. More than made up for the deteriorating views of Jupiter as it continues to get lower in the sky, being fuzzy at 90x and 140x which it used to tolerate with ease when it was higher. The ISS has been nice and bright in the late evening sky here as well, on one occasion I managed to track it for a short time with my lowest power eyepiece, something very hard to do with an EQ mount! But could make out the two separate banks of solar panels.

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astromackem

astromackem

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Yes, Saturn was probably the best I have ever seen it, tolerating 140x and 180x well for the first time in my short astronomical experience. First time I had clearly seen the Cassini Division and a little colouration contrast on the disc of the planet itself. More than made up for the deteriorating views of Jupiter as it continues to get lower in the sky, being fuzzy at 90x and 140x which it used to tolerate with ease when it was higher. The ISS has been nice and bright in the late evening sky here as well, on one occasion I managed to track it for a short time with my lowest power eyepiece, something very hard to do with an EQ mount! But could make out the two separate banks of solar panels.

Brilliant! I'd love to catch the ISS. What mag was it?

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Jimtheslim

Jimtheslim

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Brilliant! I'd love to catch the ISS. What mag was it?

It was 35x magnification. I got lucky. I had seen it the previous night and despite getting it a couple of times in the finderscope it had moved too far by the time I came to look through the main scope. This time I managed to just get the scope ahead of it so it was there when I looked through the eyepiece, then just followed it as best I could free-handed with the two clutches unlocked on the EQ mount. I was unable to hold it very steadily, but just enough to make it out with a bit more detail than my binoculars.

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