Moon, Venus and Mars in 1 night ?

[Gary170782]

Hi all

 

Just thought I'd share my first real try out of my dobsonian 200p. I couldn't believe I got to see all 3 and right next door to each other and in eyes sight also. 

I only used my supplied EP's as my others are still awaiting delivery but what a great night for it, Mars was only a tiny red dot and Venus actually looked like a bright star through the scope but the edge of the moon was nice and crisp. I'm hoping when the new EP's turn up then it'll sharpen my images (bst 8mm & 18mm for now). 

I'm hoping I collimated my scope correctly ( I think I have) and right in thinking mars is difficult to capture anyway and maybe venus is very bright due to the closeness to the sun?? 

Any info would be greatly received. 

 

Gary

 

[John]

Congratulations on what sounds like a good session Gary.

Venus is bright and quite low so the atmosphere will cause quite a bit of scintillation. You should be able to see the phase (currently around 50%) with the 10mm eyepiece though. Mars is a long way off and presents a very tiny disk even at very high magnifications (eg: 300x plus with my 12" dobsonian). It is good to see its tiny disk and phase but it will look so much better when it get closer as it nears opposition in early Summer 2018.

You should be able to find Uranus and even Neptune with your scope - Neptune is not far from Mars at the moment (in the sky) and Uranus is well placed around mid evening.

Have fun

[DRT]

Glad you got the chance to enjoy them, Gary - so did I

If you get a chance to look again tomorrow try to find Neptune, which is currently very close to Mars. At around 6pm tomorrow they will be in this position...

In that picture Neptune is the closest point to the bottom left of the "N" in its name.

 

[Gary170782]

1 minute ago, DRT said:

Glad you got the chance to enjoy them, Gary - so did I

If you get a chance to look again tomorrow try to find Neptune, which is currently very close to Mars. At around 6pm tomorrow they will be in this position...

In that picture Neptune is the closest point to the bottom left of the "N" in its name.

 

Brilliant. Thank you. 

 

I actually had my night sky app open and seen that it was close by but couldn't spot it with the naked eye. I can't wait for tomorrow now. 

 

Gary

[DRT]

I don't think Neptune can be seen with the naked eye, at least not from our light polluted skies. You should be able to make it out if you are pointing in the right area as it is distinctly blue or blue/green and you should be able to see that it is a disk rather than a point of light.

Good luck!

[John]

I can see Neptune as a faint star in my 50mm finder scope from my back garden. It's well below naked eye visibility, certainly from my area !

It's disk is around 1/3rd as large as Mars is right now - very small indeed !

Quite a thrill to see these distant giant planets all the same

[Gary170782]

19 hours ago, DRT said:

Glad you got the chance to enjoy them, Gary - so did I

If you get a chance to look again tomorrow try to find Neptune, which is currently very close to Mars. At around 6pm tomorrow they will be in this position...

In that picture Neptune is the closest point to the bottom left of the "N" in its name.

 

Brilliant. Thank you. 

 

I actually had my night sky app open and seen that it was close by but couldn't spot it with the naked eye. I can't wait for tomorrow now. 

 

Gary

[Gary170782]

So I can see mars and what I'm thinking could be Neptune in the same finderscope image, does that sound right? . if mars is my bullseye then this is South/East. I took this pic from my phone if any help 

[Sachman]

Just went out with my 8Inch dob.

Was a decent session (for a newb), started with Venus - there was a lot of glare coming from it so used my moon filter and the views were much better - also realising how to use the Dob more - my trick - set the object at the edge and predict it's path. Then don't touch a thing - my Dob shakes a lot even with things tightened moderately tight so not touching anything, even the eyepiece with my eye makes a big difference and I could finally see the half stage of Venus. 

On to Mars - was a little underwhelmed by the size and lack of detail even at 300x but glad there will be room for improvement for Mars in the future. - 

I did note there is a reddish star to the top left of Mars - what is that?

I tried to find Neptune - I could've been looking at it for all I know but couldn't really differentiate between the stars. 

I'm going to try and find uranus later but again feel like I won't be able to tell the difference between that and a star if I do find it

[DRT]

37 minutes ago, Gary170782 said:

So I can see mars and what I'm thinking could be Neptune in the same finderscope image, does that sound right? . if mars is my bullseye then this is South/East. I took this pic from my phone if any help 

Gary,

Here is what Stelarium says it looks like in my VX12 with an Ethos 21 eyepiece. Depending on which eyepiece you are using in your 200P you might not have quite such a wide field of view but this will give you an idea where to look.

I tried to find Neptune tonight with my F8 refractor but the sky here is too mushy and it was extremely difficult to be certain I was looking at the right blurry bright thing

 

[John]

Neptune is on the Moonward side of Mars this evening. It's around the same distance from Mars towards the Moon that the star Lambda Aquarius is the other side of Mars, if that makes any sense !

Neptune is pretty faint in my 50mm finder this evening - if I did not know where it was I might have overlooked it.

 

[Stu]

Just had a nice little session and caught Venus, Mars and Neptune. Fist time I've seen Neptune for quite a while, lovely blue colour although the disk was barely detectable (i.e. It looked pretty stellar!) This was in the 4" Tak with a 12.5mm BGO in a x2.5 PowerMate. I didn't have a finder on so just used the 24mm Panoptic to search for it. Putting Mars top right of the fov put Neptune almost dead centre. Everything matched against SkySafari. Will try Uranus later when it is better positioned for my observing spot.

[DRT]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

I didn't have a finder on so just used the 24mm Panoptic to search for it. Putting Mars top right of the fov put Neptune almost dead centre. Everything matched against SkySafari.

 

I did much the same trick with my Evo150, Stu. I only really knew I was looking at Neptune because I knew where it was against the background stars. The blue colour was only barely detectable and it was very star-like rather than being a disk. The seeing in that direction is much worse than it was last night for me so I hope it clears a bit as it is a very clear night.