Moons of Neptune and Uranus

[Moonshane]

I have never seen these and have looked at the interactive tools on the sky and telescope site but does anyone have any idea what sort of scale the tools show either in true field or approximate magnification ?

Cheers

Shane

[John]

I'm currently observing Uranus with my 12" F/5.3 dob. I can get Titania (m 13.9) and Oberon (m 14.1) positioned about 30 arc seconds S of the planetary disk. Can't quite see Ariel (m 14.4) but that is around 15 arc seconds from Uranus so the glare plus the lower mag are working against me. I'm using the 4mm setting of the Nagler 2-4mm zoom for 398x. Uranian disk is surprisingly crisply defined as a pale blue / green but no markings showing as yet.

Mag figures are from Cartes du Ciel. Positions of moons were checked after locations identified at the eyepiece. 

The Cartes du Ciel view (newtonian) is shown below:

[John]

Additional note:

Titania is the 1st moon that I see as my eye dark adapts. I have to work harder to get Oberon and it needs more averted vision. Once my eye is dark adapted (15-29 mins at the eyepiece) Titania can be held in direct vision for a few seconds at a time while Oberon remains more elusive.

[Moonshane]

cheers John

That might help. I'll see if I can get anything next time out.

Incidentally, has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like Daryl from the Walking Dead? You could be his older brother 

[bish]

56 minutes ago, John said:

I'm currently observing Uranus with my 12" F/5.3 dob. I can get Titania (m 13.9) and Oberon (m 14.1) positioned about 30 arc seconds S of the planetary disk. Can't quite see Ariel (m 14.4) but that is around 15 arc seconds from Uranus so the glare plus the lower mag are working against me. I'm using the 4mm setting of the Nagler 2-4mm zoom for 398x. Uranian disk is surprisingly crisply defined as a pale blue / green but no markings showing as yet.

Mag figures are from Cartes du Ciel. Positions of moons were checked after locations identified at the eyepiece. 

The Cartes du Ciel view (newtonian) is shown below:

Nice work John. I don't think my 250px will stretch to that with all the light pollution.  I'll have to try from a dark site.

[John]

56 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

cheers John

That might help. I'll see if I can get anything next time out.

Incidentally, has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like Daryl from the Walking Dead? You could be his older brother 

Hmmm - nobody has told me that. It's not the look that I was going for ........

 

[Moonshane]

He's a heart throb John so take it as a compliment! ?

[Alan White]

On 11/25/2017 at 22:50, John said:

Hmmm - nobody has told me that. It's not the look that I was going for ........

 

I thought it was more a Colonel Sanders look myself.

....... 

[Stu]

This is what SkySafari has to say. The circle is using the 4mm setting on a Nag Zoom in your 16". x400 and a 0.12 degree fov.

[John]

I use Cartes du Ciel to check the positions but only after I've had a go at observing them and noting suspects that I see.

 

[Luna-tic]

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 16:51, Moonshane said:

cheers John

That might help. I'll see if I can get anything next time out.

Incidentally, has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like Daryl from the Walking Dead? You could be his older brother 

That guy looks more like Patrick Swayze after a week-long bender.

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 17:50, John said:

Hmmm - nobody has told me that. It's not the look that I was going for ........

 

Don't worry, you didn't make it  . You're a lot closer to Burl Ives, I think; must be the hat.

Interesting about Uranus. I saw it for the first time a few nights ago in my Edge HD800. I didn't have it cranked up too much, I tried visual at around 200X and clearly saw the planetary disc, but no satellites. I took a photo at prime, and of course just got a dim, aqua dot. I get a fair amount of sky glow to the south and east from the nearby town, which explains the background color (I managed to edit some of it).  What's the minimum magnification needed to see any of the moons?

[John]

You can see the disk of Uranus at quite low magnifications with relatively small scopes but to get the moons I find that I need much higher magnifications eg: 300x plus and, so far, I've only managed to catch them with my 12" scope.

They are very faint - mag 13.9 is the brightest of them. On the limit from my back yard really.

[Moonshane]

cheers all

especially Stu - thanks for the visuals as they give me a better idea of the sort of scale I'll be looking for.

I'll have a look next time out.

[chiltonstar]

Back in April this year, I had a number of really good sessions on Uranus using my 180 Mak at x270, using a 10mm Baader Ortho. Definitely 4 moons on one occasion, 3 on most occasions. I imaged it a couple of times as well, eg:-

Chris

 

[Grotemobile]

That is a very good image Chris.

[chiltonstar]

1 hour ago, Grotemobile said:

That is a very good image Chris.

....Thank you,  but not compared with those from the experts like Astrovani with more aperture, skill and better seeing!

Chris

[Grotemobile]

I think more aperture is the curse of this hobby. Always want a bigger one Chris .  

[Dave In Vermont]

I'm so not going there.....

D.

[niallk]

I found 330x with my 15" good to catch 4 moons of Uranus.  The dimmest moon  I could pick out was fleeting in averted vision, but confirmed afterwards consulting Sky Safari.  They were all teeny tiny pin pricks of light, and Uranus was a gorgeously sharp small disc.

Triton by comparison was readily visible!

[John]

Teeny tiny pin pricks but fascinating to see them visually all the same. Triton is the most distant rocky / icy body that I can observe - until I can get Pluto of course !

Voyager 2 got some great shots of Triton in 1989:

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Stellarium's team of engineers has been quite busy. The developers' have been adding lots of details to our solar-systems' planets, asteroids, moons, etc. They've added names of formations on the planets & moons, even on Ceres and Titan. Just about anywhere probes went with hi-resolution cameras.

They're also updating the Moons of the outer planets, including Neptune -

 

 

This came with a recent 0.90.0 'beta.'

Hope you enjoy it!

Dave

[Paul73]

I can get a couple of the moons without too much bother in a 10” dob from the back garden. I should try with the bigger scope.

Sky Safari pro seems good on moon positions. Have you got the GasGiants App? That is free and does the same job.

Paul

[John]

1 hour ago, Paul73 said:

I can get a couple of the moons without too much bother in a 10” dob from the back garden. I should try with the bigger scope.

Sky Safari pro seems good on moon positions. Have you got the GasGiants App? That is free and does the same job.

Paul

Thanks for the suggestion of the app Paul - I'll give it a try

Your seeing / eyes much be better than mine at home  - the Uranian moons are really pretty tough even with my 12" from my back yard.

 

[Stu]

On 04/12/2017 at 12:29, Moonshane said:

cheers all

especially Stu - thanks for the visuals as they give me a better idea of the sort of scale I'll be looking for.

I'll have a look next time out.

Good stuff Shane, I thought the scale in the eyepiece fov might be useful. SS is great for that.

[Paul73]

40 minutes ago, John said:

Your seeing / eyes much be better than mine at home  - the Uranian moons are really pretty tough even with my 12" from my back yard.

 

Nothing wrong with your eyes John. HH from your garden!!

I remember a couple being easy. And a third being an averted imagination target. I’ll dig out the observing report.

Paul