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My first sighting of Saturn & Mars

ukuleledaveey

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ukuleledaveey

ukuleledaveey

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Hello all,as a totak noobie and not just green behind thr ears but all over ?.

Ive had my first scope for 7 days now a 2nd hand skywatcher 200p dob, i only have the 2 eye pieces that came with it.

I decided to go out in the communal garden again tonight asbthe sky looked good,i got out at 8.30 to give the scope time to cool down and get muself comfy.

It was a lovely fairly clear night.And for the first time i managed to get Saturn in my finder scope after finally sorting out its alignment on friday, i started off with tue 25mm eyepiece saturn was tiny but i could cleary make out the rings i was gob smacked so happy and excited i quickly fumbled for the 10mm eye piece and slipped that in a slight adjustment of the scope and saturn was slightly larger and the rings alot more visible wow wow wow i am still on cloud nine it was amazing,i looked at it and followed it for what felt like half an hour.my wife bought me a cup of tea and she had a look to and a couple of my neighbours were very impressed.

I then waited for mars to move round and quickly focused on it and i started with the 25mm and then moved on to the 10mm.

Before tonight i wasnt very impressed with the 10mm but it did a good job tonight.

Im still buzzing and im off to bed now.

Just thought i would share with all you wonderful people.

Many thanks and best wishes From me

Dave ?

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Kn4fty

Kn4fty

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Great report Dave! I figured it was probably the atmosphere that prevented the 10 from working. I understand how you feel about seeing the rings. Seeing Saturn the first time is one of my greatest EP memories. Glad you had a great night!

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Stu

Stu

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7 minutes ago, ukuleledaveey said:

and not just green behind thr ears

You need to start washing behind them a bit more Dave! ?

Saturn is a cracker, always great to see for the first time and to be able to share it. Mars has been pretty challenging this time around, not much to see without real patience at the eyepiece.

Have fun!

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geoflewis

geoflewis

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Hi Dave,

Very well done getting those two planets in your first week with the scope and for your excellent report too, thanks for sharing the experience on here. Good on you to share those views with your neighbours (and wife of course); I also had neighbours with their 6 year old daughter and the mum's parents round to look at Saturn last night. The daughter was meant to be in bed, but mum relented (well it is still school hols) and they all had a great time ?. I almost get as big a kick out of sharing the views with others as seeing them myself.

Cheers, Geof

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SIDO

SIDO

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I'm getting excited just reading your report Dave, you know once you see Saturn you will never be the same again...kind of an unofficial right of passage for a lot of us. Cool Beans...indeed...

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MarsG76

MarsG76

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Great report, I'm happy for you that you had a great astro night....

The 10mm will be reserved for the best seeing nights that is why you weren't impressed with it's performance. I have a 5mm EP that is reserved for those nights when the seeing is perfect, than the planetary views through it too are amazing, but during the average night it is a disappointment... see it as an "treat" eyepiece which you look forward to the nights when it is useful and when it happens you will have more of those feelings like you did tonight.

 

 

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Stu

Stu

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40 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Now thats high power.... and certainly a rare visual treat....

 

Depends which scope you use it in really, might even be x200 in a 500mm focal length scope, or even less.

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ukuleledaveey

ukuleledaveey

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Thanks everyone,i really appreciate your input,knowledge and support,you lot on here are amazing. So thanks very much.

I have learnt quite a biy from you knowledge and wisdom ?.

Im still buzzing this morning.is it worth buying anything smaller than 10mm for my dob ? Its length is 1200mm and im learning about atmospherics affecting things now lol.

Yeah i hated that 10mm till last night ? you know the stars arent only up above  they shine btightly on this forum to.i really am.impressed by how friendly amd extremely helpful innsharing knowledge and experience.

Once again many thanks off to work now bleary eyed but oh so happy.Have a great day everyone  ?

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Stu

Stu

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An 8mm would give you x150 which would be highly useable on decent nights for globs, planets and planetary nebulae. Even a 6mm would be good for very good nights withbateady seeing for the moon, doubles and planets (perhaps when they get a bit higher though!)

BST starguiders get good reviews and are a very good price too, although there is no 6mm in those.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

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Stu1smartcookie

Stu1smartcookie

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28 minutes ago, Stu said:

An 8mm would give you x150 which would be highly useable on decent nights for globs, planets and planetary nebulae. Even a 6mm would be good for very good nights withbateady seeing for the moon, doubles and planets (perhaps when they get a bit higher though!)

BST starguiders get good reviews and are a very good price too, although there is no 6mm in those.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

i used a 6mm viewing Saturn last night , on my 250mm Dob , it was a little hard to achieve a sharp focus , and i put that down to a number of things... the planet being a bit low in the south , a lot of LP , and of course the atmosphere .. but , all in all i got a really nice view and managed to see 3 moons . I honestly cant wait for clear nights in late Autumn . Getting up at 5am every morning is a curse when you want to spend the night looking at stars and planets . 

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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36 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

As Dave was mentioning Ep's .. i am having trouble finding DSO's, in general what Mag EP is the "best" to use ? I am currently switching between 20mm and 25mm. Also are filters a "good buy" ? 

With a 250 dob you should get a good haul of DSO’s using EP’s between 15mm to 25mm. If you’ve not seen hardly any then there could be a number of factors at play such as poor seeing/transparency, wrong position of scope for targets, and also possibly lack of experience viewing any DSO’s, as some objects like galaxies can take a while to see. With some of these it’s best jiggle the scope a little which can cause some fainter objects to be noticed easier. Others like M13 and M92 globular clusters should jump out at you, and these ones would also stand higher magnification to view too once found. M27 and M57 should show pretty well in your scope, but a UHC filter would definitely help to see them better, although it isn’t suitable for all DSO types. 

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Stu1smartcookie

Stu1smartcookie

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i think LP plays a big part for me .. i tried to view the whirlpool last night and found nothing... to be honest im not even sure if i can see it lol i take your point about taking a while to see . im going to concentrate on brighter stuff for a time...it will give me more confidence and also prove more enjoyable in the short term ...and (ive been told this ) i need to "learn " the skies . im a bit impatient which isnt the best quality to have for astronomy , so thats a learning curve too .

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