My first sighting of Saturn & Mars

[Kn4fty]

5 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

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

 

 

5 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Wow, that must have taken some patience . I tried a 6mm and slapped a 2x Barlow in but got nothing ,

It maxs my scope out at 400x. I bought it because the price was more than right and had great eye relief. I've only used it twice, once on Jupiter and then once on the moon. The moons terminator left me speechless and unable to sketch. I was in complete awe and so overwhelmed visually that I couldn't figure out where to start the sketch! Lol

Not one I expect to get to use much, but so far it's been once a year.

[Knighty2112]

35 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

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 .

LP can be a problem too, but keep trying and you will get it eventually when the transparency is good. I have poor LP where I view from and even on a poor night can just make out the two eyes of M51. Try both Bodes higher up in Ursa Major, which you might have a better try with especially as you should be able to fit bith of them in the same FOV on your scope with a 20mm EP.

[Stu1smartcookie]

1 hour ago, Knighty2112 said:

LP can be a problem too, but keep trying and you will get it eventually when the transparency is good. I have poor LP where I view from and even on a poor night can just make out the two eyes of M51. Try both Bodes higher up in Ursa Major, which you might have a better try with especially as you should be able to fit bith of them in the same FOV on your scope with a 20mm EP.

Cheers Knighty.. i hope we have clear skies tonight

[MarsG76]

3 hours ago, Kn4fty said:

 

It maxs my scope out at 400x. I bought it because the price was more than right and had great eye relief. I've only used it twice, once on Jupiter and then once on the moon. The moons terminator left me speechless and unable to sketch. I was in complete awe and so overwhelmed visually that I couldn't figure out where to start the sketch! Lol

Not one I expect to get to use much, but so far it's been once a year.

Similarly.. My 5mm X-Cel delivers 406X which is also the max of my 8" SCT.. and also get used rarely with a jaw dropping view, but when the clear night comes... WOW, just WOW...

[Stu1smartcookie]

37 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Similarly.. My 5mm X-Cel delivers 406X which is also the max of my 8" SCT.. and also get used rarely with a jaw dropping view, but when the clear night comes... WOW, just WOW...

Can i ask a possibly silly question? , is there one better season than the others ...by that i mean , is a clear night in winter better than a clear night in summer ... for observing . I have a theory that the winter evenings are better . 

[Galen Gilmore]

Congrats! Last weekend I went to a friends farm out in the countryside, and had the clearest view of Saturn I have seen thus far. 

Personally Saturn looks the best of all of the planets when you have good seeing.

[Nyctimene]

15 hours ago, SIDO said:

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

Spot on. There are, IMO, only few comparable "Rites of Passage" (=transition rituals), as, e.g., the first view of the Milky Way for urban people, a total solar eclipse, M 13 or M 22 in a large Dob; or the Southern Skies. But Saturn beats them all, as it seems. Some years ago, I showed Saturn in the 18" to a couple high in their eighties; and both were absolutely fascinated: "now we had to get that old, to see such a wonder!"

As Stu mentioned above, two eyepieces with 8 resp. 6 mmf would be a useful addition.

Stephan

 

[Kn4fty]

2 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Can i ask a possibly silly question? , is there one better season than the others ...by that i mean , is a clear night in winter better than a clear night in summer ... for observing . I have a theory that the winter evenings are better . 

The problem with winter viewing is if it a beautiful clear night you tend to have a lot of high level atmospheric turbulence that can limit seeing. But with that being said, I've had my best sessions in the winter. Usually after a storm front passes through ,if you look at the sky, you'll notice it clear with a very slight hazy look. That's when it's time to get the scope up. The haze is because of a lack of turbulence. The seeing is usually phenomenal and the very slight haze tends to not really affect the scopes ability. Just dress warm and make sure to let the scope cool down enough. Hope this helps.

Rob

[ukuleledaveey]

Thanks so much everyone,you guys are amazing and im genuinely touched by the encouragement and advice and tips.

Ive been a good boy and resisted buying cheap eye pieces from ebay.decided if ic can get mid range price or  good 2nd hand eye pieces thats the way im going to go.But im not going to rush,i still have to get a chesire and turn left at orion.

Hoping to get a ppi pay out fingers crossed.

I was telling everyone at work today about seeing saturn most of them not impressed but the odd person was quite interested.

Yep last night was amazing for me on a personal level.Everyrhing is slowly coming together.

Once again thank you all so much ?

[Stu1smartcookie]

1 hour ago, Kn4fty said:

The problem with winter viewing is if it a beautiful clear night you tend to have a lot of high level atmospheric turbulence that can limit seeing. But with that being said, I've had my best sessions in the winter. Usually after a storm front passes through ,if you look at the sky, you'll notice it clear with a very slight hazy look. That's when it's time to get the scope up. The haze is because of a lack of turbulence. The seeing is usually phenomenal and the very slight haze tends to not really affect the scopes ability. Just dress warm and make sure to let the scope cool down enough. Hope this helps.

Rob

Rob , thank you for the info , maybe it’s because the skies darken fully in the winter that I thought it was best .. I just reckoned that in the warm heavy air of the summer , dust  and pollen stay in the air and also there is more of a heat haze , especially at lower levels , but the storm scenario is good because rain will completely cleanse the air . 

[Stu1smartcookie]

24 minutes ago, ukuleledaveey said:

Thanks so much everyone,you guys are amazing and im genuinely touched by the encouragement and advice and tips.

Ive been a good boy and resisted buying cheap eye pieces from ebay.decided if ic can get mid range price or  good 2nd hand eye pieces thats the way im going to go.But im not going to rush,i still have to get a chesire and turn left at orion.

Hoping to get a ppi pay out fingers crossed.

I was telling everyone at work today about seeing saturn most of them not impressed but the odd person was quite interested.

Yep last night was amazing for me on a personal level.Everyrhing is slowly coming together.

Once again thank you all so much ?

Dave , I showed my neighbour Saturn last night ... he actually didn’t believe the planet had rings , so I feel I’ve actually educated one person already lol .

[Kn4fty]

No problem. Another thing about winter is the air also tends to be drier. 

[des anderson]

Well, someone`s hooked....The planets are a great talking point. Wait until the Orion nebula is visible your`ll be hooked on DSO. Des

[SIDO]

5 minutes ago, des anderson said:

Well, someone`s hooked....The planets are a great talking point. Wait until the Orion nebula is visible your`ll be hooked on DSO. Des

Orion will grab you hard, throw Pleiades and the Double Cluster in on the same night and you may even need some rehab before bed.

[Stu1smartcookie]

I’m soooo looking forward to Orion .. 

[cletrac1922]

Dave

Welcome from land down under

Last week, I was contacted by a local school, through my club website, and they had 20 Japanese's exchange students visiting, and wanted to see the Southern Cross, as not visible Northern Hemisphere

Arranged to do a viewing for them the following night

Using laser pointer, showed them Southern Cross, and Scorpio

Then trained my 10" dob onto Jupiter, using a 15mm Wide-angle eyepiece, as find better eye relief for 8-10yo's when doing presentations in schools, then hoped over to Saturn, and a lot of Ohh's and Ahh's  

Rings were very clear around Saturn, as well as the moons around Jupiter

Then went to Jewel Box located within the Southern Cross, and more Ohh's and Ahh's

Next hop was to Omega Centauri, and hard to make out due to light pollution, from Brisbane to our north

Finally jumped to M6, Butterfly cluster, in Scorpio, located adjacent to Antares

Had the exchange students draw Southern Cross, and Scorpio, and mark Jewel Box, Omega Centauri and Butterfly Cluster,

I think clarity you say seem to be lacking, could be due to light pollution, over the horizon, from where you are

John

[Stu1smartcookie]

10 hours ago, cletrac1922 said:

Dave

Welcome from land down under

Last week, I was contacted by a local school, through my club website, and they had 20 Japanese's exchange students visiting, and wanted to see the Southern Cross, as not visible Northern Hemisphere

Arranged to do a viewing for them the following night

Using laser pointer, showed them Southern Cross, and Scorpio

Then trained my 10" dob onto Jupiter, using a 15mm Wide-angle eyepiece, as find better eye relief for 8-10yo's when doing presentations in schools, then hoped over to Saturn, and a lot of Ohh's and Ahh's  

Rings were very clear around Saturn, as well as the moons around Jupiter

Then went to Jewel Box located within the Southern Cross, and more Ohh's and Ahh's

Next hop was to Omega Centauri, and hard to make out due to light pollution, from Brisbane to our north

Finally jumped to M6, Butterfly cluster, in Scorpio, located adjacent to Antares

Had the exchange students draw Southern Cross, and Scorpio, and mark Jewel Box, Omega Centauri and Butterfly Cluster,

I think clarity you say seem to be lacking, could be due to light pollution, over the horizon, from where you are

John

John , i purchased the 10" fex tube dob only a week or so ago and im really looking forward to using it more as the nights get longer , but i am also interested in the skyatcher ED 80.

Do you use it for astrophotography? i was also looking at the williams optic version .. ive done a bit of research but its useful for me to get your views(pardon the pun) of this scope 

[Demonperformer]

Congrats. There are many on SGL who would classify "first view of Saturn" as an unforgettable moment. And it has happened when the rings are wide open (albeit that it is way down near the horizon). One of the times that makes the hobby worth all the frustrating nights when you get nothing ...

[Stu]

21 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Can i ask a possibly silly question? , is there one better season than the others ...by that i mean , is a clear night in winter better than a clear night in summer ... for observing . I have a theory that the winter evenings are better . 

Much depends on what you want to look at. For planets and high power viewing of doubles etc you want steady skies with the minimum of turbulence in the atmosphere. These nights are often those with a slight haze, which doesn't hurt the views of brighter objects and can actually help cut the glare a little.

For viewing faint deep sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae, you want maximum transparency ie no high haze or pollution in the atmosphere. Often after a heavy rain shower can be good for this, and the clearest nights are often not the best seeing so lower power DSO observing is good for these nights.

Hot summer days can mean lots of heat being given off buildings as night falls, so views can be wobbly, so winter can be better from that perspective. It is also often the case that the best seeing is in the early hours of the morning once everything has cooled down and there is less local turbulence.

The other point is obviously which targets you enjoy viewing. I love late summer because of Cygnus and the Milky Way being overhead, warmish nights but decent darkness still. Having said that, each of the seasons has something to offer, whether it is galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, Orion or the lovely Southern Milky Way objects or something else. Plenty out there, so pick your targets to suit the night I guess.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Hi Stu , thanks for that , i really want to see DSO's ... the Planets , apart from Saturn , dont seem to be favourable at the moment .. having said that im looking forward to getting a glimpse of the outer planets uranus and neptune as they are a bit higher in the sky , but im looking for Nebs , and Globs ... i suppose the best part of the sky for observing is always going to be directly above my location . As im in a fairly Light polluted locale and the skies dont darken until late in the summer i am looking forward to october and november ( weather permitting ) when the sky will be that much darker , that much faster . I did spot Saturn , in the daylight the other evening ... my best find to date but the atmosphere was very still so im sure that helped . The milky way is  visible for me and  Cygnus is a good target as its directly above and they are great sights .

[Stu]

Good stuff @Stu1smartcookie. Not sure if you’ve tried yet, but there are a few globs well placed currently such as M13, 92 and 15. 13 should be pretty simple to find in Hercules, up quite high and bright. If you can see the MW you are doing much better than me! The Veil and The North America Nebula are my two favourites in Cygnus, a UHC filter would help for these 

[Stu1smartcookie]

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

Good stuff @Stu1smartcookie. Not sure if you’ve tried yet, but there are a few globs well placed currently such as M13, 92 and 15. 13 should be pretty simple to find in Hercules, up quite high and bright. If you can see the MW you are doing much better than me! The Veil and The North America Nebula are my two favourites in Cygnus, a UHC filter would help for these 

Ive got 3 coloured filters as well as a moon filter in a box of tricks that i purchased from Amazon .. not sure if they will be any good . its damn cloudy again today... lol , i never bothered about cloud before , but now i find myself downloading every weather app under the sun !! I certainly will look for the globs . 

[Stu]

24 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Ive got 3 coloured filters as well as a moon filter in a box of tricks that i purchased from Amazon .. not sure if they will be any good . its damn cloudy again today... lol , i never bothered about cloud before , but now i find myself downloading every weather app under the sun !! I certainly will look for the globs . 

Coloured filters won’t help with Nebula, better to try without one.

Start with M13, easy to find in Hercules as said. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Coloured filters won’t help with Nebula, better to try without one.

Start with M13, easy to find in Hercules as said. 

Many thanks with this ... certainly a great help to me 

[ukuleledaveey]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Coloured filters won’t help with Nebula, better to try without one.

Start with M13, easy to find in Hercules as said. 

Which app is this? If its ok to ask cheers in advance.