Get Triton

[John]

This evening Neptunes brightest moon Triton is quite well placed for observing. It's around 13 arc seconds W of Neptune so it preceeds the planet as it drifts across an undriven field of view. It's billed as being magnitude 13.5 by Cartes du Ciel (which shows it's position accurately) but it's showing quite well at 397x with my 12" dobsonian just now (Ethos 8mm plus 2x Powermate). It's a faint speck but an interesting one 

Triton is a little smaller than our moon but still sizable, as moons go. Triton is a wee bit larger than Pluto, apparently.

 

[Demonperformer]

Thanks for the headsup, but the clouds aren't playing ball.

Not got the means to see Triton visually myself (too many streetlights for one thing), but have (on a couple of occasions) done a Neptune/Triton series of shots showing their movement in relation to each other (6 and a bit day revolution) and the night sky (about 6 days to cross the fov of my DSLR + 102mm frac). With a bit of planning, that makes for quite an interesting project.

[Owmuchonomy]

Mmmmm..... I wonder?  It’s billed as 12” distant on Saturday night, my next opportunity to try the new toy. I may even tandem mount it with the 9.25 SCT.

[John]

I glimpsed Triton with my ED120 a few nights back - it was right on the edge of the scopes ability that night so it was no more than a few averted vision glimpses. The 130mm refractor has also show it. High magnifications were used - 300x plus.

I use a rather odd viewing technique for these sorts of targets which seems to be known as the "1000 yard stare". It's rather like the technique you use to view those "magic eye" 3D images where you deliberately focus beyond the target. I guess this must bring more sensitive parts of the eye into play because it does seem to help faint point source targets to "pop" out a little more readilly. I've also used this approach to see faint supernovae.

 

[Owmuchonomy]

Yes, I get what you mean. The human brain is capable of integration so what you describe is quite possible. I have put it on my observing list.

[John]

I've just corrected my post above to read "1000 yard stare" which makes a little sense at least. I mistakenly typed in "1000 year stare" originally - goodness knows that that is !

I also appreciate now that this term is generally used to refer to the state of shock on faces of those who have experienced trauma so it's not really appropriate to the scenario that I was describing.

I'll try and think of a better term in due course.

 

[Littleguy80]

I’ve had several failed attempts at Triton. With the 6mm BGO and Baader VIP I was up to 400x so magnification should have been sufficient. I’m not sure if it was there and I was just missing it or if I just need darker skies. I can easily pick up the mag 13 star near M57 from home so doesn’t feel like Triton should be out of range. It’s proving a good challenge though! 

[BiggarDigger]

I was out last night and spent some time on Neptune.  It's relatively low in the sky just now and although the sky was beautifully clear, seeing wasn't ideal.  I think this might have been due to the weather gathering over the horizon to the west.

I was unable to spot Triton.  120x  on my 200p dob was as far as I could push it with the conditions.  Maybe next time.

Richard