Help viewing Saturn

[Leegsi]

I have a Skywatcher 130PL (The longer one) and been viewing Saturn the last few nights.

I have been viewing it with a X2 Barlow, Super 10 and super 25 (Both long eye relief).

What I can see is clearly Saturn as I can see 2 lines sticking out either side of the planet but that's about it.

I don't see any definition, Is this due to my limited equipment?

[Sam]

Seeing the detail is a lot about the conditions at the time. Your scope is more than fine for seeing detail on Saturn. Saturn is quite bright so the size of the scope is not a big issue - it's a matter of bringing out the detail through differences in colour and contrast and this can be badly affected by the condition of the atmosphere. The other thing is that you get used to observing as well so over time you get better at spotting some of the more subtle details. For Saturn take your time and wait for those fleeting moments of stable atmosphere that allows Saturn to really show off. The main things to look for are the rings, the Cassini division on the rings (quite hard to see at the moment due to the angle), the shadow of the rings on the planet, the banding on the planet and the planet's moons. If you can spot all of those then you are doing very well.

Sam

[Leegsi]

The image in the eye piece is quite small too

[Doc]

The bigger the aperture the larger the image, but your scope should certainly see details such as banding and bring out colour as well.

As sam has said it's all about seeing conditions. You have to observe Saturn for a long peroid, within this period you will notice glimpses off really good seeing and periods of bad seeing. During the good ones, with practise details will pop out.

[John]

Detail on Saturn is more challenging to discern than, say, Jupiter. With my 12" scope at the moment I can see the rings almost edge on (but not cassinis division), the black gap between the planet and the rings though this is challenging because the rings are almost edge on, 4-5 moons (depends on the conditions) and some faint banding on the planets disk.

So I suspect your scope is showing as much as it can at the present time.

John

[scotastro]

Don't be too disappointed by the view. The planet is over 1200 million km away. The lines sticking out the sides are the rings which are virtually edge on at the moment and only a few tens of kilometers thick. You will not see the Cassini Division until the rings open up a bit in a year or so.

Any star like objects close to the planet (in line with he rings) will be its moons, Titan is the brightest and so easiest to see.

For some reason now that we are looking sideways on the colour bands on Saturn which are always subtle are even less obvious. I use a 16" Newt and there is hardly any colour visible with that. So like I said don't be disappointed.

Mike

[Leegsi]

Dont get me wrong me and my wife were blown away with what we could see.

But for the last 3 nights I have been out viewing it for ages but just cant see what everyone else seems to see wit their crisp images.

Just have to keep viewing

Would it be worth me getting a higher magnification

eye piece too as the x10 and x25 (Plus the x2 Barlow) is all I have.

[starstruk]

I have the skywatcher 130p and i got a not too expensive 4mm plossl and can see colour and banding on Saturn with it.

I think the images you see on here have been prosessed and are not what you will see through the eyepiece

With the 4mm Saturn is about the size of a small pea,if i try to go bigger with a barlow it gets very fuzzy

[John]

....But for the last 3 nights I have been out viewing it for ages but just cant see what everyone else seems to see wit their crisp images....

What you see visually will not look like the images you see on the web and in magazines I'm afraid. The images are produced by sensitive CCD's which gather 100's of images which are then stacked and procssed to maximise the details and contrast. Our poor eyes just can't compete with that so we have to make do with more subtle, but lovely nonetheless, observations.

John

[Leegsi]

Yeah I know I wont see the great images that are on here (Hopfully one day I can do one).

Also whats a Plossl?

[Brinders]

A plossl is a 4 element eyepiece usually comprising 2 convex and 2 concave lens elements. The shorter the focal length the greater the apparent magnification. More info can be found here:-

Eyepiece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brinders

[stuleah]

hi leegsi

i am also a newbie on here and have recently bought the celestron 130 eq.

i saw saturn for the first time 2 nights ago, to be honest although it was great to see, i also thought that i would see more than i could.

i think the problem is that we all see pictures on the net and in magazines and think thats what we are going to see or something near.i have a 10 plossl and use a 2x barlow with it and see the same as you have described so i think that is probably about it with our scopes.

even so still amazing to think how far away it is.