Viewing

[RyAnarchy]

i just spent hours outside.. i saw the moon up close which was amazing.. i located saturn and when i looked through the eyepiece it was just a small dot.. when i had it on other stars they were just small dots.. i tried focusing.. what am i doing wrong and what eyepieces should i use

[cjh2007]

What eyepiece were you using, you should get a good view of saturn though your scope!!

[RyAnarchy]

erm if im right 10x and 25x ? also used the barlow.. im a complete newb so im not too sure of anything

[cjh2007]

Saturn is not gonna be massive but you should be able to see the rings and a few of its moons, cant miss titan!!

[RyAnarchy]

all it came out as was a tiny dot.. could the weather/atmosphere play a part in it?

[cjh2007]

with your 10mm eyepiece and x2 barlow you get 150x mag and 60x using the 25mm.

im new to all this too, not to sure about weather/atmosphere! i viewed it earlier too, upto about 333x and its still only the size of small pea but quite clear!!

[RyAnarchy]

i'll have another look tomorrow.. started getting a headache which didnt help anything.. when you line an object up in the finderscope do you always have to move the telescope a bit to find the object? also when the scopes in a position its awkward viewing through the finderscope.. any way of making that a little easier?

[cjh2007]

I line up my finderscope during the day on a telegraph pole i can see a fair way away from where i live, sometimes the object is spot on and other times might be alittle out. you could buy a right angled finderscope which might make it abit easier!!

[crovax]

Hi, I had the same issue last weekend. Here's my thread

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/80579-magnification-question-am-i-missing-some-part.html

As far as I understand now Saturn is quite far away and it is noraml for it to be that small. Also Titan (I suppose that was Titan) is a tiny star-like thing near Saturn.

I would recommend looking at Jupiter. I haven't done this with the new telescope but last year I observed it with a crappy 60x telescope . Lol, I even don't remember where I got it, guess somebody in my family took it from friends who didn't need it anymore or something like that. And even in that crappy telescope I was able to identify "strange big shiny thing" (didn't know much about astronomy back then ) as Jupiter. Also I was able to see lines in the atmosphere and a few moons. So I assume that in my new and your current scope it will look cool.

[RyAnarchy]

i didnt even get it that big, it just looked like a tiny yellow/orange dot.. maybe it wasnt even saturn.. would be kinda frustrating if it wasnt cause id spent so much time lining it up in the finderscope.. then again it would be no fun at all if i found everything all in one night.. thing with jupiter, i have trouble staying awake around 4am to see it although the other morning i believe i saw it along with venus more to the east.. checked on stellarium for positions so if that was correct seeing two planets out at once was pretty mind blowing.. just wish id had my scope set up at that time

[crovax]

Last year in late summer Jupiter was up at about midnight or even earlier. I suspect that this is specific to time of the year so you'll have chance to see it! I have problems with getting up early too so I am looking forward for that time too

Well, if it was a tiny dot then I doubt you saw Saturn. Even in 25" it looked like a bright star with tiiiiny rings.

Don't fully rely on finder. The whole thing works like that:

Put in 25", find saturn in finder, look in eye-piece and if you don't see a bright thing, just wander around that place with the help of those things that allow you to rotate scope slowly. When you find it, center it in the eypiece and change to 10", center it and insert barlow+10". Also don't make the last steps too slowly because Saturn runs away quite quickly.

Also may be I am making mistake here (I am a total newb) but as far as I understand polar aligment will be of great help. If you do it, you'll be able to follow Saturn only by rotating your RA. Or DEC, I don't remember really. Anyway following Saturn by moving single coordinate is rather helpfull. So set your latitude circle to your latitude.

[RyAnarchy]

thanks

[RyAnarchy]

hmm just remembered, on the mount in the middle where the top part sits on the legs.. mine now seems to move.. like it lifts at an angle.. i dont remember noticing that before, also not sure if someone else has messed around with it.. is it supposed to be like that or should it be flat?

[crovax]

Does it move around one of the coordinate circles? I doubt I can find how that is called in english but my mount has...uh....such big screws with big black things on the top. They are tightened by hand without any tool. I hope you got what I mean.

They need to be tightened. As far as I remember there are three of them. At RA, DEC circles and at the bottom of the place where all the upper thing gets attached to the legs.

When you tighten them you'll be able to move only with those long things that move scope very slowly. So you first point scope to the area of the sky where object is, then tighten screws and then move with the help of those long things.

[RyAnarchy]

i think i get what you mean, i think the problem might be the bottom 'big screw with the black thing on top' (same way id describe it too) everythings tight on it, i'll have a play around with it later, be better tonight cause i'll have someone with me (hopefully)