Observation Tips?

[Arthur Dent]

Dear all,

I am amazed with all the pictures and success stories in this forum. Well done. Maybe the one or the other could help me out with some good practice for obeserving jupiter and saturn. We have just recently purchased a Skywatcher ED80 and with it some celestron super ploessl (15mm, 10mm, 6mm). Problem is, what we see through this scope does not come near the glossy pictures or in fact your superb shots.

question is, do we do something wrong? We see jupiter and the 4 moons all right, but no color and no great spot (supposedly even low powered scopes have no problem picking this up). Same with saturn.Great sight, yet no cassini division in sight.

Does one see all this only with cameras/stacked pictures?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Arthur.

[GazOC]

Hi Arthur,

The pictures on the forum are processed and stacked, you won't be able to see as much detail with your eye.

On Jupiter I can just make out the Red Spot with my ED80 but its not easy and if I didn't know it was there I'd probably miss, the colour is pretty evident though.

On Saturn the Cassini should be viewable as should at least one band on the planet and a few moons.

Are you taking your time to relax and take in the view? Sometimes you'll get 10 secs of clarity in 10 minutes viewing.

Gaz

[The Warthog]

I would suggest, too, that you pick out a star, and focus it down to the sharpest point you can make it, then go and look at the planet, and don't touch the focus again until you change eyepieces. It is easier to focus on a star than on a planet, but once you're focused, you're focused, no two ways about it.

[FLO]

Good question Arthur,

Jupiter's Red Spot is not always visible as Jupiter rotates; sometimes it is simply on the other side of the planet; it is also quite faint now. Also, seeing improves as an object climbs higher in the sky so it is worth waiting until it is at its highest (transit) before observing - currently, Jupiter is at its highest (about 25 degrees, in the South) around 01.00.

Saturn's Cassini division in the rings is not as pronounced as you might think and, as with Jupiter's weather bands, clear/steady skies are necessary to get the best views. A light-pollution-reduction filter will help if skyglow from street lighting is a problem.

Also, a short-tube refractor like yours works best at low-medium magnifications. The best planetary telescopes have a long focal length (for high magnification) and an aperture of 4" or more. Don't get me wrong, you can view planets with your telescope but you will need to work with it to get the best results.

Hope that helps

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The seeing of things seems to be a black art, almost like seeing things in those spotty pictures you see in the sunday paper mags. You can look and look and not see it, try again - no luck, then the time it pops out at you makes a difference, after that you can see the 3D dinosaur or whatever, and after that its easy. But go to the next spotty picture and you are back to square one.

Warthog is definitely correct WRT the focussing bit, get it right and it is right. Do the leap of faith thing and don't touch the focusser after you have it right. This comes from experience with a DSLR, its just so tempting to get it a bit better, then you mess it all up.

What you have against you WRT planets is a lack of aperture and a lack of focal length. The ideal target for a 'scope such as the ED80 (WRT imaging at least, I think that visual is the same) would be something that fills more of the field of view. M13 or another of the globular cluster type things would be better to look at with this 'scope.

This should not be read as a don't even go there type of hint, you will be able to see the Cassini division once you get the focus sorted and leave it alone, you just have to kind of wait for it to happen.

The colour thing is another issue, basically it is caused by the way your eye works. There are two kinds of sensors in your eye retina, these are called rods and cones from their physical appearance. One type is good for low light but is only monochrome, so you don't get any colour, the other type is less sensitive but does a great job with colours. The low light levels that you are working with means that your eye cannot perceive the colour even though it is there. The way round this doesn't seem sensible but it actually works out, use a longer focal length EP to see the colour. The more you magnify the planet, the more thinly spread the light gets so you can't see the colours, reduce the magnification and you have more chance of seeing colours.

I hope that this makes some sense and doesn't put you off, keep at it, it IS fun!

Captain Chaos

[Arthur Dent]

Dear all,

thank you for your useful tips, which we surely will take on board. I am convinced we will have a lot of fun with the scope now that you gave us some directions - given some more patience...

Cheers, Arthur.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

And if you need more answers, come back at us. I for one will be glad to tell you what little I know, and I'm sure that the others will join me.

Captain Chaos

[daz]

And if you need more answers, come back at us. I for one will be glad to tell you what little I know, and I'm sure that the others will join me.

Captain Chaos

Yep, we'll happily tell you what little Captain Chaos knows! :lol:

(Sorry CC, couldn't resist :D :D )

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The little I know has been gleaned from this very place I'll have you know!

Captain Chaos

[MartinB]

Arthur, I have an ED80 and find my view of Cassini very dependent on the seeing. As has been said, it isn't as clear as you imagine and takes quite patient observation. You want to push the magnification as far as the aperture of the scope will allow - about x160 in the case of the ED80. This will be approximately delivered by a 4mm EP so worth adding to your armoury. Despite the scopes relatively small aperture and focal length I have enjoyed the views I have had of Jupiter and Saturn.

DSOs show up nicely as well. To give you some idea - I've recently using the scope to look at globular clusters M3 M13 M92 - this show up as fuzzy circles with some stars just starting to appear at higher powers and properly dark adapted eyes - still mostly dim fuzz though. M81/82 and the leo triplet show up very nicely in the wide field that the scope provides. M51 shows up as 2 distinct fuzzes. M101 is really only apparent as a very dim haze - but it's there which I find exciting.

So theres plenty to go for with you scope Arthur. And if you ever fancy doing some imaging it's a gem