Astro Bins Starter - Advice welcome!

[Dr Nurburg]

Hi all! I love this forum by the way... it's so much nicer to have a site with some decent cosmetic styling as opposed to all the horrific default "texty" ones. Cheers!

I have just bought a pair of 15 x 70's. Here, these are the ones:

Celestron Skymasters

I must say the first time I tried these, which incidently was the first time I have ever used any astronomical apparatus, I was amazed! I could see stars and galaxies in the blackness that I would have never known existed with the naked eye.

Now, I've been reading your forum a lot before I joined and apparantly, if I've heard correctly, with 15 x 70's I should be able to see not only Jupiter but also it's moons... and so I assume also the space station.

What I want to know is:

1. Where should I be looking for Jupiter, as all I've seen so far is more stars.

2. How big and clearly to see will Jupiter be when I catch it?

3. How big should the space station be?

4. Where should I be looking for Mars, and similarly how clearly should it appear to me?

Many thanks for your answers and I'll share more of my newcomer experiences here as I go along!

Bye for now and thanks for any responses.

[brianb]

1. Low in the south west just after dark. It's gone by late evening.

2. Very bright; at 15x you will see just a tiny tiny disk with the satellites in a line to either side. (Satellite postitions relative to Jupiter constantly changing but not fast enough for you to see changes in "real time")

3. The ISS can be even brighter than Jupiter, it moves fast from west to east and shines with a steady light - if you see stobes you're seeing an aircraft. You will not see much structure at 15x but it does look non-stellar.

4. Lowish in the east around midnight, getting quite high in the south just before dawn. It will appear stellar in binoculars but you should note the red/orange colour easily enough. (At the moment the apparent size is about the same as a golf ball viewed from 1/2 mile away).

[Dr Nurburg]

2. Very bright; at 15x you will see just a tiny tiny disk with the satellites in a line to either side. (Satellite postitions relative to Jupiter constantly changing but not fast enough for you to see changes in "real time")

When you say a "tiny disk" how does it appear different to your average star? I mean is it obviously not a star or could I mistake it for a star?

[jgs001]

It's a small but obvious disk, the moons look like tiny stars. If you head over to Jupiter's Moons you'll be able to determine what moons are where... at 15x if the moons are close together they may well appear to be one.

[Dr Nurburg]

Thanks for your help there guys.

I'm slightly concerned that brianb might not be from Uk and that he has subsequently told me to look in the wrong place. I'm from SW Britain, can someone clarify whether we're on the right track please? lol.

Cheers.

[jgs001]

Sounds about right to me. Look South as soon as it's dark. It's the brightest "star" you can see.

[Dr Nurburg]

Ace. I'll check that out tonight. Thanks.

[brianb]

I'm slightly concerned that brianb might not be from Uk

Last time I checked, Northern Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom

In any case the advice I gave is accurate enough as a guide for anyone living between say latitude 45 North and latitude 60 North irrespective of longuitude.

[Dr Nurburg]

Thanks brianb.

[cloud9]

im in the south east of england and Jupiter is directly south when we get into twilight hours. When i first saw it i thought it was a star but its easily the brightest thing in the sky.

[Dr Nurburg]

Would you say Jupiter is the easiest planet to see through 15 x 70's or am I missing something better?

[Dr Nurburg]

I guess that was a silly question, was half asleep at the time.

Anyway I'm having enough fun as it is without seeing another planet in all its glory! Can't wait for the moon to start materialising.

But I will get a nice strong telescope one day... just to see those rings around saturn etc. Unmissable I am sure.

[pvaz]

Jupiter will appear as a disk but without surface detail on binos. You will see it's not a point as the stars. To start seeing the bands I need at least 35x and it's still very tiny.

At 120x it looks like a pea at arms length, at 240x it doubles in diameter but needs a steady night, regarding air currents and such, since they affect seeing at high magnification. At 240x I easily detect 3 bands and sometimes a 4th one.

Best views are normally in a calm night after a storm.

[Dr Nurburg]

Looking South at 6:45pm tonight (Friday), SW UK, I saw what appeared to be a bright star, fairly high but not high enough to be in "top area of sky". Brightest at least in that area of sky. I've eyed this before but haven't really looked close and steady at it before. Tonight though I got a good close look at it through my bins and it appeared to be a bright disk, clearly a disk in fact, and if I'm right it was Venus.

I know it can't be Jupiter because I've been told that Jupiter doesn't stay out for long after dark, certainly not high enough to see at 6:45pm.

So was it Venus? I am confused, because although apparantly it can't be Jupiter, it did have some pin-pointed stars, rather more like they were brightly reflecting than emitting, that could have been moons, in a line either side. But maybe they were just stars.

In fact this star stays out most of the night. Usually still there by 10pm, possibly all night, but I've not watched it that much so can't say how long for sure.

I'm not actually sure where to look for Venus, only Jupiter, but am assuming via process of elimination that it probably is Venus.

Any opinions/thoughts/advice>?

Cheers,

Simon

[pvaz]

It was Jupiter. It's setting down close to 11pm here.

Venus and Mercury have smaller orbits then ours. From our point of view they always follow the sun. When they are on the right side of the sun they appear at dawn right before sunrise, when they are at the left they appear right after sunset. Right now venus is visible in the morning and mercury at sunset.

Mars is rising in the east around midnight, and Saturn at 3 am. the others are barely visible.

Install stellarium, it's free, works great and you can play with the time and see where something will be in advanced.

Edit: I made a lot of typos.

PS-> Try getting in a real dark area and let your eyes adapt to the dark. Focus at the faintest star you can see. Then use the binos and look at jupiter. Try to see if you can spot some very tiny light points in a line. Those are the moons. I can see them on good nights with binos, they are really tiny though.

[Dr Nurburg]

Ok thanks for confirming. I thought I had spied some moons - and I was right! For the size of it, my brain was saying Jupiter, but someone had told me it would be too late. But heh... so yes I have seen Jupiter's moons with my own eyes...! ... but will try and get a more prolonged steady shot tomorrow.

Will look out for Mars tonight!

And thanks for the free software! Really cool of you.

I've always been interested in seeing the stars for myself, but I never thought I would see much without owning a million dollar observatory. I did not think amateur observing would turn out to be anything spectacular. But heh, since using just a pair of powerful binos I am hooked on the idea of getting a telescope. That's a deffinate purchase next year, hopefully in May. Great time to get one too. It'll probably be that Dobsonian 150P you've all been recommending me.

Thanks again.

[pvaz]

Yeah I started a few months ago. I used a star wheel I downloaded for free to learn the constellations and some binos I had laying around for 2 months. On bad days I used stellarium with the constelations lines/names off to practice locating stuff. (BTW if you set the location on stellarium it will show a replica of your sky at any time you wish. You can use a GPS to get your location latitude/longitude or use google earth, zoom in your observation spot and as you point the mouse at it you can get the coords on the status bar.)

Then I bought a dob, pretty similar to the one recommended and it's been fun.

Edit: Another advice, try finding a local astronomy club. I went to one and had the chance to use an EQ mount a refractor and an 8" SCT scope. It was fun to actually be with people sharing the same hobby, I learned a lot and I tried out some expensive gear for free. I realized my dob was an all rounder, performed a bit less well then the SCT on Jupiter, mostly because of the lack of tracking at high mags, but then again it cost me much less and the visual difference was minimal. On DSOs my dob, and a bigger dob from the club seamed to perform as well or better then the rest.