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My first view of saturns rings.

johnnyp

By johnnyp
in Observing - Planetary

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johnnyp

johnnyp

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Hi all, Whilst in the midst of my hunt for my first proper scope (which incidentally is much harder than i thought!) i casually opened the curtain and saw saturn right outside my window,which stellarium confirmed for me.

Perfect opportunity to get out the £49.99 "discovery channel spotting scope" which i received for my birthday last month:) I stuck in the 4mm eyepiece, and to my surprise i could (just) make out the rings. Ive only ever seen pictures of these sort of things and even though it was very small and faint it was fantastic to see with my own eye. I know its late but i just had to share it :) I had to go wee afterwards! sad but true!:icon_eek:

P.s could anyone tell me how the view would differ through a 5inch mak? or 4inch refractor?

Clear skies :eek:)

John

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russ

russ

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4" frac or 5" Mak will be a completely different kettle of fish to the Spotter. Saturn will be bright, with the rings clearly shown. Perhaps a band or two on the planet. When the rings open again, you will have no problem seeing the Cassini division in either the 4" or 5".

Hope that whets the appetite for the new scope :)

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johnnyp

johnnyp

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4" frac or 5" Mak will be a completely different kettle of fish to the Spotter. Saturn will be bright, with the rings clearly shown. Perhaps a band or two on the planet. When the rings open again, you will have no problem seeing the Cassini division in either the 4" or 5".

Hope that whets the appetite for the new scope :)

Just what I wanted to hear:)

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calibos

calibos

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John, I'll have to clarify Callisto's post there. You'll see something like that in about 5 or 6 years time. Saturns rings are tilted from its orbital plane. What this means is that depending where it is in its 27 year orbit around the Sun, from earth we see the rings from a changing perspective. Basically every 13 or 14 years we see the rings edge on. In other words we see a thin white line run through the disc of Saturn.

You guessed it. '09/10 is that year. Now one should look on the positive side. We only get to see Saturn like this once overy 14 years. Its a rare phenominon. We get to see lots of Saturn moon transits across Saturns disc etc.

The rings are starting to open up again but it'll be six years till they look like that image. However, don't be too disheartened. By next Spring/Summer they will have opened up enough that you'll see they are indeed rings and not a thin straight line. On nights of good seeing with a high enough mag, you'll see the gap between the planets disc and the rings. ie. This visual cue will give it a more 3D look where you'll see the rings curl around the back of the planet. In 2011 it'll be even better. It'll look like it did for me in '08. There'll be no doubt about the 3D effect even at lower mags, you'll start to see the Cassini division which is a big gap in the ring system. Year on year it'll get better and better until it looks like we are almost looking down on the planet as it were like the picture Callisto posted. But for that kind of view we have to wait till about 2014.

Don't get me wrong, its still a lovely sight in 2009/10 but 2011 onwards is when the magic starts to happen again as it were.

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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Either way, a fantastic sight :)

Just one other thing about the above image. I may be wrong about it but i dont think so. Saturn will not look as big as that in a 4" scope. I think that image is heavily cropped. I have a 3.5" scope and while Saturn does look like that (when the rings are open), it is nowhere near as big as that. That image was taken using a 5X Barlow and stackedwith 900 exposures.

So realistically with a 4" scope Saturn will be a lot fainter and 5 times smaller. The following image is the best image i have through my scope. I took a short .AVI of Saturn by holding a small P&S camera up to the scope. This is a grab from that .AVI.

It does Saturn NO justice. Saturn is the one object (ok one of a couple of objects) that no matter what size scope you use to observe it, it will blow you away.

*correction*

Comparing both images........i see that Saturn viewed with 5X Barlow is not much bigger then my image which uses no Barlow. Also my image is a screen grab from a shaky .AVI.

Methink i wil have to try Saturn with my 2X Barlow............which is CHEAP and i have never had any good results with................but that could be a lot to do with seeing also. As was through the scope i could clearly see the Cassini divide. I couldnt pick out any layers/bands on the surface though.

I really need to hook my SLR upto my scope.

post-18019-133877414337_thumb.jpg

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great_bear

great_bear

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By next Spring/Summer they will have opened up enough that you'll see they are indeed rings and not a thin straight line.

Actually, last night the view was so sharp, you could clearly - very clearly - tell they were rings. The quality of view was amazing.

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johnnyp

johnnyp

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Sorry all,

I think in future i will keep some opinions to myself,

If i have mislead anyone i am very sorry. :)

Hi Callisto, not misleading at all imo, they were definitely ring like to me and somethin i will never forget:) very informative and cant wait for a better view!

Warm Regards

John

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calibos

calibos

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You have not mislead anyone, your pic clearly shows what a 4" is capable of.

The text under the pic tells all the information needed to show how you achieved the view that you got.

Some people like to nick-pick. Happens a lot.

No one said Callisto was misleading anybody. I just added further clarification to the great information and image he had already provided. Like yourself, I don't like people who nitpick either. So its lucky I wasn't nitpicking wasn't it. :icon_eek:

Adding important information that a previous poster may have simply forgotten to mention in the previous post or didn't post because he assumed it would be understood as a given is helpful clarification imho. Its important info. We don't want the OP thinking something is wrong with his scope when he see's Saturn but doesn't see it like the image posted.

Nitpicking would be pointing out inconsequential errors in a previous post. For instance, posting "Calibos got it wrong...we see the rings edge on every 15 years not 14" That could possibly be interpreted as nitpicking for the sake of it. (TBH I wouldn't be offended even if someone did nit pick a minor error in one of my posts. I bow to others superior knowledge. It would only be if it was said in a sneering tone that it would annoy me.)

So can we have less of the insinuations that I am someone with OCD who just has to nitpick minor details in other peoples posts :)

I thought it was an important clarification

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calibos

calibos

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Actually, last night the view was so sharp, you could clearly - very clearly - tell they were rings. The quality of view was amazing.

Yeah, Like I said, you'll get to see that view in Spring 2010. You don't think I am staying up till 5am to see it this early in this years Saturn 'season ';) :) I'll be waiting till Spring to view it at a reaonable hour like 10 or 11pm. So we were both right! :icon_eek:

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