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Uranus! (I think)

maroon bells

By maroon bells
in Observing - Planetary

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maroon bells

maroon bells

Posted
Posted

I'm reasonably sure that I nailed Uranus for the first time last night. I had to get it in early as by about 8pm it disappears over my house.

The problem was the seeing was awful, there was a slight haze over most of the sky. Anyway what I could see was some sort of disk that was bluish but it was very difficult to make out. It had a refractive halo of rainbow colours dancing around it which I think must have been the haze splitting the colours up. Now and again they would stabilise and I would get a hint of the blue disk behind.

I think it's probably too far away to get any sort of decent view or does anyone else here know better?

I was using my new C9.25 with a 8mm XCEL and a 4mm Omni.

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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:? wooopss!... sorry folx. Well done then, Maroon Bells. I had the idea to view Uranus, as I noticed on Stellarium (a wonderful freebie) that it was up when I got up at 5 the other day. Never got round to it, but I imagine it would be an interesting target. What scope were you using?

Andrew

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GazOC

GazOC

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Uranus is a a bit if a hidden gem. The blue disk is a cracking view on really clear nights, its a good find for a new scope Dave. Congrats!

For anything other than lunar or splitting double stars you need to keep the mag down to x300 tops on most nights. Any more than that and you're just magnifiying atmospheric distortion/ interference.

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Kaptain Klevtsov

Kaptain Klevtsov

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I think it's probably too far away to get any sort of decent view or does anyone else here know better?

If it gets any closer, let me know and I'll get the wideangle lens out :D

Uranus, as this thread has shown, is a "hidden gem", something that not all of us are allowed to see. Your new 'scope lets you see it because its designed for small things that are far away. If you saw uranus, and I'm sure you did, then there's nothing wrong with your 'scope. that's what its for. If I saw it in my 80mm f/5 I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and a star because the 80mm is for (relatively) wide angle views.

I wish I'd seen Uranus, I can't claim thet privelige yet.

Captain Chaos

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SteelRat

SteelRat

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Yup - well done MB. Saw it in my 100r couple o months back after nights and nights of hunting for it. 'Blue disk - yay!' I whooped. It was a CRACKING good night for seeing though. Was at x182 (well 181.81) 11mm TVpl & x2 barlow. NO WAY was it anything else - was dead pleased to have found it. Have never seen Neptune though. It's behind our house now so maybe next op. eh? Glad to hear yer getting on with that scope.

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maroon bells

maroon bells

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Steelrat - well done sounds like you got a far better view of it than me - I am forced to look too early in the evening. It is much smaller than I thought it would be - looks very lonely out there eh?

Neptune must be miniscule - but as you say that will have to wait till next year now.

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SteelRat

SteelRat

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Don't get me wrong MB - it was small even so near to opposition. Not like looking at Jupiter, Saturn or even Mars. My 100r max's out at x200 - unless it's real good seeing and I can push it a liitle over that on the moon. x181 is really the opt high mag for me with my eyepieces. Like I said, it was small, but definately a blue disk - after so long a search I was probably a little more pleased with the find than the actual view :D Always a treat to know you're actually looking at a planet - but one so far out was extra special :D

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99pshop

99pshop

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No. Still cant figure out how to use Autostar on my telescope. I have failed consistently to point at any object using autostart.

I have trained and aligned manually but as soon as I try the fancy gadget it goes off to point at an empty sky. :D

I now await another clear night for another attempt.

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Ant

Ant

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Weldone for seeing Uranus, seen it once myself - don't really remember much about it though.

It's really nice to say that you have seen these objects... The fainter the object you observe the less people have seen what you have - very nice thought!

Ant

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99pshop

99pshop

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Success at last!!

Firstly I got a good view of the moon..... Wow! I had no idea. After spending 2 hours in the cold and about to give up, I decided to use my binoculars and thats when it dawned on me.. Everything is reversed! now I aligned and was able to goto a few stars which whilst not impressive in itself give me some confidence that I will be able to see something. I stayed up all night waiting for Saturn to come into view and then...... the sky dissapeared.. :D totally forgot I live in Aberdeen.

Well hopefully tonight will stay clear.

Question: Is in possible to actually see a nebula through a telescope without having to resort to imaging? If so, which is the easiest to see?

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Well, all these M42 images that are popping up should inspire you to take a look at that. It is a wonderful sight and is dead simple to find even if you don't use goto. Although you can't really make out the rich colours, you can clearly see the shape, even in my 114mm when it's low in the sky. In mine it just looked like a cloud that decided to pause for a while, but you should get some good detail in that 8" of yours.

Andrew

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