no equipment gazing

[leenewtoastro]

can i identify jupiter and saturn as these are classed as visable to the naked eye afaik ?

is there a site that will give me a compass type heading and angle (azimuth ? ) and time to look ?

once spotting with the eye and simple instrutions as above would prob lead me to getting a scope

i've viewed and tracked the iss in this manor many times

tia

[Woody]

Google "Stellarium" and download that. A really good, free planetarium program.

I learnt quite alot from that alone and people here rate it.

Cheers

[todd8137]

try this

Stellarium

this will give you a general way to look just put your location in and away you go down load it ,its a great programe

pat

clear skies always

[leenewtoastro]

thx

[Peter Drew]

Hello Lee, welcome to visual astronomy .

Both Jupiter and Saturn are easy to see unaided once you know where they are. At the moment, if clear, Jupiter is SSW , fairly low and slightly fainter than the ISS which you have already seen. Saturn does not rise untill the early hours at present so you would have either to stay up really late or get up early before daylight , take your pick!. Saturn will be available in the evenings as the year progresses. To keep up with these things, download Stellarium which is a good free planetarium programme.

[NickK]

Don't think it's all planets.

Once your night vision is developed, you can spot nebulae and clusters!

[leenewtoastro]

yep that programme has a great gui

have clear sky south atm

i'm sure i have sirius dew south twinkling and with seeemingly 3-4 colours too ?

hmmm jupiter is not showing as visable in stellarium ?

opps just spotted it west but very very low

[brantuk]

Jupiter will be set by now - I'll just check......

Edit - yup just dipping under the horizon as we speak

[leenewtoastro]

ah top gear distracted me. darn

thx brant

[Lurker]

You can spot Jupiter easily with naked eye. It's very bright.

[brantuk]

Here's what I use for quick checking of where the planets are on the ecliptic. It's got a fair bit of other info too and much overshadowed by Stellarium:

Sky View Cafe - Astronomy - Star Charts and Ephemeris

[leenewtoastro]

hardly a Revelation but they say you learn something new every day and yesterday was that not all in the night sky that shines is a star bar the moon!

Jupiter is gleaming right now

so what begineer scope would make it look more like a planet and not a star?

[brantuk]

Congrats leenewtoastro

Try binocs on it - you should see the moons in 10x50's dead easy.