Am I expecting too much?

[Kevdan]

Hi All,

There were fairly clear skies this morning so decided to have a look at saturn, and basically couldnt make out anything at all, at the moment I only got 2 eyepieces a 9mm super plossl, a 26mm plossl and a and a 2x barlow, scope is a skywatcher 150mm with 750mm focal length so 9mm=83x and with barlow=166x.

Is it an eyepiece problem or is something wrong or is saturn beyond the reach of my scope at this time of year?

Also anyone know of a good calendar for best time to view planets as I know I've missed the best of jupiter so got to wait till next time?

Kev.

[Neilius]

You have a better scope than mine and I've been able to make out the rings and even (breifly) some detail.

Sometimes the atmosphere can have a detremental effect on observation, but with a 10mm eyepiece in my scope, I can make out the rings of Saturn, even though the entire object is very small.

[Daz Type-R]

Hi.

Not sure about your viewing issue, I`m a newbie myself and so far have only viewed the moon, only got an hour on Saturday night before the clouds rolled in.

But for your other question, some free software called Stellarium is awsome, it's completly free, you download it, set your home position, then you can search (in real time) anything you want, or it shows you as little or a much as you want, nebula, double stars, galaxys, planets, satelites etc.

Fantatsic bit of free software, I`d be lost without it!

[Tac]

Are you sure you were looking at Saturn? I only have 15x70 bins handheld and I can make out the lobes caused by the rings. Not enough magnification in the bins to see the rings themselves but can tell they are there.

[Nexus 6]

Hi Kev, I am certain you would see Saturn using any combination of ep within reason, you should certainly have seen it at either 93x or 166x, I had a look myself using my 13mm Nagler giving 180x, the views were superb at times

have you got Stellarium? It will allow you to check whats available for observation for you as long as you set it to your location.

incase you don't have it yet

Stellarium.org

[yoda]

Have you collomated your scope ?

Hear is a calendar alltho not quite for planets alltho you mite find it uesful Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events 2011 - Sea and Sky.

[swamp thing]

Hi Kev

Are you sure your on Saturn? Your scope will show it easy even with the 26mm. As Yoda said it might be as well to check your coll.

Regards Steve

[JamesF]

I spent some time viewing Saturn last night with my ST102. Even with the stock 10mm SW eyepiece (50x) I could clearly see the rings, planet and Titan, though I'll admit it was better when I dropped in a 4mm EP (125x), so I'd have thought you should be able to get some reasonable views with your setup.

James

[valleyman]

Check your alignment with your finder, You should be seeing great views with a 150.

You might not have been pointing to saturn. Even with bad collimation you would have known you was seeing it.

You need to check the collimation as well.

[ollypenrice]

Yes, something is amiss because Saturn rarely disappoints. You can see the rings in a decent 60mm birdscope at 45x.

So, was it Saturn?

Was the seeing truly terrible (that is, was it turbulent making the stars twinkle actively)?

Is the scope reasonably collimated? Quick test; look at a star near the zenith (high in the sky) and rack it in and out of focus slowly. A little out of focus either way you should see a set of concentric light and dark rings. If a little out they will look oval. If miles out you won't get rings at all but spikes of light coming off a ragged point of light.

Have you aligned your finderscope so that it points the same (exact) way as your scope? Point the scope at (eg) a distant steeple and then get the finder pointing the to the same point.

You'll sort it and you will certainly love Saturn.

Olly

PS Sorry Pat, we crossed in the post regarding the finder!

[NGC 1502]

It's just possible you may have been looking at Spica, Virgo's brightest star, very

prominent, lower down than Saturn, in the small hours at the mo.

Regards, Ed.

[Debostar]

Please be patient, I have just had my scope for two days, and I have seen a few Messier objects and the moon the first night and tonight I had a look at Jupiter...It was beautiful....But still quite small. It was bigger in my 9mm EP and I am sure if I had a 4mm EP, I could even make out some more detail.... It was also quite windy, so it was wobbling the scope a bit...What was amazing was that Jupiter is quite bright, really really bright!! And it is just reflecting light...I still haven't seen Saturn yet, it comes round around 0330 here, and I still can't say for sure, that I will get up to see it...But I am having a two day weekend coming up, so I will take my scope to a dark mountainous area, provided the wind lets up.

I have read somewhere here on the forum on a linked article, that "astronomy teaches patience and humilation"....So far, so good though...