Any advice please

[boston]

Dear All

After looking on this site for the past few months, and reading the excellent advice from the SGL community, i have now bought my first Telescope a Skywatcher 150P. Please forgive the content of my first post as i am a complete novice to this wonderful hobby.

As i have always had an interest in the night sky and whats up there appreciate any advice/tips as to anything i am not doing right or possibly the eye pieces i am using. Last night was an oppurtunity to view Saturn, with a clear and dark sky, and was something i had looked forward to seeing for weeks.

I set up the scope outside for at least 2 hours before viewing (to allow for cooling etc), and started to view from about 9.30pm onwards. I was advised when purchasing the scope that the rings etc could be visable through this scope etc but all i can see is the bright pin point of light (just more intensity than other stars nearby).

I have tried every combination of the supplied eye pieces x10, x25, and 2x Barlow, but it more or less appears to be the same image, unable to make out any further detail.

Please can i ask should i look into purchasing some additional eye pieces to the one supplied with the scope, to obtain an view with some detail, and (sorry about this one) should all of the lens cap be removed when viewing, or the smaller cap only, to allow for less light onto the mirror.

Any advice would be most appreciated - many thanks

[russ]

Even in the 25mm (30x) eyepiece there will be no mistaking you are looking at Saturn. Dare i say it but you were looking at a nearby star.....easily done, we've all done it when starting out.

[yeti monster]

Are you sure that you were aimed at Saturn? Even at 20x magnification the rings are obvious. A clue is, as you increase magnification, stars appear the same size, just the space inbetween gets greater. Planets however do get larger with magnification.

slow typing??

[West End Wendy]

The first thing you should do is make sure your finderscope is accurately aligned in daylight.

You wouldn't be the first person to find themselves looking at Arcturus and wondering why it doesn't have rings.

Tim

[Canyouguesswhoitisyet]

I would say your not looking at Saturn without sounding patronising. I made the mistake a while back. Focused in on what I thought was Saturn but it was not. I was actually looking at Arcturus!

Saturn is in Virgo right now. More or less to the south and in excellent view as it is quite high around 11pm

I can just about make out the rings with my SkyWatcher 130p on lowest mag using the 25mm lens. With the 10mm and barlowed I can separate the rings from the planet.

With your 150P you should get better views than my scope for sure.

Good luck. Hopefully it will be clear again over the weekend :-)

Welcome to SGL by the way

[Canyouguesswhoitisyet]

You wouldn't be the first person to find themselves looking at Arcturus and wondering why it doesn't have rings.

Tim

LOL!

[Canyouguesswhoitisyet]

Oh and remove the whole of the cover off the scope tube. More light the better

[rowan46]

Hi boston "I have more than a feeling" that you were looking at the wrong object try this programme to help you find things

Stellarium even a fairly low power eyepiece will show the rings sticking out the sides. I doubt its collimation issues as you say you're getting pinpoints of light so that only leaves you are looking at the wrong target. We've all done it at times. As to the lens cap some people stop the apparture down to look at the full moon but otherwise you should take the cap right off. As to eyepieces there are certainly better ones out there than the ones that came supplied, but you should try before you buy. Get down to your local astro club and get a look through others equipment. Eyepieces can be a very personal thing and getting the best ones for you can involve a certain trial and error. welcome to sgl

[brantuk]

Yoou have a focal length of 750mm and an F ratio of f5. So you'll need a reasonably good quality eye piece possibly around 5mm (giving a mag of 150x). Bear in mind when you magnify the planet you'll also magnify the crud in the atmosphere so wait till saturn's at it's highest on a very clear night.

At 150x to 200x it looks really nice and a lot more detail can be seen. TMB planetary ep's I understand are good budget ep's, though I don't use them. I can vouch for Hyperions (around £95 new or £60ish s/h). And TV Radians are good at circa £100 s/h.

Meade also do some very nice ep's though I only have one.

If you can avoid it don't use a barlow unless it's very high quality - the less glass in the light train the better.

(Edit: for great value I used an Hyperion 8-24mm Mk2 zoom with my 150P - like 5 good quality ep's in one - and it made the scope so much better than supplied ep's - around £100 s/h for the Mk2)

[boston]

Dear All

Many thanks for all of your prompt replies and i hope i get better results over the weekend.

As some have mentioned i could have been looking at the totally wrong planet. I looked in a E-SE direction roughly following the path of the sun, and followed a guide which stated down from Ursa Major to Arcturus and Spica with Saturn just above. I assumed that the brightest shining star/planet in that region would have been Saturn

Once more many thanks

[boston]

Just to update, thanks to everyones earlier responses, and i have now managed to locate and view Saturn (hiding behind a neighbours tree) on Monday night.

Had a fantastic view, on what was something i had looked forward to seeing for some time with my new telescope.

Thanks

[callisto]

Dear All

Many thanks for all of your prompt replies and i hope i get better results over the weekend.

As some have mentioned i could have been looking at the totally wrong planet. I looked in a E-SE direction roughly following the path of the sun, and followed a guide which stated down from Ursa Major to Arcturus and Spica with Saturn just above. I assumed that the brightest shining star/planet in that region would have been Saturn

Once more many thanks

There you go, you have answered the question yourself.

You were looking at the brightest star Arcturus

[CamoCustom]

Boston, once you found it, were you as intrigued and excited as my wife and I? we must have stared at it in our newly acquired scope for probably 10-20 minutes!

^^Awestruck newcomer!!

[boston]

Boston, once you found it, were you as intrigued and excited as my wife and I? we must have stared at it in our newly acquired scope for probably 10-20 minutes!

^^Awestruck newcomer!!

Same here, it was such a clear night and myself, wife, mother in law and 10 year old, all viewed Saturn for the first time.

We then switched to the Moon, and now i am being asked 'when is the telescope being set up again'.