Saturn

ComeraghBlue

Hi guys thought I'd start a thread about Saturn as it's BACK!
Although for myself I seen it for the very first time tonight (Wednesday) through my 102mm refractor and using a 25mm,15mm and 6mm plossl's eyepieces and boy was I impressed! I think it's due to be at it's closest in April but I was Gobsmacked at how clear it was through my 102mm refractor.

peterako

Sad....

Beat you to it....but I'm the Sad one...not you

It's up at a much more resonable hour these nights and I'm looking forward to some captures and viewing.

Clear skies,
Peter

rccaulfield

Thanks for the heads up- i checked Stellarium there and it seems it will get high in the south at about half 11 come April, not great but doable at the weekends for me! I've never seen it as i only got my 12 inch Dob recently and really only got the hang of it a few weeks ago-Jupiter has disappered from my Gardens view though!

peterako

rccaulfield wrote: »

........i only got my 12 inch Dob recently and really only got the hang of it a few weeks ago-....

I feel Aperture Envy coming over me

ComeraghBlue

peterako wrote: »

I feel Aperture Envy coming over me

And me

Iv only been in astronomy 6-9 months and Iv already bought two scopes (114mm reflector & 102 refractor) so aperture fever has hit me already, my doctor said there's no cure :P

Its a Shame Jupiter has 'gone' as I didn't get to see it in my new scope and I want to see it even more now after seeing the capabilities of my new one compared to my 'old' one

Found it tricky to find Saturn in the skies at first but I used the starmap pro app on the iPhone and found it in no time. After I had finished up my scope had almost frozen solid (moisture had frozen on the tube)

Clear skies
Matt

peterako

During the cold snap (Nov-Dec) the grease in my Telescope Mount all but froze. Interesting problem.....

ThatDrGuy

Woke at 3 am last night. Live in an appartment in dublin city centre. Just pointed my scope out through the window and got a pretty good view of saturn. Amazing you can see it in the most light polluted area of the country - through glass. Will try it with neximage and see if i can get a getto image of saturn

rccaulfield

peterako wrote: »

I feel Aperture Envy coming over me

LOL! Good for deep field stuff, but not much difference for the planets compareD to an 8 or 10!

Calibos

rccaulfield wrote: »

LOL! Good for deep field stuff, but not much difference for the planets compareD to an 8 or 10!

In terms of planets, while there is a resolution difference as you step up in apeture usually the bad seeing negates any resolution advantage the larger apetures have. ie. it doesn't matter that a 12inch say, can resolve whirls and knots in the clouds of jupiters bands when the seeing makes it look just as blurred and bouncy and mushy as it looks in a smaller scope:D

However on a night of good seeing the larger apeture will resolve more fine detail. I normally found that the planets looked no different in my 12" compared to a 6,8,11" except they were brighter in mine which actually could sometimes be a disadvantage because the glare from the bright planet in my EP would obscure detail visible in the smaller scopes.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I viewed Mars in my 16" Dob. I could finally see colour!! I never saw colour in any other scope including my old 12".

Unfortunately I haven't been able to view Jupiter this season or Saturn yet because the scope has been mothballed for over a year. I was in the process of a massive process of modification when a house move and real life got in the way, so the scope has been unusable for the last year and for another while yet. Once its finished though its going to be pretty special.

On a sidenote......

While the seeing can be bad in this country, its not as consistently bad as you may have heard. Thermal issues where your newt and SCT optics haven't reached ambient air temperature cause a boundary layer of warmer air(basically a puddle of warm air) to form just over the mirror surface as it cools to ambient. This affects the views just like bad seeing. What many astronomers put down to bad seeing is infact thermal issues with their own scopes. I've been observing beside lads who were using low mags because they said, "the seeing is sh1te tonight!" All the while, I was observing Saturn right beside them at 450x with a rock steady sharp view!!

The reason/solution? The boundary layer won't disapate till the primary reaches ambient. That could take hours before the scope starts delivering a decent view of the planets. Fit a cooling fan behind the primary and you will shorten the time it takes for the mirror to cool and reach ambient whereupon the boundary layer disapates. Or if you are really impatient you can fit fans that blow across the front of the primary mirror. These continuously blow off the boundary layer as it forms. With boundary fans one can get good views straight away(dependent on the atmospheric seeing of course)

Smaller scopes with smaller thinner mirrors have an advantage here because they give up their heat and reach ambient quicker. I'd be fitting fans to 8" and up scopes.

A way to tell whether the 'Bad Seeing' is atmospheric bad seeing or boundary layer bad seeing is to point at a bright star or planet and defocus until you see the siloueete of the secondary mirror. If you see ripples of air rolling around the view than thats probably boundary layer. If you see fast airflow across the view all in the same direction, thats atmospheric bad seeing. While you're at it, hold your hand infront of the front of the scope. You'll see a blurry silhouette of your hand with heat plumes pouring up off your hand. If you have a truss dob without a shroud, just thing of the heat plumes your body generates that are blowing through the trusses acrosss the lightpath!! So we need to deal with a third form of bad seeing! Hot Body bad seeing

BTW, don't fart near your scope. Not only will that cause bad fart seeing but you could damage your mirrors reflective coating with the corrosive gasses :D

peterako

One of the more useful mods I made to my ancient 8" 'scope is a cooling fan

Nice, clear, description on apperture and seeing.

Clear skies,
Peter

PS. Now I have to give up beans!? The sacrifices!!!

ninja 12

I woke up this morning at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep so looked out the window and saw a couple of bright specks in the sky .

I knew from looking at Stellarium that Saturm should be visible S-SW , so I dragged myself out of bed and brought my new Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD out into the back garden .

I aimed it what I thought might be Saturn , using the Star Finder , and within 30 seconds or so , I could see Saturn and it's rings :eek:

I swapped the eye piece from the 20mm erecting eyepiece to the 10mm one and got a better look .
It was amazing , I could clearly see the rings

I'm still using the eyepieces that came with the scope , and couldn't see much detail on the rings , or planet surface , but I'm delighted .

That's two planets I've seen since I got my telescope last week - Saturn and Jupiter ( and Jupiter's 4 Galilean moons )
:D

Rubecula

ninja 12 wrote: »

I woke up this morning at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep so looked out the window and saw a couple of bright specks in the sky .

I knew from looking at Stellarium that Saturm should be visible S-SW , so I dragged myself out of bed and brought my new Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD out into the back garden .

I aimed it what I thought might be Saturn , using the Star Finder , and within 30 seconds or so , I could see Saturn and it's rings :eek:

I swapped the eye piece from the 20mm erecting eyepiece to the 10mm one and got a better look .
It was amazing , I could clearly see the rings

I'm still using the eyepieces that came with the scope , and couldn't see much detail on the rings , or planet surface , but I'm delighted .

That's two planets I've seen since I got my telescope last week - Saturn and Jupiter ( and Jupiter's 4 Galilean moons )
:D

I am so jealous because I remember exactly the same thing with my old refractor many many years ago. The excitement I felt was so wonderful. I could almost feel the distance to Saturn when I finally got it into view. What a beautiful sight, it fair took my breath away. It was those two sightings that got me well and truly hooked. I suspect it may be the same for you. Good viewing and enjoy your wonderful future in stargazing.

mickger844posts

ninja 12 wrote: »

I woke up this morning at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep so looked out the window and saw a couple of bright specks in the sky .

I knew from looking at Stellarium that Saturm should be visible S-SW , so I dragged myself out of bed and brought my new Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD out into the back garden .

I aimed it what I thought might be Saturn , using the Star Finder , and within 30 seconds or so , I could see Saturn and it's rings :eek:

I swapped the eye piece from the 20mm erecting eyepiece to the 10mm one and got a better look .
It was amazing , I could clearly see the rings

I'm still using the eyepieces that came with the scope , and couldn't see much detail on the rings , or planet surface , but I'm delighted .

That's two planets I've seen since I got my telescope last week - Saturn and Jupiter ( and Jupiter's 4 Galilean moons )
:D

I'm hoping for clear skies tonight so i can get my first view of Saturn. I'm excited as i have the same Telescope as Ninja and hopefully i will see as much detail.

Klair88

i got an astromaster 114 eq for christmas and have been using it to observe the moon and random stars mostly, i have stellarium but cant seem to be able to find jupiter( when it was visible), now im going to try saturn but im finding it hard to pinpoint where it is, it battery cover on my telescope wouldnt come off so i got a little upset with it and we had an arguement, now one of the wires powering the starpointer has broke, is that what i need to be using to find the planets or can i do it without its aid?

mickger844posts

Just got my first view of Saturn. Amazing sight using the 20 and 10mm lens you could make out the shape and the rings. Ordered a 3x barlow so it should look even better with that. Happy days