Can anyone help me to find saturn or mars?

[inferno]

On my space programs it shows me how to find saturn and mars at the moment. I have looked and looked...
I need help guys i am using sky view cafe, astro viewer and a really cool program called Cartes due ciel or something of that spelling.
I know where the equinox is sort of by watching the moon lately but they say saturn is there as well as the mars.
All i know i can get is venus which is phenomnal at the moment in the morn... any help appreciated.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

look for a very bright object to the north west i guess at about 70% in height at the moment

you will pick it by there being another bright star to its left, the both of them in a line pointing west

hope you find it

geoff

[dannat (Daniel)]

I think instead of equinox you mean ecliptic (the line planets etc all travel on) - after dark mars is low in the sky - almost due North below the constellation of Orion (big constellation with belt of 3 stars in middle, red star bottom right corner & white/blue star in opposite corner).
Saturn is NE(or just E of ), starts off quite low just after dark, there isn't much there, and it is the brightest object around that area if i remember correctly.
I have attached some stellarium screen shots which should assist you

[inferno]

Thanx guys for the info.
as you can see i am a complete noob...lol
I have looked for the three stars and all i can find is the side of what we called the saucepan..lol
is that it?
Sorry about all this but i am very keen just inexperienced.:sadeyes :

[dannat (Daniel)]

yes, in my first pic betelgeuse (is the bottom of orion), the 3 stars are to the bottom side of what aussies call saucepan - which is part of the orion constellation for northeners. as you can see mars is almost directly below this - and saturn is around to the east. try looking tonight if clear.

[mark3d]

hey dont apologise i only know 2 constellations.. but im learning too

the beauty is once you spot them you will always be able to find them easily.

mars has a distinct orange colour (particularly with binoculars) but not to be confused with betelgeuse. i didnt notice it until Erick pointed it out, but Saturn is a cream colour relative to the other bright star it is near. i find saturn by looking for 2 bright stars, saturn is diagonally down and to the east from the other.

you should be able to see mars to the north and saturn to the north east, say around 9pm and both will be like 30 degrees up.

good luck!

[mark3d]

the bottom part of the saucepan is orions belt (the handle of the saucepan has the orion nebula). mars is down and to the east of this constellation.

if you get stellarium (free) it has a great artwork overlay that helps to picture the constellations (as they often dont look like they are named).

[programmer]

From another beginner, the best thing I did initially was to add a panorama of my back yard to Stellarium It's pretty easy (happy to help if you need it) and once done, you can literally locate the object in Stellarium (Ctrl-F) then go out and find it in the same spot from your yard. Of course I recommend learning planispheres and such, but this is a great way to get you going in an intuitive manner Note this only works well for naked-eye (bright) objects, but it's a start.

I've also done this for Starry Night.

[inferno]

Thanx for the info guys. I am downloading the program as i type. I might take you up on that offer programmer.
I have a planisphere and i am trying to use it but hopefully at my first group watch with the newcastle astro society they can help me out a bit. I have an eq 3 mount that i have to learn as well, all them numbers mean squat...lol
Does anyone have msn or yahoo??? It would be good to talk face to face as they say about this stuff.

[mark3d]

lol so im not the only one checking stellarium then going outside! a laptop would be very handy

how does starry nights compare to stellarium? is it worth getting both? can get the basic starry nights (supposedly with star hopping tutorials) for USD$24.

[inferno]

wow that stellarium really helps guys. It looks just like outside now i need to find out how to put my backyard in it.

[mark3d]

i didnt even realise you could put your own backyard photo into it, so its definitely not required.. just knowing approx. North South East West is enough to get by

by all means add a photo but you dont have to

[dannat (Daniel)]

Mark - I had starry night PRO, I didn't think it was much better than stellarium, And now i don't use it at all - I like that stellarium is quicker to use - and I found I never used the advanced features
daniel
- i'm sure some people get more out of it than i did though

[rider]

One thing that is worth doing in stelarium is adding telescope feild of view rings for each of your scope / eyepiece combinations - that way you see what you will see in the eyepiece.

This is easy to do by editing the ini file. see the sellarium wiki forum for details.


once they are in there, you can center them on any selected object and see the scale of the object.

this lets you easily decide if the object is worth chasing.

Rider

[programmer]

Sorry missed the new posts. It's true a panorama image of your yard is not a requirement, but for a beginner it's really a good boost to get you into it. So that's gotta be good! There are previous posts on here pointing to some good links to achieve this, but as I said I'd be glad to help create one for you. Unfortunately, you can't get out of taking the photos yourself! I'll try and find the link to the method for taking them.

[programmer]

Originally Posted by mark3d

how does starry nights compare to stellarium? is it worth getting both?

SN is much more comprehensive. I have the 'digital download' version, and I haven't explored all its features yet. Stellarium is very basic, not nearly as configurable, but possibly more aesthetically pleasing. I think SN worth getting. I use both.