Saturn?

[mbyrr]

Apparently in June Saturn could be seen all night. Is this the case for July also? Where and when is the best time to find her?

cheers
A

[mental4astro]

Saturn is up most of the night in July, setting around 4am. We are past the closest approach, called opposition, and we are now leaving it behind as we circle the Sun.

When the Sun has set, look straight up. You'll see two bright stars close to each other almost directly overhead. The one to the East (on the right) is Saturn. Its two give away features are its slightly yellower colour, and it doesn't twinkle like stars do. It will be directly overhead around 10pm. The 'head' of the constellation Scorpio is "looking" in the direction of Saturn too. Next year, Saturn's orbit will see it located even closer, and in 2015 it will be smack bang in its head.

Mental.

[mbyrr]

Thanks Alexander, I like that time and location! Hopefully it's clear tomorrow night so I can lug the dob out to take a look! :)

[Wavytone]

Early evening, 6-8pm.

- Face north (the sun sets in the west, a good clue).

- Looking north, the two or three brightest objects are Arcturus (low on the northern horizon) which is a slightly yellow star, then higher up you will see two about equal brightness. The left one is a brilliant white star - Spica, and the object on the right will be distinctly yellow and does not twinkle - that is Saturn.

[moonunit]

What are some things I should be able to see in Saturn, cassini division is one, can also see cloud bands, how many moons and am I able to see shadows of the moons like Jupiter?

[Wavytone]

This depends on how good the seeing is, and your scope. You won't be seeing shadows transit across the disk or rings with ordinary amateur gear, though not beyond the 12" f/23 schiefspiegler that Barry Adcock had. That was a rather special scope, however and he often had excellent seeing.

[mbyrr]

Yes I saw it last night, fantastic!! :D
I've been waiting a year to find her, what a sight!
:party2:


Note that I couldn't use my Barlow. Seems like everything I looked at with the barlow was a large out of focus circle with a black hole in the middle. Am I not using it properly or what can I try to see with it? I tried it with all 3 of my lenses too. I thought it was good for planets? It's the Bintel 2" ED.

[The_bluester]

You may need to refocus a fair way when putting in the Barlow, did you run out of focusser travel?

I have been lucky in that every eyepiece I have will come to focus with or without barlow and whichever of my diagonals I put in.

[mbyrr]

Hi Paul, yeah I think I'm running out of focusser travel. The circle gets smaller but eventually I can't focus any further. How can I resolve this?

cheers
A

[mental4astro]

Anthony, are you needing to pull the draw tube of the focuser all the way out or in?

If out, the solution is easy, and could mean one of two things: The easiest is to pull the barlow out from the focuser. I have the same 2" barlow, and its tube is some 12cm or so long, so you can pull it out at least half way. This will give you more focus travel. If pulling the barlow and EPs isn't still enough, you can get "extension tubes" (http://www.bintel.com.au/searchedproduct.aspx?name=extension %20tube). They just set the EP, barlow, whatever, back out from the focuser.

Now, if you are rucking IN the draw tube, not much that can be easily done. Sorry.

Mental.

[mbyrr]

Thanks for the advice, Mental. I can't remember which way I was "rucking", I will go out on the next clear night and try it again, cheers.

[Wavytone]

Rucking ? Is that centre forward of full back ?

Racking, surely, as in 'rack & pinion' focusser...something we don't see so often these days. "Crayfording" doesn't quite work for me...

[mbyrr]

Following Mental's advice, I got the barlow to focus better. I got a nice view of Venus's craters, since she's been quite bright in the sky lately. :eyepop:

[barx1963]

Antony
Not sure what you mean by "Venus's craters"? The only body you would see craters on would be the moon. Venus is permanently covered in very dense clouds so views of the surface are impossible.

Malcolm

[asimov]

Yep, no craters on this baby! :P

[mbyrr]

Ha, well there you go. Not sure what I was looking at then. It definitely wasn't the moon, I would have burned my eyes out without a moon filter, especially through a barlow, right, even if the moon had shrunk to that size miraculously somehow!

I'll have another look tonight, if I can get home early enough before it falls below the rooftops to the west...

[sil]

The craters were probably specks of dust on the eyepiece or floaters in your eye.

Gotta love viewing the planets, I re-fall in love with them each time.

[mbyrr]

HOLLY: Well, the thing about a Black Hole - it's main distinguishing
feature - is it's black. And the thing about space, your basic space
colour is black.

HOLLY: As it transpired, there weren't any Black Holes.
RIMMER: But you saw them -- you saw them on the monitor.
HOLLY: They weren't Black Holes.
RIMMER: What were they?
HOLLY: Grit. Five specks of grit on the scanner-scope. See, the thing
about grit is, it's black, and the thing about scanner-scopes...

[barx1963]

If it was a REALLY bright object in the western sky, then it is Venus, should show a partial crescent at the moment I think.
BTW, a barlow will not make objects brighter, it actually makes them appear larger which actually dims them. Obviously if you double the moons apparent size, you spread the light over 4 times the area so you dim it by 4 times.

Only a larger aperture will make an object brighter.

Cheers

Malcolm

[mbyrr]

Ah interesting point, Malcolm, I didn't know that.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was Venus, tho obviously the seeing of craters seems unlikely. As Holly said, it must have been "grit". :lol:

[barx1963]

There is often confusion about what various accessories such as Barlows and filters actually do. Personally, I am not a big fan of barlows. I have had a couple (both good quality Televue ones) and sold them in favour of good quality eyepieces. A really good EP of the power you want will beat a barlowed EP any day in my opinion.

Malcolm

[mbyrr]

I have heard that alot actually.

I'm not sure if I need any other EPs tho, besides the ones I got with the dob:
- 15mm and 9mm Fully Multi-coated Plossl Eyepieces (1.25")
- 26mm Wide View Eyepiece (2")

[barx1963]

Antony
That set should do you for a long time. Maybe if you have really nice conditions, you may barlow the 9mm for some planetary work, but otherwise stick to the ones you have. For most DSOs the 26mm will be your go to gear!
Once you have a bit more knowledge under the belt, try some better EPs. They do make a difference. I am a huge Televue fan (as my sig shows!!), but there are lots of other choices.

What scope do you have BTW, it isn't in your sig.

Malcolm

[mbyrr]

I only have a Bintel 8" dob and Bintel 2x barlow, so not enough for a sig. :p
Perhaps when I get the binos I'll make a sig...

[barx1963]

Antony
The 8" has a focal length of 1000mm, so your EPs will give the following

26mm 38x 76x with barlow
15mm 67x 134x with barlow
9mm 111x 222x with barlow

So you have a reasonable range of powers there. You may have heard of maximum possible magnification of 50x per inch? If that was the case you can go to 8x50 or 400x. But that is a theoretical case only and even in very good conditions 20x per inch is the best that be used most of the time, or 160x. With my 8" f4 I find a 15mm GSO superview ep gives really nice views at a very reasonable price.

[mbyrr]

Thanks Malcolm.

In regards to the EPs I have, what is each best used to view?
I usually find myself switching between them whenever I'm looking at something.

cheers
A

[barx1963]

It is very much personal. Small targets like planets seem to want a lot of power so the temptation is whack in the barlow and the high power EP, but being bright they are very much affected by the seeing (air turbulence) and I often find medium power (in your case 67 or 111x) is enough.
Most DSOs work OK at low power, open clusters, the brighter galactic nebulae (M8, M20, M17 etc) but a bit more mag can darken the background and improve contrast if needed. Planetary nebs tend to be small so moderate to high power is often needed with them.

My strategy is always try low power first and work upwards.

Malcolm

[barx1963]

Also Antony, don't be afraid to put your gear in your sig. I know some don't like it, but it helps if you asking for advice as a responder will know what gear you have without having to ask.

Malcolm

[mbyrr]

Done :)