How to find planets?

[mbaddah]

Hi everyone

Just recently purchased a 6" dobsonian and few ice pieces, was wondering what would be the best way of seeking out and viewing planets?

I have seen Jupiter few times by chance just randomly scanning the sky, but I want to know exactly how to find it and others such as mars, saturn etc.. Your help would be greatly appreciated thankyou.

[programmer]

Hi mbaddah! I just purchased a Dob as well. While you wait for those who actually know what they're doing, to give you some good advice, try downloading and using Stellarium (google it). It's a blast, and (beginner to beginner) can give you an initial idea of what's where :)

What eye pieces did you get?

Good luck.

[ballaratdragons]

Howdy mbaddah,

The 2 planets on display and are easy to find at the moment are Jupiter and Mars.

Jupiter from sunset to early morning, and Mars from about 1:30am.

Jupiter is the very bright 'Star' in the high western sky, and Mars is an Orange/Yellow looking 'Star' very low in the North-East sky.
I say 'Star' very loosely as they 'look' like stars to the unaided eye. But the difference you should notice is that Planets don't twinkle like stars do. So if you see what you think is Jupiter or Mars and they don't twinkle, it's them. :thumbsup:

I could show you their locations on a star map, but I don't know if you know any constellations yet.

[mbaddah]

Thanks for pointing me to Stellarium will test out sometime tomorrow, looks good :) I downloaded one program called "Cartes du Ciel" which from my (limitied) experience seems very good as well.

I went to Bintel yesterday and purcahsed a 6mm and 20mm (plossl) eyepiece, apparently they are much better than standard kit lens eye pieces so will test sometime this week :)

[ballaratdragons]

I use Cartes du Ciel more than any of the others :thumbsup:

[matt]

Not quite.

Sunset to about 7.30pm, before it gets too low toward the west for reasonable viewing.

Jupiter's past its best for this year...but never fear...it all comes around again fairly soon.

As Ken says, Mars is on the rise and we're all looking forward to it being at its best in late December.

If you are keen, set your alarm for before dawn and have a look to the east for Venus and Saturn.

As already suggested, download Stellarium. It's free and is very handy.

Also, pick up an astro mag or two at your local newsagent. They have very good monthly maps and info for where to find stuff.

And welcome:hi:

[ballaratdragons]

Oops, sorry.

I have a very good clear westerly view of Jupiter here until about 10:30pm.

I have nothing blocking my western horizon. It's a bit low for decent observing after about 9:30 here.

[matt]

After 7.30-8pm...it dips below 30 degrees here...which is pretty much when it becomes useless for viewing due to it being that close to the horizon:)

It just turns into a mushy...shimmering ball of light once it gets lower than 30 degrees.

[jjjnettie]

But you can still observe the moons of Jupiter, circling the planet in real time!
If you do a rough sketch of their positions, then come back in 20 min, you be amazed at how far they've moved.
I think this is even more facinating than Jupiter himself.

[OneOfOne]

Uranus and Neptune are also around at the moment too, both are up by the time it gets dark, however you will probably need some sort of star chart, the ones in the astronomy magazines will help a lot. However, don't expect too much...they will just look like little blue/green "stars" but with a definite size, you will need a magnification of at least a hundred or so in order to make out any "size" though. Actually at the moment, I think you can see all the planets if you want to wait until near sunrise! You can even see one of the dwarf planets, Pluto, too....now that WILL look like a star!