Saturn finally

[Clarry]

Tonight, because of the beautiful clear skies, I decided to wait up for Saturn to rise. So here I am now at 3.10am and I have finally got my first ever close look at her. I must say it was worth the wait. I'm sure that you veterans have seen this view many times before. I wonder if you can remember back the first time you were able to clearly distinguish the rings around our solar systems second largest planet. For me it was a great thrill, one I won't forget in a hurry.

[jungle11]

I haven't seen it yet, was holding off - worrying that the moon might spoil the view for a few more days - but after hearing that, I guess i have a date tonight

cheers

[Kevnool]

Good onya Clarry.
Its great to see Saturn in pictures but its not until you actually see it in the eyepiece until the wow factor sets in.
Every time i show someone who`s never seen Saturn, You only have to listen as they step up to the eyepiece and think yep they can see it.
Cheers Kev.

[batema]

I can't wait until you see it with more of the rings showing. It is a wow factor object. Enjoy your viewing
Mark

[Smirnoff]

Onya Clarry! I remember the first time I saw it in a 60mm Tasco - it was a thrill :D

Btw, next time the rings are fully open around 2016, Saturn will conveniently placed directly overhead in near Sagittarius :D

[ngcles]

Hi Clarry,

Congrats and well done mate. Yep I remember my first time very well -- it was in January of 1974 (all but 35 years ago -- I was 12yo) and it was in the backyard where I grew up in Oyster Bay (only a stone's-throw from Bonnet Bay).

Saturn was in Gemini and I was observing with my trusty 60mm Tasco 9TE refractor at x56 with a 12.5mm Huygens ep, just popping from bright star to bright star investigating this and that when I put this bright star in the FOV I nearly fell off the kitchen chair I was sitting on. It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen.

Even after all these years, I still can't help but be wowed by Saturn on a good night. I had a couple of very memorable views the night before and the night after the last ring-plane passage with the 10" (or was it the 12"??). I could see the rings as a dusky line either side of the bright planet just on 40hrs after the passage. The seeing those two nights was some of the best I've encountered in suburban Sydney which generally has poor to mediocre seeing. It was pretty steady at x350, but I felt the best view was x297 when it was like a Voyager picture.

I've been lucky enough over the years to give 1000s of people their first look at Saturn. It is more likely than any other object in the sky to produce a "wow".

Are you a member at Sutherland Astronomical Society, Oyster Bay Clarry?


Best,

Les D

[Clarry]

Yep, your description of your first view of Saturn matches my impressions exactly.
No I'm not a member of the society, mainly cause I'm a chef & work every Thursday night, so that rules out attending the meetings. I have been invited out to your Waterfall field a couple of times by "madwayne" (a member here & of your society) but unfortunately it's been cloudy both times.

[Barrykgerdes]

I remember my first views of Saturn and Jupiter In 1951. My telescope was not much inproved on Galeleo's

It consisted of a spectacle lens with a focal length of about 60 cms in a cardboard tube and the lens out of the view finder of an old brownie box camera mounted in another tube that could be slid in and out for focus. The magnification was about 25x

I was studying light, lenses and mirrors in science at school and worked out how to use two lenses to make a telescope. The components were salvaged out of old junk I found in grandpa's workshop. I can't remember where I found the cardboard tube but I do know I later cut it up to make coil formers for a Xtal set and that is another story. 2/6 a week pocket money did not go very far after I had paid my bus fares to get to school.

The view was good enough to see jupiter as a circle with its four moons and Saturn was a circle with lumps on it.

Note: I also saw venus as a cresent.

That was the end of my astronomy interest till about 1990 when I bought my first real telescope. A 114 cm Tasco reflector.

Barry