Quote:
Originally Posted by Renato1
Saturn in any telescope
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I've had the good luck to surprise a few people with Saturn. My sister was my favourite reaction. When she said she'd be visiting, I mentioned that I'd bought a telescope the year before. She asked "What do you actually do with one? Do you, like, look at one star and say 'yep, that's _that_ star' and move on to the next star, and so on?" "There are a few more interesting things than that. Maybe I can show you some."
I parked the scope on Saturn and said "This is worth looking at."
"What am I looking at?"
"Well, what does it look like?"
"It looks like a UFO."
"It sure does. What else?"
"Um..... OH! Are those **THE RINGS**?!?!?!? OH MY GOD!!!!"
She stepped back, slack-jawed with wonder. I put a more powerful eyepiece in, and she had another look, this time actually laughing with delight. Cloud bands were visible. After she stepped back from the telescope, she looked up and said "I keep expecting to just see it by looking up." "Yeah, me too."
After that, she said "Yeah, I can see how you might never get bored of this."
Whatever the telescope, whatever we're looking at, the thing we're paying for with money and effort is Wonder. It's just great to share wonder.