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Pick one ? You're kidding !
Hi All,
Way, way, way too hard to pick one object. One of the problems is that my answer is going to vary according to what telescope I'm looking through.
Hard to beat Satchmo's answer. The glory of our own barred-spiral galaxy seen during the winter months in the southern hemisphere from a true, pristine site is difficult to top.
If I was using a telescope, even after all these years and having seen thousands of objects of which several hunderd provide enduring memories, I'd probably still pick Saturn.
Like Adam & Suzy I too can remember the first view of it I had from my backyard, aged 12 in a 60mm Tasco 9TE refractor with a crappy H12mm eyepiece at x56 -- it was utterly breathtaking. I was so excited I ran inside the house to exclaim that I'd just discovered Saturn -- as I had! No one showed me/told me where to look for it. I was just poking around the sky looking at random stars hoping to find another one that was double or "interesting" like Alpha Centauri or Acrux. I almost fell off my chair! It was in western Gemini and made a long right-angled triangle with Castor & Pollux.
I think the two best views of it I've ever had were:
The night following the ring plane passage in 1997 in my old 10" when I could see the rings just 40hrs post the ring-plane passage. Flawless seeing. x363.
The other was on a night of equally sublime seeing (again in the backyard) back in 2000 with my 12" that has a functionally flawless mirror made by Satchmo. Couldn't apply too much magnification. Rock steady without a discernable quiver for up to 3 minutes at x420 for maybe 2.5 hrs and probably could have easily applied more than x500 if I had the eyepieces to do it. I gawked at it for maybe 3 hrs all-up. Saw the Encke Minima/Gap for the first time. The Enke Gap is only 325km wide ...
There was also a night out at Bargo in early 2008 (?) with my present 'scope when it was very nearly as good. Using x371 and x464 the image was without a ripple for 10-20 seconds at a time. Titan on this night was quite close to the ball of the planet clearly resolved as a fawn-coloured globe.
I still get a kick out of the reactions of members of the public seeing Saturn for the first time at Sydney Observatory (and elsewhere).
Best,
Les D
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