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Originally Posted by acropolite
Paul, I have an old 60mm Bushnell refractor only 25x mag and can see jupiter & 4 moons, although not much detail and also saturn and rings, so you should, given that the optics are OK, be able to see some planetary detail. The photo's you see of planets on this site aren't necessarily what you will see visually; cameras are able to pick up more detail than your eye will see and many of the images are composite, made from several images stacked to enhance what detail is present. Your 700 mm F/L and 20mm EP will net 35x mag, the 12.5 56x and should resolve some detail on saturn and Jupiter if the optics are even half decent. Try Saturn first, it rises a bit after 10pm at the moment and will look like a yellowish dot on the eastern horizon. Even when it is just over the horizon you should be able to make out the disk shape and rings, the later you leave your viewing, the better the view should be. There are also lots of deep sky objects which are easy targets with small telescopes. If you haven't got a copy it's worth getting Astronomy 2006, which will list monthly targets and give you some decent star maps.  |
Thank you for your advice. I am hanging to have a peek at Saturn. I am wondering about Saturn. Does it make an East to West path accross the sky? At what point would it be best to view it?
