Just a quick note to say that we had a look for Triton on Friday night at Auckland Astronomical Society Spring Dark Sky Weekend at Waharau.
Using Skytools 3, which accurately plots Triton in it's orbit around Neptune, we found had good field stars to help identify the moon's position relative to Neptune. We waited for Neptune to be on the meridian for this exercise (around midnight). We had about 6 people in total having a look...but do not know how many actually knew what to look for.
Using both Dave Brock's 20 inch Dobsonian and my 13 inch Dobsonian, we found the moon easily. Triton was directly visible regularly in the 20 inch and occasionally directly visible in the 13 inch. Averted vision made identification even easier.
At mag 13.5, you would expect Triton to be easy...as the two field stars were mag 13.5 and easily visible. The reason for the difficulty is that Neptune is bright and Triton was only about 8 arc seconds from the limb of Neptune. Given another 5 days and Triton would have been further from Neptune, making identification easier.
We were about to have a look for the moons of Uranus, but did not get a chance before the cloud rolled in.
Thats great Paul!!
Always good to try for a tricky target and come out a winner, especially for Triton. Certainly havent seen that one.
20" Dob would be nice have at all observing nights.
Good luck with Uranus and its Moons, which are a tad easier, I think?
Well done Paul. I've never really been convinced that I've seen Triton. knowing its position and having a few sets of eyes sounds a definite bonus. And a 20" scope. Always a bonus!
Well done Paul. I've never really been convinced that I've seen Triton. knowing its position and having a few sets of eyes sounds a definite bonus. And a 20" scope. Always a bonus!
Well, it was a simple affair in the 20 inch Dob, a little harder in my 13 inch Dob.
