what can i see if i go looking for Neptune? can i see its storm? is Neptune a planet where i can see any detail?
how about Uranus? can i see its rings? what about surface detail?
les
Last edited by lesbehrens; 11-01-2009 at 05:30 PM.
Reason: adding
ive only seen the disk shape of neptune not much detail never really tried saturn and jupiter seem to take up my planet time espicilly if the seeing is good
mozzie
Hi Les, with that 16' Dob on a clear night and perfect seeing you could have a chance to see some banding but you would have to have some pretty powerful EP's in place as well. Maybe even a 2 or 3x barlow as well.
Those sort of perfect nights are also a "once a year" as well.
I've only ever seen Neptune as a blue dot. I understand you can see some of it's moons at times in a big aperture scope.
Same with Uranus - coloured disc only. I haven't tried for any moons but they should be a bit easier (although I was reading today that Uranus reaches aphelion in Feb, makes things a little dimmer than they could be).
I don't think I've ever heard of any amatuer visually seeing the rings - they were only discovered in 1977 and only after the planet occulted a star, the star blinking on and off as the rings passed in front of it. If it took that long to even detect they are there I don't think we have much hope of a visual sighting in our small scopes.
