Hey guys, i've been studying a lot lately, reading lots of information, looked at the night sky with a friends pair of binoculars and i thought it was finally time to purchase my first telescope, learn the ways of the telescope and see if i enjoy it before purchasing something more expensive for astrophotography.. I'm quite interested in astrophotography but first i need to get the hang of using telescopes. The telescope i purchased is a AstroMaster 70AZ, 70 mm refractor telescope, with Altazimuth mount and tripod. I just wanted to see some peoples opinions on this scope, personally i love it...for my first telescope i am more than happy with it, it has occasionally given me some troubles with the little viewfinder thing, it has a small LED that you turn on and align it with what you want to look at in the sky. I've had a nice look at the moon with it, and i am pretty sure i was looking at Vega last night. Correct me if i'm wrong... that's just a guess... But it's one very bright star appearing in the night sky in Darwin lately. It has a nice clear and sharp image, even seen 2 small stars below it and 1 star above it in the image. Any suggestions or criticism would be great. Thanks guys.
A 70mm refractor is a great starter to learn a lot.
If the "star" you looked at is in the east at about 10pm-12pm it would be Jupiter.
Down load a program like stellarium so you can get a better understanding on what and when to look in the night sky.
Enjoy !
Wow, that's exactly it. I'll download stellarium on this new computer. I never thought i would have been looking at Jupiter, hopefully if viewing conditions are good tonight i might stay out for a little while and check it out, so just a question, but those 3 small "stars" i seen around it, would they have been its moons?
Wow, that's exactly it. I'll download stellarium on this new computer. I never thought i would have been looking at Jupiter, hopefully if viewing conditions are good tonight i might stay out for a little while and check it out, so just a question, but those 3 small "stars" i seen around it, would they have been its moons?
Yep they are the moons.
While your at it down load Jupiter 2 software and it will show the positions of the moons and a lot more. Set the time on the upper left at +10 hours (our time zone)
Glad to hear you're enjoying your new scope! With that size refractor you should be able to see Saturn's rings comfortably and some cloud detail on Jupiter too.
Does what you see depend on the size of the eyepiece? If so i have a 10mm, and 20mm. I have yet to find Saturn in the night sky with it, i might have a look tonight also, as for the cloud detail on jupiter, i'll have a look see if i can see anything. Oh, also i forgot to change my location, i'm currently in Darwin, Australia. Not Adelaide. Could that affect what i'm actually seeing?
Make sure your position in Stellerium is Darwin.
"To determine power in a telescope, divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. By exchanging an eyepiece of one focal length for another, you can increase or decrease the power of the telescope. For example, a 25mm eyepiece used on a telescope with a 1000mm focal length would yield a power of 40x (1000 / 25 = 40) and a 10mm eyepiece used on the same telescope would yield a power of 100x (1000 / 10 = 100). Since eyepieces are interchangeable, a telescope can be used at a variety of powers for different applications".
Yeah, big problem tonight... i dont have access to travel right now and the position i am in is real bad for seeing it. Maybe another night when i have transport. Although i am currently looking at jupiter, i see 6 small dots around it, i know 4 of them are definitely moons, just not sure what the other 2 are...If only i could take some images of this...I can faintly see the dark pattern on jupiter with my scope, i can't imagine what it would be like to see saturn.
That's what it's looking like tonight... It looks like there is a 5th moon, one of the other objects looks a little too far out of its way to be a moon. Although they are all moving with jupiter, at 90x magnification it seems to be moving quite quickly.
"moving quite quickly" is the earth turning under your feet, of course. Relative to each other, objects in the sky don't move particularly fast. In fact, there are only a few situations where you can observe that relative movement visually.
So that 5th "moon" (actually star 45 CAP, HIP 107302) will stay in the vicinity of Jupiter for a few days while Jupiter and its moons move past it. In fact, Jupiter moves in front of it about now for some viewing locations in the world (I think Mike may have posted an article on this)
So what relative movement can you detect visually over, say an hour or two of observing?
I can think of three options:-
1) The rotation of Jupiter. If your magnification is high enough and seeing is good enough, you should be able to detect Jupiter rotating. If the Great Red Spot is visible, that can be a marker to the rotation - over a few hours.
2) The movement of Jupiter's inner moons. Io and Europa whizz around Jupiter fairly quickly, so you can often see them move relative to Jupiter over 15-30 minutes. Often very clear as one approaches the disc of Jupiter - the gap narrows/widens quite quickly. Also the movement of one of their shadows across the surface of Jupiter can be clearly seen over 30-60 minutes.
3) The movement of the Moon. The Moon moves a fair distance against the background stars in a short period. Think of the recent eclipse as the Moon moved across the face of the Sun in only a bit more than two hours. The Moon moves some 360 degrees across the sky in 28 days - around about half a degree an hour. So if you are watching the Moon, you can see it pass in front of a star (or occasionally even a Planet or a special star - the Sun) and then the star re-appear. The movement is fast enough to pick it up with your telescope over minutes. Check Australia Sky & Telescope - it reports coming occultations of stars by the Moon.
I'm jealous of anyone who is still able to see Saturn around this time of year. Unforunately for me the nature strip behind my house has long taken care of viewing for me. Where's my chainsaw??
Get in while you still can. It's worth every look you can get!
It'll soon be visible within the next 2 and a half hours or so. I'll let you know how it goes.
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