Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane
Sam,
That's awesome. 
Congratulations on your first successful sighting of Saturn. How were those rings, eh?
H |
I have been waiting years, but people always told me there was no point looking unless you have a monster telescope. So I was waiting and waiting, but never really had the spare cash to spend on something impressive, figured anything small would be a waste of cash. How wrong was I. I decided I needed to just get something and bought myself a Skywatcher 102 x 500 AZ3 from Andrew's.
I got it a few months ago. Have only seen Jupiter until now, that was pretty awesome (despite it being pretty small I could still see the bands and its moons). Saturn was always hiding at night and figured I'd wait for a good viewing. Then I checked out some telescope simulator and was really saddened when I found out just how small Saturn would look on my little scope and I pretty much forgot all about it.
I saw a post on a forum the other day about Saturn being in premo position for viewing and figured it was time to find out if I'd be happy or dissapointed. Bad skies, rain, cloud, then started working early shifts at work. So I've been hoping for a good sky for tonight all week. I came home today and the sky was just perfect. I thought i'd have to wait til 11pm to see it but was excited to stay up.
I looked at Stellarium and figured I might be able to catch it when its slightly up in the East (there's a street pointing East that gives me a small section of sky). Surrounded by trees here, so hard to see much sky without going for a big walk.
Popped it out in the street, but the light in the viewfinder was going off constantly, so it was impossible to find anything. Finally got it aligned with the finder. Pointed at Saturn, and
RINGS OMG I CAN SEE THE RINGS.
I left the telescope in the street and ran inside to grab my flatmates. They were really happy to come see it also, and my flatmate asked "is that a moon I can see" .. i looked again .. I think so, i think so
. Back in to Stellarium .. woot, Titan ... so cool. Wanted to come share my experience with the forum (u guys were a great help advising me on finding my budget scope).
It's small. But so special. Best thing I've seen in my telescope. Off to find some doco on Saturn whilst I wait for another look. It should be in an unobstructed section of sky shortly.
