Hi all. I'm just wondering what would I see thru the scope/s...12.5" reflector/6" refractor.....If I did manage to locate uranus,neptune & pluto. I assume pluto would be un-resolvable into a disk even with the 12.5" ? What about uranus & neptune? Could the 6" achro resolve these 2 into disks?
Anyone seen them, & what size telescope used, & any pics? (you planted this seed Kearn...good idea to try & get the 9 planet badge!)
Here is my attempt at Uranus with the Vixen 4" refractor and Meade LPI. I don't think that the detail is actual planetary stuff; I think it is more likely to be artifacts from image capture and image processing.
You should have no problem in the 12.5" .Even the 6" will grab uranus...and neptune.
I've seen them all in my 12.5" Parks, but to give yourself a treat do it with the best possible seeing.
Pluto youll need a good up to date skychart and view over a couple of nights.
Uranus is easy enough ,but try locating any of the moons.
Neptune the same, finding any of the moons.
Have fun.
John, Uranus and Neptune are pretty easy, they are very obviously planets when you first see them through the scope, funnily enough they look like the little blue planetary nebulaes LOL. (using SNP 4.5.2) Blue/green Uranus is currently at mag 5.78 and 3.6 arc seconds and being the apparent largest of those three outer planets is still small, but you can get them in binos most times, at dark sites. Blue Neptune is now at mag 7.85 and 2.3 arcseconds. Pluto takes a few goes as slice said, at mag 13.85 and .11 arc seconds thats not surprising i guess. Can the refractor/skies see down to at least 14th mag? i got obsessed with those three in my earlier years of scoping, and practised in the backyard getting them, before going to very dark skies on good nights. At least with pluto, getting to know the low power ep, wide fov starfields, inherent natural asterisms and patterns intimately was important. especially as i had to reverse everything in maps thru the reflector arrrgg - this is were a refractor is good i suppose. Pluto moves a fair bit, over 1 arc minute/24 hours i think?
heres a pic we took with mars neptune and uranus in early may 2003 http://67.19.82.34/~southern/pics/mar_ur_nep.jpg
344k in size - good comparison tho
Kearn
Hi Kearn/slice/dennis, Thanks for that....The biggest trouble I've got now is how to find them! No charts or anything like that. I went & did a google search on the current position of uranus/neptune, but didn't come up with anything worth-while. How doe's everyone else find them? If one has no charts for instance?
cont. dinners over
I used to use an 8" f6 newt/dob to easily locate Pluto - I must admit i havent looked at it for a while, might wait for goto or refractor But I have mentioned before that i have thought that eventually i did see Pluto differently to the surrounding stars (not just that it moved either) - and that is i thought it was softer looking than the diamond hard light of the stars. The times i did the '9 planets' thing at dark skies, the seeing and transparency were near perfect 8/9s and 10s out of 10's, and they were always around winter of course, with Pluto at opposition, or better. i dont think a lot of amateur southerners appreciate? that we have some of the best views of those 3 planets, a/ because they cross the meridian quite close to zenith for us here (specially Pluto). and b/ we have them at opposition during/around the longer winter nights. I dont think the UK/ europe get them at quite the same elevations/conditions we have here
heres a map for midnight tonight adelaide time - SNP 4.5.2 generated
I'm glad to hear i have infected someone else with this madness (thats my job!) - I always got a huge buzz when we got the last of them (usually Venus or mercury) and then looked at the earth with the sun rising (or was that sleep deprivation?) I highly regard the experience, its up there for me with lots of the best moments possible S&T used to really heavily promote these types of marathons in the mid 90's - guess its gone the way of the messier marathons?
Kearn
I just deleted all my old links that download the current planet positions as starry night has them.I'll rummage through the links I have left and see what comes up unless someone else has a link.
I'm mac only so far, and I know there are some freeware/shareware great planetarium apps for the mac, and but there are dozens/hundreds? of free ones for PC's? Planetarium programs really rock mate, print out whatever star chart you want/ down to any mag. you could probably get away with a trial one for now even?
kearn
Does the 1973 almanac issued by astro-optical supplies count!? OOps! I tell a lie......1972 issue! No mate, nothing like that, dont worry, I'll come across something on the net somewhere Thanks for your time replying & the map!
I got a feeling I was looking at uranus last night, but I'm not sure..If I can confirm that it was, I'll be a lil' piggy in excretement!
LOL 1973! and your welcome! man i would be very sad if i didnt get mine every december prior to the year starting - we have competitions who gets it first out of our lot - much bragging rights involved
i got 10 years of them back to '95 precious collection - but then i might just need a life? nnnnaaaaaa LOL
Kearn
NP John, youll find it easy mate. you havent got long to include saturn and get the full 9 as you know, By the 9th 10th july might be a bit hard to get saturn? maybe around then anyway - plus the moon starts coming back. Its not often we get to see mercury high, thats why its hard to get the 9 of course - and its even harder to get the prefect night too.
We have the possible comet action coming next monday - starting to get exciting now.
Kearn
I haven't observed any of the last 3 outer planets yet, but as they're getting close to overhead now i'll definitely be hunting them down and try to take an image or two of uranus at least.
Dennis that's a fantastic shot, well done. The "features" are just artifacts but the colour is correct!
But I have mentioned before that i have thought that eventually i did see Pluto differently to the surrounding stars (not just that it moved either) - and that is i thought it was softer looking than the diamond hard light of the stars. The times i did the '9 planets' thing at dark skies, the seeing and transparency were near perfect 8/9s and 10s out of 10's, and they were always around winter of course, with Pluto at opposition, or better. i dont think a lot of amateur southerners appreciate? that we have some of the best views of those 3 planets, a/ because they cross the meridian quite close to zenith for us here (specially Pluto). and b/ we have them at opposition during/around the longer winter nights. I dont think the UK/ europe get them at quite the same elevations/conditions we have here 
Does the 1973 almanac issued by astro-optical supplies count!? 
OOps! I tell a lie......1972 issue! No mate, nothing like that, dont worry, I'll come across something on the net somewhere 
There's always tomorrow night I guess..
