Ever seen the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter through a good quality telescope?

[IBhacknU]

WOW!

I know dennilfloss and a few others are really into this, but I've just started. I can't get over the excitement of peeking into the vast beyond.

and no comments about my, uhhh, your anus!

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

You can actully see the rings of Saturn? :Q

 

[DesignDawg]

You can indeed. I LOVE looking through a good telescope. We have a pretty sweet observatory about 7 miles from here (4 of those miles are the desolate empty wilderness that surrounds the observatory in complete darkness.) My mom got my dad a really nice telescope for Christmas a couple of years ago. THat was my first exposure to really seeing that stuff in real life. GREAT.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[IBhacknU]

yep!

This is what I'm using. You can see 'the rings' with a quality scope of less size.

 

[Jmman]

I got a new scope a couple of months ago. It is a five inch Meade and you can see some REALLY incredible stuff. The rings of Saturn, moons of Jupiter, are easily visible. The only drawback is that I live in Denver, and the light pollution is horrible. I just bought a house way out in the burbs so hopefully it will be better..... ***Funny, I have the exact same scope....

 

[Farbio]

i don't have any scopes personally, but the science center back home used to take some of their really good ones out of town whenver something good was especially visible and i remember seeing the rings on saturn and jupiter moons and the coolest thing was seeing venus actually....it was like it was almost just in front of your face....

 

[Fathom4]

Try turning to the 'Orion Nebula' or the 'Andromeda Galaxy' some night.

I've got a 10" Dob. that will really make the 'Orion Nebula' come alive, although I could pick it up and start to see some detail in a good quality 60mm refractor I have.

Anyone interested in starting to do a little star gazing, pick up a decent set of 70mm binoculars to get started. Easy, fun and you'd be surprised at what you can see. Lot's of fun and oh so relaxing.

 

[Jmman]

This thread kind of makes me mad!! I bought that same telescope for like 300 higher than Amazon has it.... Oh well, it is pretty nice. I have spent as much on the Autostar, lenses and tripod as I did for the scope. It gets to be a really expensive hobby......

 

[IBhacknU]

<< the coolest thing was seeing venus actually....it was like it was almost just in front of your face.... >>

Venus is easy to spot at dusk, as the sun sets. I havent't used my scope on it yet though. I read it's covered with clouds. Is it just a big grey sphere?

 

[Fathom4]

Through a backyard 'scope Venus will pretty much look like a big white dot becuase it's so bright, the brightest of all the planets due to it's close proximity to Earth and the reflectivity of the clouds. Yo could try using filters to cut the brightness and add some depth. I've not spent any real time looking at Venus so I'm not sure.

I usually concentrate on deep sky objects or the outer planets.

 

[qacwac]

Funny you should bring that up. I saw the rings on one of them for the first time just Saturday. Pretty cool. And to know that God created them to declare is glory and leave no man without excuse.

 

[Locutus of Board]

Welcome to the astronomy buff world.

Venus looks like a little phase. Like the moon.

I think it's in Gibbous right now. I really need to check.

With that Meade 125, if at a dark location, you should see some nebulosity in the pleiades.

You'll find it slightly NW of where Jupiter and Saturn are right now, it's a tight grouping of small stars. It kinda looks like a dipper. People commonly mistake it for being the little dipper.

Also, about 2-3 hours after Jupiter and Sat are high in the sky, the constellation Orion is up.

Look in the sword, and find the orion nebula. That's a pretty cool sight.

Have a good time with your scope. I live in the 'burbs of NYC and I don't get to see dark skies too often.

Oh, wait a couple of weeks until the moon is at first quarter. Now that is cool. The craters and stuff. Get friends in on looking at Saturn, people always thought I was putting a picture in the telescope of it. After convincing them, it always got a big WOW!

 

[Fathom4]

LOB I've probably seen the Orion Nebula through my 10&quot; reflector 50 or 60 times but never get tired of it. If it's in the sky, I'll take a look. The detail that shows up is awesome and hard to describe if you haven't seen it.

I agree the Pleiades are very good to look at also. The Andromeda galaxy is good also, as it shows some good detail and can be seen with the naked eye from a dark site. It's hard to believe it's 2.2 million light years away but covers and area in the sky as big as a full moon. It's also not bad through a set of binoculars.

Ever tried to do a Messier Marathon in March when they are all in the sky in one night? I've tried a couple of times but never was able to get more than 25-30 objects.

Astronomy can hook you bad.

 

[Fathom4]

Here's a link Messier Objects to a digitized survey of the 110 Messier Objects. M13 the Hercules cluster is another good one in a small scope.

 

[kami]

yeah of course. It was very clear last night...and I was out freezing my ass off w/ my telescope for a couple hours

 

[Batti]

The completed Space Station is going to be the third brightest object in the sky. Should be interesting to see what detail we can resolve...

 

[Fathom4]

Wow, computers and telescopes. Is it possible for any of us to be anymore of a geek? LOL

 

[kami]

Oh I love being a geek

 

[rc5]

Saturn, venus and other heavenly bodies don't exist in fact. Those images are optical illusion made by your telescope.

 

[Locutus of Board]

rc5,

I bet you have a scope for any heavenly bodies that may live across the street. :Q