Just saw Saturn's rings.....

[Heyo]

with my new telescope.... for the first time...

Man is it beautiful! :7

I am gonna try and find Jupiter.. and one of those double stars...

-Heyo

[Bertha Venation]

1. isn't that the coolest thing!!

Wow! Lucky you.

Check out the Pleiades (sp?) too -- a cluster of stars. Follow Orion's belt westward.

Also check out Orion's belt -- a cool nebula is hidden in there.

[Nomad559]

2. Check out this cool link

The Best of Hubble
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Lasso of Truth

[Heyo]

3. thanks...

"Also check out Orion's belt -- a cool nebula is hidden in there."

Sweet!..

Is it one of the three stars, or is it hidden somewhere else in that area? Does it have a name? I got a cool panetarium program with it.. that helps me track and find objects in the sky... if I had a name.. I could look it up.

I wonder if I could see the shape of a galaxy with a 5" relecting telescope...

Also, to the poster who posted the links.. :toast:

Man.. Im a 'stronomer all of a sudden....

Think I might go down to the thing they have every month at Markham park one o' these times...

Heyo.

edit: spelling

[RBitt]

6. Moon

If you saw Saturn's rings with this much moon you must be doing something right, way to go, and that moon is not too shabby a target, but watch the eyes, can be bright. Good start to a new year!

[Bertha Venation]

12. It's in the region of Orion's belt

but is not one of the stars itself. It's called the Horse's Head Nebula. On a clear night in a place w/ no light pollution, it's visible with the naked eye. It appears as a tiny cloud of dust. It's also visible w/ a good pair of binocs. But find it in your scope and you'll be blown away.

Isn't this exciting? GOD, I want a telescope again.

[101 Proof]

21. The Orion Nebula (M43)...

is located in the second star down in Orion's sword. It's one of the coolest looking nebulas in the sky. It's definitely one of my favorites of the Messier Objects.

If you're looking for some cool astronomy software, head on over to space.com and check out the links for Starry Night Backyard Astronomy. It's definitely one of the best astronomy programs out there!

[Nomad559]

24. Starry Night

Starry Night Deep Space Explorer Is a Great Program. :)
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Lasso of Truth

[private_ryan]

4. what telescope

and was it hard to setup? I'm curios and I might get one.

[BiggJawn]

5. Oh, if you can resolve the rings, go for Jupiter!

Bet you see at least 2 bands and 4 moons. Maybe even the Red Spot!

Wish my eyes weren't watering...Oh, wait...it's 50 degrees and raining tonight....

with a 5" reflector, you can see LOTS of things! I have a 2.5" long-focus refractor and I love it. Want a bigger one and more time to use it!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. Great! First scope? There is nothing like the first time you see

things way out there.

I think whoever said something about Orion meant M42 and M43 which are below and to the left of the belt stars.
This is the famous "star factory" that you have surely seen pictures of.
You will see a smudge of blue or red, depending on the side you focus on.
Good luck.

[Heyo]

8. Not really my very "first" scope...

have had a small one when I was a kid, and looked through a few other people's...

...but this is my first real one. It's a Galileo 5" newtonian relecting telescope. My girlfriend got it for me for Christmas off QVC actually. Never purchased anything from there but man what a sweet package this is. The scope has a laser finder that allows you to line it up perfectly with your object, which I thought was neat and didn't know existed. (You don't see the beam in the sky.. but you see it in the center of the finder scope and line it up on your target. (Moon looks INSANE through it.. you can clealy make out many surface features.)

It has a cool CD rom that has a map of the night sky, allows you to put in your coordinates, the time you want to view, and then shows you exactly where to find whatever you want. This is what allowed me to find Saturn on only my 4th of 5th night out with the telecope. Light polution is pretty bad in my complex but I see perfectly.

Not a huge panorama of saturn.. small, but defninitely CLEARLY resolved rings. (I was so suprised!)

To the poster who was thinking about getting a telescope... Google the brand I described above and you should find something. This one gets my vote.

Even though it's from QVC, it's NOT a cheap telescope... it really seems to be a finely tuned instrument.. cannot say enough about the quality.. it's pretty heavy, very stable.. crystal clear.

It has all the counter weights, fine tuning adjustment knobs and stuff... different eyepieces including one cool one where you can twist it sideways to change the zoom without changing eyepieces.

I'm not an expert, now.. so maybe I'm just so stoked about how Saturn looked.

I'll try Jupiter, but it seems like (from the CD) that it's mostly overhead during the day this time of year.. looking forward to that though for sure....

I wish I had a camera attachment.. I'd upload pics here.

Does anyone who knows about telescopes think I'll be able to make out a galaxy with this size scope?

-Heyo.

edit:
"and was it hard to setup? I'm curios and I might get one. "

Not at all. Easy and fun to setup and use.

[BrewerJohn]

13. I have a program on my computer

that I've been developing over many years for my own use and amusement, that tracks the positions
of the Moon and planets. I put in your rough geographical coordinates and it says that Jupiter
is rising right now. In fact I see it at my location as well. Look almost straight east, about
20 degrees above the horizon. It's 11.35 hours right ascension, 5.4 degrees declination, if that's
any use.

The four big moons should be easy and a great sight. I also used to have a program that tracked the
Galilean moons and showed a display of their positions as seen in a scope. I'd compare that to
what I saw with my old 60 mm refractor. I have a 4-inch reflector now that I really have to break
out more often!

[Heyo]

17. Thanks....

I've already brougt it in for the night, and have to work tommorow...

..but I will defenitely heed your tip and make Jupiter my priority on tommorow night's ovservation. (I can stay up late then)

If Jupiter is rising now on the horizon, it'd be an hour or two before I can see it because I have maybe 15º to 20º of ground clutter before I can see the sky..

So you designed the program yourself, huh? Sweet.

What you came up with was pretty much what my software came up with.. Jupiter being up late at night and in the early morning...

-Heyo

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. Is this the one you got? 900x102

[Heyo]

15. Yep!

That's the one.

Heyo

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. Looks great. Prices have come down in the past couple years

They must have moved the jobs overseas.

Oh well.

Sounds like you are bitten. Looks like it is easy to transport, take it somewhere dark, and really see stuff. It is amazing what light pollution does.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. great fun during November/December with meteors!

[Rhiannon12866]

19. I saw some last night!

Are these what we also call falling stars?:shrug:

[101 Proof]

22. Yes.

Yes it is. Some of the times, however, it may be just some space junk. They're still sweet to look at!

[SheilaT]

9. We were given a pretty good telescope

some years back, and the very first time we set it up and pointed it at Jupiter I felt just like Galileo. There were the four moons that are called the Galilean moons. They looked fake, they were so perfect!

A good binoculars will resolve the nebula in Orion and will show that the Pleiades consist of hundreds, maybe thousands of stars.

[Zomby Woof]

10. welcome to DU!

From one astronomy buff to the next. :-)

[Heyo]

11. cheers

:toast:

[101 Proof]

20. Sweet...another astronomy buff...and welcome to DU, Heyo!

I remember seeing Saturn's rings for the first time. The most prominent thing I saw was Cassini's Division-the dark area that separates Saturn's two groups of rings. If you loved Saturn, you'll love Jupiter even more. Jupiter is in Leo, if I remember correctly. Hopefully you'll be able to spot the four Gallilean moons-Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede.(sp???) They are the four moons that are closest to Jupiter. Look to Pisces if you would like to see Mars. That's another great planet to look at. :thumbsup:

If you're looking for some great double stars, you can look towards Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and look at the second star of the Big Dipper's handle. There will be two stars - Alcor and Mizar. They're one of the greatest, and probably the most famous, double stars. :) Another great double star is Sirus, the alpha star of Canis Major (located by Orion-shouldn't be too hard to find, it's the brightest object in the nighttime sky, behind the full moon.) You'll notice Sirus A and Sirus B. Both are great views.

If you want further information about the nighttime sky, head on over to www.astronomy.com . On the homepage, you'll see a link on the left that says "TheSky Online." Click on that and it'll give you the current sky chart. I think you'll have to be a registered member to use it. Don't worry, it's free to register. :) Once you do, the sky chart will be personallized to your area code. :)

If you (or any other DUer) have any other nighttime sky questions, feel free to email or pm me. :hi:

101 Proof

PS: What type of telescope you got?

[Heyo]

23. thanks...

"If you're looking for some great double stars, you can look towards Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and look at the second star of the Big Dipper's handle. There will be two stars - Alcor and Mizar. They're one of the greatest, and probably the most famous, double stars. :) Another great double star is Sirus, the alpha star of Canis Major (located by Orion-shouldn't be too hard to find, it's the brightest object in the nighttime sky, behind the full moon.) You'll notice Sirus A and Sirus B. Both are great views. "

That pretty much lays out what I wanna look at tonight... thanks.

:toast:

"PS: What type of telescope you got? "

Somebody posted a picture of it in this thread. (see above)

-Heyo