Saturn's Back :) and Venus too....

peterako

Not great conditions and a bit of bluured vision on my part.....

Could not sleep Monday morning so was up at 5am and did some star gazing.

Here's a capture of Saturn.
Seeing was not great.
Scope not cooled.

But you can see that the rings have tilted nicely from last year



And Venus fro a day or two before. Low in the turbulent sky:



Clear skies,
Peter

Plug

I can't wait for Saturn up at a convenient time:p Emm yes the rings are better and every year for the next few they will get better!

NUTZZ

I cannot wait to see Saturn! I've only recently gotten into astronomy after I found my old telescope from Christmas years ago! Having read on here a few months ago that the bright 'star' I saw every night was in fact Jupiter, I was blown away when I dusted off the old telescope and managed to find it and could see detail on the planet and see four of the moons!

I've been hooked on it ever since and I'm now regularly checking back on this forum! So now I'm really looking forward to looking at Saturn and seeing the rings for myself! I've found Stellarium invaluable for tracking stars and planets, I wouldn't have a clue otherwise!

Just on a side note, the telescope I have is the Tasco 302048, as I only got this when I was young I know it's a fairly low end one, but is it decent enough for beginners? Also does anyone have tips on cleaning it or anything else that should be done to it as it was lying for years idle in the garage!

rccaulfield

Saw Venus this morning with the naked eye. It was my first time seeing it, knowing what it was, really amazing!

peterako

@rccaufield: even with a set of cheap binoculars (eg. Lidl) you can see the crescent on Venus quite clearly at the moment

@NUTZZ: There are quite a few good articles on YouTube on lense and mirror cleaning. Also Google will throw up some good advice.
BUT...unless the scope has very dusty optics I'd leave it alone.....

Here's one I found a while ago. Telescope Do's and Don'ts

Your scope is a Refractor (I think) so the above or something like it may be the way to go if you're cleaning....

I've used a number of sources for information and thus far have sucessfully cleaned my eyepieces (Isopropol Alcohol diluted in distilled water and pure cotton buds).
Haven't tried the mirrors on the scope yet....though may need to soon....

Clear skies,
Peter

dlofnep

I'll whip her out when the snow is gone. Far too cold at the mo!