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I spent a very pleasant hour out the back garden last night with my spotting scope, saw Jupiter and its 4 visible moons and also Saturn.
This got me thinking, I would love to see the rings of Saturn and maybe some galaxies through a telescope before I peg it.
What is the minimum aperture and magnification I would need to get a reasonable view of the planets other than just white or red dot in the sky? All recommendations welcome.I know nothing of telescopes etc, so have at it. Cheers.
Have a look & see if there's any astronomical societies nearby? They often have nights where Joe Public can go along. I think. FB groups maybe?
Yup I'm very new to this hobby it's apparently more expensive than bikes.
Jupiter in the last 2 weeks has been great it's an odd feeling looking at the planets you get real sence of belonging to a bigger universe.
I've got https://www.celestron.com/products/nexstar-127slt-computerized-telescope.
For looking at the moon it's fantastic.
Jupiter was a tad small I have to say x2 Barlow and 25mm lens my 10mm is rubbish as it's the one that came with the scope. I think I need a better Barlow lens I think?
Saturn is next on the list and maybe a camera
Ive seen the rings on a very basic old scope with a tiny eyepiece. Faint but i could make it out.
Decent eyepiece perhaps?
TJ it's all about the eyepiece apparently. Thay are crazy money
A few years back I got a picture of mercury transiting the sun.
300mm, 1.4 teleconverter, aps-c canon, every ND , ND grad and a polariser I had, through live view, that's quite good. Makes you realise how massive the sun actually is.
Mercury is the small dot at the bottom. The other smudges are sun spots I believe
I had to tweak the settings as it came out pretty green.
Our own dobber astro on Instagram is pretty inspiring.
I got the horse head nebula last winter but it's far far far from Hubble quality.
My Skywatcher 150mm Newtonian shows Jupiter's bands, the Great Red Spot and on one memorable evening the tiny shadow of one of the moons cast on the cloud deck.
I can see Saturn's rings, and at high magnification on a clear night, I can make out the Cassini division between the two main rings.
It's a superb starter scope, although if I'm honest, I actually started with its big brother the 200mm model. However it was just physically too large for me to humph up and down the stairs after breaking my back on the snowboard.
It doesn't have to be expensive at all, astrophotography aside. I had a 200mm dobsonian, one of these, currently £380 - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html
I could see and track the Galilean moons (including clear shadows on Jupiter, as mentioned above), Saturn's moons and the Cassini division, managed to spot over half of the Messier objects, and all from a light-compromised city centre back yard. I also made a sun filter and tracked a transit of Mercury. I can't remember which of the planets I failed to see, but I got the others!
I bought a few accessories, and had some nicer eyepieces but didn't spend a huge amount. The standard eyepieces were easily enough to give me clear views of the planets, etc.
But this:
I actually started with its big brother the 200mm model. However it was just physically too large for me to humph up and down the stairs after breaking my back on the snowboard.
The 200mm dob weighs enough that it's a struggle to carry it in one piece, and it takes up quite a lot of space. I keep thinking I might get the little 130mm dob that Skywatcher make...