Saturn Now

[blobrana]

Hum,
Just now the planet Saturn will be the closest to the planet Earth for 2006 - It will be only 1215.9 million kilometres away.
Saturn appears as a bright yellowish star, low to the east-northeast as evening twilight is ending. It is the brightest object in the constellation of Cancer.
The famous M-44 “Beehive” open star cluster will appear very close (west) of it, if you look through a pair of binoculars. The planet is due west at 6:00am.
After this closest approach (opposition), Saturn will rise before sunset and become an evening object while receding from us.

BTW, There is a nasty storm on the planet

IMAGES with this link

[kinghelfer]

[blobrana]

Hum,
Saturn is in the sky all night,
It'll be due south at around midnight.

A cheap 2” telescope should show you the moons and rings.

Bigger is better.

[kinghelfer]

..i,ll try that tonight then, i know this isnt a refracting telescope, i,m not even sure how powerful it is as all the tech stuff is in spanish and when i google it all the sites are in french!! ive got an old pair of 15x50 binos but i cant seem to hold ,em steady enough

[blobrana]

Hum,
If its a reflector, (it uses mirrors), then i`ll guess that its a 4.5” or larger... more than enough to see the planet...

Use a low power eyepiece (find one with a number like 20 or higher on it, high powered eyepieces (4 or 8 ) make the planet too fuzzy...

Generally, the larger the telescope is, the dimmer the object it can see. As an example, compare a small three-inch telescope to an eight-inch telescope.
If we were to take both telescopes out to a remote area and look at say the Orion Nebula, the 3” will do a fine job. You will see the brighter parts of the nebula and get a good idea as to the size and shape of the Nebula. On the eight inch, you will see some very fine detail, and start to make out many of the smaller features you would see in a photograph taken from a major observatory.

But having said that i too just use a pair of binoculars - so much simpler...
i would suggest you find a handy post to lean your binoculars on, to hold them steady, or buy a tripod adaptor.
Especially with such a high magnification. (i just have a 10 x 50).

http://www.geocities.com/goarana668/scope.htm

[kinghelfer]

..last night was ruined by a bank of low cloud or maybe even a calima(bit like a sandstorm) from the Sahara , this telescope has a lens at the front and changable eyepieces at my end in the traditional fashion, its a Vivitar SQ 700 60. It was cheap, about 58Euros i think as i didnt want to splash out for a realy good one as you can ripped off here if you dont know what your talking about. My Binos are an old , heavy pair that ive had for at least 20yrs and when i try to look at the stars with them, it looks like a blurred, rapid UFO shot! i might try fastening the binos to the telescope tripod..