Stupid question ...

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it? All previous
attempts have left me in doubt as to whether I actually saw the damned
thing or not. Please assume the worst when thinking of drives - I
have nothing fancy so cannot point the scope in anything that claims
to be a reasonable facsimile of an RA and Decl.

Eugene L Griessel www.dynagen.co.za/eugene

He who does not bellow the truth, when he knows the truth
Makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it?

At mag 7.9 you should see it.
At 2.2 " dia it will be ..small.. about 1/3 the size of Mars :-)

--
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jc_atm/

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:51:10 GMT, (Eugene
Griessel) wrote:

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it? All previous
attempts have left me in doubt as to whether I actually saw the damned
thing or not. Please assume the worst when thinking of drives - I
have nothing fancy so cannot point the scope in anything that claims
to be a reasonable facsimile of an RA and Decl.

Neptune is quite obvious even at fairly low magnification (well under
your 135X). It is bright, obviously extended, and uniquely colored. With
your scope it is an easy target... if you can actually find it in the
first place. Make sure you have a good chart that shows it in relation
to plenty of stars (I'd suggest a computer generated chart). It may take
you a while to navigate to the correct position, but once there you
should know you have found it.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:

Neptune is quite obvious even at fairly low magnification (well under
your 135X). It is bright, obviously extended, and uniquely colored. With
your scope it is an easy target... if you can actually find it in the
first place. Make sure you have a good chart that shows it in relation
to plenty of stars (I'd suggest a computer generated chart). It may take
you a while to navigate to the correct position, but once there you
should know you have found it.


Thanks - with Mars being only 1degree 18 minutes away I think I should
have a reasonable starting point this time. Where I am Neptune should
be almost due north - so I hope to pin it down this time!

Eugene L Griessel www.dynagen.co.za/eugene

Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW!

Ï "Eugene Griessel" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
...

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it? All previous
attempts have left me in doubt as to whether I actually saw the damned
thing or not. Please assume the worst when thinking of drives - I
have nothing fancy so cannot point the scope in anything that claims
to be a reasonable facsimile of an RA and Decl.

I caught a glimpse of it at a much lower magnification, last year from the
dark skies in Antiparos, with a pair of Apogee 20x100 aligned with my Tasco
on an equatorial mount. My search time was in the ballpark of 15-20 minutes,
using Cartes du Ciel and field circles calculated for all my instruments. I
do remember going back and forth between EP and program screen a lot, but
once I located it it was an easy target.

I could not see a disk with the Tasco, since its diameter was much smaller
than the resolution limit of the telescope, but it was definitely
identifiable, and blue. Try your lowest magnification in order to find it
first, then up as needed.

Eugene L Griessel www.dynagen.co.za/eugene

He who does not bellow the truth, when he knows the truth
Makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.
--
I. N. Galidakis
http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/jgal/
Eventually, _everything_ is understandable

Thanks - with Mars being only 1degree 18 minutes away I think I should
have a reasonable starting point this time. Where I am Neptune should
be almost due north - so I hope to pin it down this time!

I'll be watching for your report of success! As you say, with Mars there to
point the way, you'll find it.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/

Are you interested in understanding optics?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATM_Optics_Software/

************************************

Eugene L Griessel www.dynagen.co.za/eugene

Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW!

Eugene Griessel wrote:

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it?

Yes, easy. You probably won't clearly resolve the disk with 4", but the
color should give it away. To me it looks like a dull little English
pea color.
Mike

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:24:19 -0600, Mike Jones
wrote:

Eugene Griessel wrote:

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it?

Yes, easy. You probably won't clearly resolve the disk with 4", but the
color should give it away. To me it looks like a dull little English
pea color.
Mike

This colour thing; I've always seen Uranus as greenish, Neptune as
blue, which seems to be borne out by the observations of these planets
via space probles. However, older people have mentioned that Neptune
has seemed green to them, possibly indicating a discolouration of the
cornea with age. It's somewhat like when people describe high surface
brightness planetary nebula, you often get different opinions on just
what colour they see.
-Rich

RichA wrote:

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:24:19 -0600, Mike Jones
wrote:

Eugene Griessel wrote:

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it?

Yes, easy. You probably won't clearly resolve the disk with 4", but the
color should give it away. To me it looks like a dull little English
pea color.
Mike

This colour thing; I've always seen Uranus as greenish, Neptune as
blue, which seems to be borne out by the observations of these planets
via space probles. However, older people have mentioned that Neptune
has seemed green to them, possibly indicating a discolouration of the
cornea with age. It's somewhat like when people describe high surface
brightness planetary nebula, you often get different opinions on just
what colour they see.
-Rich

I'm 53 and fortunately my corneas are still BK7-clear. I think it's
more a case of slight differences in individual scotopic response and
perception. Neptune appears somewhere between cyan and green
(aquamarine?) to me in my 16", but more like just pea-green in my 4" and
6" refractors. I'll agree on Uranus, it's slightly more toward the
green. But in smaller apertures I get them at about the same
chromaticity. Would be interesting if the OP would report back to SAA
on his own perceptions.

Interesting that color sensitivity also affects variable star
estimates. My old bud Mike Marcario had the most red-sensitive eyes of
anyone I ever knew. He would always get deep-red stars like V Hydra a
half magnitude or more brighter than the rest of us 3 or 4 guys, using
Ron Royer's 12.5" scope. We always agreed on others like SS Cygni to
within 0.1 magnitude, it was just the red ones he saw brighter.

Mike

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 10:08:02 -0600, Mike Jones
wrote:

RichA wrote:

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:24:19 -0600, Mike Jones
wrote:

Eugene Griessel wrote:

Ok - on the 14th of April Mars and Neptune will be very close
together. I hope to use the opportunity to actually "see" Neptune. I
have a 4 inch reflector. My biggest objective gives a 135X
magnification. Do I have a snowballs of identifying it?

Yes, easy. You probably won't clearly resolve the disk with 4", but the
color should give it away. To me it looks like a dull little English
pea color.
Mike

This colour thing; I've always seen Uranus as greenish, Neptune as
blue, which seems to be borne out by the observations of these planets
via space probles. However, older people have mentioned that Neptune
has seemed green to them, possibly indicating a discolouration of the
cornea with age. It's somewhat like when people describe high surface
brightness planetary nebula, you often get different opinions on just
what colour they see.
-Rich

I'm 53 and fortunately my corneas are still BK7-clear. I think it's
more a case of slight differences in individual scotopic response and
perception. Neptune appears somewhere between cyan and green
(aquamarine?) to me in my 16", but more like just pea-green in my 4" and
6" refractors. I'll agree on Uranus, it's slightly more toward the
green. But in smaller apertures I get them at about the same
chromaticity. Would be interesting if the OP would report back to SAA
on his own perceptions.

I remember Walter Scott Houston said that prior to getting new
corneas (cataract operation?) he saw various objects as greenish,
but after the operation, they appeared bluish. He attributed it
to an increase in the blue-ultraviolet throughput of the artificial
corneas. Also, viewing objects lower to the horizon in polluted areas
like cities where you have both air pollution and light pollution of
whatever spectrum to contend with can alter the perceived colours
of objects.
-Rich