Basic newcomer questions...

I've had some 15 x 70 binoculars (strathspey) for a couple of weeks or
so now. Enjoying seeing the sky in much greater detail.

I've been trying to find Saturn. I was looking in the southern sky at
between 12:30 and 1am this morning. According to Stellarium, Saturn
should have been magnitude 0.83 high in the southern sky which should be
visible, no? I couldn't find it after much trying. Or perhaps I did find
it and didn't know it!

Should I be able to see Saturn with those binoculars? What would mark it
out in the sky?

The other question is about Sirius (again, I think it was that). I found
I couldn't get sharp focus on it, despite all the stars around it being
focused, it appeared to be twinkling magenta and cyan colours - it was
like a small diamond refracting light. I'm sure it wasn't atmosphere as
it was really clear and nothing else was twinkling.

Is that because it's a binary or something else?

Sorry for what must seem like really basic questions!

On Jan 30, 10:56 pm, Gary wrote:
I've had some 15 x 70 binoculars (strathspey) for a couple of weeks or
so now. Enjoying seeing the sky in much greater detail.

I've been trying to find Saturn. I was looking in the southern sky at
between 12:30 and 1am this morning. According to Stellarium, Saturn
should have been magnitude 0.83 high in the southern sky which should be
visible, no? I couldn't find it after much trying. Or perhaps I did find
it and didn't know it!

Should I be able to see Saturn with those binoculars? What would mark it
out in the sky?

You can see Saturn very easily just with your eyes alone. Even to the
naked eye you can distinguish it by its' colour. It has a pale
yellowish cast to me. With the binos at 15X you will not have enough
magnification to see the rings but you should be able to see that it
is definitely non stellar, a bit oval looking. BTW 15X70 is a fairly
big and heavy binos for hand held. Do you have them on some sort of
mounting or are you holding them by hand? I find 10X50's are the most
I can cope with hand held.

To find Saturn start at the Moon this evening. You should find the
moon is close to the pair Castor and Pollux. From there, run along the
ecliptic towards the East. You will notice the first bright object to
come to is Saturn. A bright star, Regulus is a little further to the
East. About half way between the moon and Saturn is the Beehive
cluster which is quite good viewing in binoculars although the bright
moon will be ruining the view a bit.


The other question is about Sirius (again, I think it was that). I found
I couldn't get sharp focus on it, despite all the stars around it being
focused, it appeared to be twinkling magenta and cyan colours - it was
like a small diamond refracting light. I'm sure it wasn't atmosphere as
it was really clear and nothing else was twinkling.

Probably because Sirius has a fairly low altitude for you. You are
seeing it through more air and its' brightness makes the scintillation
more obvious. For me it passes over at near enough to 70 degrees
altitude. So you can guess that I am a bit South of you ;-).


Is that because it's a binary or something else?

Sirius is a binary but it is not easy to see its' 13th magnitude
companion. Sirius being over fourteen magnitudes brighter drowns out
Sirius B. To see it you need a fairly big aperture scope with plenty
of magnification.


Sorry for what must seem like really basic questions!

Not at all. On topic posts are getting to be gems around here ;-).

Bill

On Jan 31, 1:40 am, wrote:
On Jan 30, 10:56 pm, Gary wrote:

I've had some 15 x 70 binoculars (strathspey) for a couple of weeks or
so now. Enjoying seeing the sky in much greater detail.

I've been trying to find Saturn. I was looking in the southern sky at
between 12:30 and 1am this morning. According to Stellarium, Saturn
should have been magnitude 0.83 high in the southern sky which should be
visible, no? I couldn't find it after much trying. Or perhaps I did find
it and didn't know it!

Should I be able to see Saturn with those binoculars? What would mark it
out in the sky?You can see Saturn very easily just with your eyes alone. Even to the
naked eye you can distinguish it by its' colour. It has a pale
yellowish cast to me. With the binos at 15X you will not have enough
magnification to see the rings but you should be able to see that it
is definitely non stellar, a bit oval looking. BTW 15X70 is a fairly
big and heavy binos for hand held. Do you have them on some sort of
mounting or are you holding them by hand? I find 10X50's are the most
I can cope with hand held.

To find Saturn start at the Moon this evening. You should find the
moon is close to the pair Castor and Pollux.

Just a correction. I am twelve hours ahead of you, so I was getting my
dates mixed up. On the evening of the 30th for you, the moon will be
a bit to the West of Castor and Pollux which you will pass on the way
towards Saturn.


From there, run along the
ecliptic towards the East. You will notice the first bright object to
come to is Saturn. A bright star, Regulus is a little further to the
East. About half way between the moon and Saturn is the Beehive
cluster which is quite good viewing in binoculars although the bright
moon will be ruining the view a bit.

Bill

SNIP

wrote:


You can see Saturn very easily just with your eyes alone. Even to the
naked eye you can distinguish it by its' colour. It has a pale
yellowish cast to me. With the binos at 15X you will not have enough
magnification to see the rings but you should be able to see that it
is definitely non stellar, a bit oval looking. BTW 15X70 is a fairly
big and heavy binos for hand held. Do you have them on some sort of
mounting or are you holding them by hand? I find 10X50's are the most
I can cope with hand held.


I can hold the 15x70s for a bit hand held, but mostly I have them tripod
mounted.


To find Saturn start at the Moon this evening. You should find the
moon is close to the pair Castor and Pollux. From there, run along the
ecliptic towards the East. You will notice the first bright object to
come to is Saturn. A bright star, Regulus is a little further to the
East. About half way between the moon and Saturn is the Beehive
cluster which is quite good viewing in binoculars although the bright
moon will be ruining the view a bit.


Cheers, I'll try that. Although I'm not going to say the cloud word,
it's ben cloudy for the last 6 nights around here - last night was the
first clear one. Hoping for another!

Probably because Sirius has a fairly low altitude for you. You are
seeing it through more air and its' brightness makes the scintillation
more obvious. For me it passes over at near enough to 70 degrees
altitude. So you can guess that I am a bit South of you ;-).


Ah. I wondered why it was different to the surrounding stars and the
difference was certainly the brightness.

Sirius is a binary but it is not easy to see its' 13th magnitude
companion. Sirius being over fourteen magnitudes brighter drowns out
Sirius B. To see it you need a fairly big aperture scope with plenty
of magnification.

Sorry for what must seem like really basic questions!

Not at all. On topic posts are getting to be gems around here ;-).


I may well have more!

Thanks

Gary

On 30 Jan 2007 04:40:41 -0800, wrote:

Is that because it's a binary or something else?

Sirius is a binary but it is not easy to see its' 13th magnitude
companion. Sirius being over fourteen magnitudes brighter drowns out
Sirius B. To see it you need a fairly big aperture scope with plenty
of magnification.

Actually Bill, the Pup Star (the companion to Sirius) is magnitude
+8.44 and is gradually (over the next couple of years at least)
getting further away from Sirius itself. To see it you need a well
collimated scope and a night of reasonable to good seeing. The
technique is to wait until Sirius is at its highest point in the sky,
use as high a magnification as the seeing will stand and nudge the
scope so that Sirius is just behind the north-western edge of the
field of view. The Pup lies to the south east. Alternatively,
observing in bright twilight reduces the glare of Sirius and can make
the Pup easier to see.

Of course this isn't going to be possible with 15x70 binoculars. ;-)
--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk
Last updated June 2006

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:56:31 +0000, Gary wrote:

I've had some 15 x 70 binoculars (strathspey) for a couple of weeks or
so now. Enjoying seeing the sky in much greater detail.

I've been trying to find Saturn. I was looking in the southern sky at
between 12:30 and 1am this morning. According to Stellarium, Saturn
should have been magnitude 0.83 high in the southern sky which should be
visible, no? I couldn't find it after much trying. Or perhaps I did find
it and didn't know it!

Should I be able to see Saturn with those binoculars? What would mark it
out in the sky?

If you can identify the group of stars known as the Plough or Big
Dipper in the sky then you're part of the way there. I like to
describe this group of 7 stars as a saucepan because most people know
what that actually looks like! Imagine the saucepan the right way up.
The two stars on the right hand end of the saucepan (i.e. the two
stars that form the wall of the pan farthest from the handle) can be
extended up (with respect to the saucepan) to find Polaris - the North
Star. if you extend the other two stars in the pan (i.e. the two
closest to the handle) in the opposite direction, the first brightish
star you will come to is Regulus - the brightest star in Leo the Lion.

This star sits at the bottom of a left-right reversed question mark of
stars known as the Sickle (which represents the lion's head).

From Regulus, go up the vertical stem of the reversed question mark to
locate the next star up. Then head up and to the left to locate the
next star in the question mark (Algeiba - a rather nice double). Ok -
draw a line from Regulus to Algeiba and rotate it around Regulus by 90
degrees clockwise. The end of the line will end up near to a brightish
slightly yellow star which isn't a star at all - this is Saturn.
--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk
Last updated June 2006

On Jan 31, 5:23 am, Pete Lawrence wrote:
On 30 Jan 2007 04:40:41 -0800, wrote:

Is that because it's a binary or something else?

Sirius is a binary but it is not easy to see its' 13th magnitude
companion. Sirius being over fourteen magnitudes brighter drowns out
Sirius B. To see it you need a fairly big aperture scope with plenty
of magnification.

Actually Bill, the Pup Star (the companion to Sirius) is magnitude
+8.44 and is gradually (over the next couple of years at least)
getting further away from Sirius itself.

Well I got that rather wrong ;-( !

To see it you need a well
collimated scope and a night of reasonable to good seeing. The
technique is to wait until Sirius is at its highest point in the sky,
use as high a magnification as the seeing will stand and nudge the
scope so that Sirius is just behind the north-western edge of the
field of view. The Pup lies to the south east. Alternatively,
observing in bright twilight reduces the glare of Sirius and can make
the Pup easier to see.

Sounds like I should try this. Being in the Southern hemisphere will
help with the altitude of Sirius. Do you think an 8" scope will do the
trick?

Bill



Of course this isn't going to be possible with 15x70 binoculars. ;-)
--
Pete Lawrencehttp://www.digitalsky.org.uk
Last updated June 2006