Take a look at Saturn...

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greenfreak

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Real Lord of the Rings shines
Saturn offers brilliant views to terrestrial observers
By Richard Stenger
CNN


(CNN) --Saturn makes its closest approach to the Earth in 30 years this week, promising exceptional views whether seen with the naked eye or via a telescope.

The ringed planet is now brighter than all other stars except for Sirius and Canopus. And it is tilted in the Earth's direction, giving observers using even simple telescopes an impressive view of the rings.

Even if one misses the closest encounter on Tuesday, the celestial show continues until early 2003.

"Saturn and Earth will be close together for many weeks," notes said NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams in an online science bulletin. "So get out your telescope. Even a small one will do."

Saturn closes to within 750 million miles (1.2 billion kilometers) of Earth on Tuesday. The maximum distance between the two planets is about 1 billion miles ( nearly 1.7 billion kilometers).

Saturn and sun
Currently, Saturn and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, bringing Saturn close to our planet and making it appear brighter than usual to terrestrial observers.

Known as opposition, the situation takes place about every 13 months. But the current one is the best in three decades because Saturn happens to be making its closest approach to the sun in its lopsided orbit.

"Saturn's 30-year orbit is not a perfect circle. It has the shape of an ellipse with one side 6 percent closer to the sun than the other," Adams said. "When Saturn is closer to the sun, it's also closer to Earth, and we get a great view."

Saturn looks exceptionally bright now in part because its rings, potent sunlight reflectors, are tilted in the Earth's direction. The circular debris bands disappear when viewed edge-on.

Seven years ago, when Saturn passed comparatively close to Earth, the rings were flat, making them nearly undetectable.

The reason for the changes in the appearance of the rings is that they are tilted 27 degrees in relation to Saturn's orbit. They seem to teeter as the planet goes around the sun.

To find Saturn, sky watchers in the Northern Hemisphere should look eastward after sunset. It is a bright yellow point among the stars in the constellation Taurus. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere should look to the northeast to find the constellation.

At midnight, the ringed planet is almost straight overhead. Another visual helper is the moon, which early this week is near Saturn in the sky.
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Source: CNN

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Awesome... Just in time for Christmas... My boyfriend and my nephew are both getting telescopes for Christmas!
 
Tonight
Periods of light freezing rain
Wednesday
Showers likely.
Wednesday Night
Showers with a chance of thunderstorms.
Thursday
Rain showers likely
Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy
Friday
Mostly cloudy


I so love the midwest in winter:rolleyes:
 
Not a chance. No clear skies expected til next year. Although i do have many fond memories of sitting in my backyard peering through my 10" reflector, draped in layers of clothing trying to keep warm at 2:00AM all the while sipping on a bottle of whiskey. I spent hundreds of hours gazing upward and much of that at saturn as it's one of the most thought provoking and beautiful things in the sky. It's fun to sit and watch it's moons actually orbit the planet. The universe in motion is an amazing thing.
Hey GF, what type of scopes are they getting? Refractor? Reflector? what size?:)
 
This is what I bought for my nephew: Polaris 50 AZ-M telescope Specs:

50mm (2-inch) refracting telescope
IBM-compatible astronomy software
600mm focal length f/12 refractor with glass objective lens
3 eyepieces (25mm widefield, 12.5mm and 4mm high-power eyepieces)
Adjustable Harwood tripod

And I don't know what my sister bought Rusty yet. Considering that she got it at KMart, I'm not all that sure it's as nice as the one I got for D.J. We'll see on Christmas Eve I guess.
 
Nice. I'm sure they'll have lots of fun. That's about the size of my first telescope(except it was 30 years old). My next will be a 24" reflector that i'm going to build myself but that's years down the road.

Why is that all the good views always happen in the winter months?
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Actually it's better that way since the cold air provides for better viewing(less atmospheric disturbance).
 
My sister bought Rusty and I a Galileo telescope... The specs:

GALILEO 700 X 60MM ASTRO/TERRESTRIAL TELESCOPE
60MM AIR SPACED ACHROMATIC OBJECTIVE LENS
STAR DIAGONAL PRISM
PRE-ASSEMBLED METAL TRIPOD
RETRACTABLE RUBBER FEET
ROTATING FOCUS HOUSING
MARSEYE FINDERSCOPE
THREE EYEPIECES ( 4MM / 12.5MM / 20MM )
3X BARLOW LENS
RACK & PINION FOCUSING
NYLON CARRYING CASE
PLANETARIUM CD ROM
LIMITED ONE YEAR WARRANTY

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But of course, it was cloudy last night, and tonight. But Friday it's supposed to clear up. :headbng2:
 
I was able to gaze it well enough with the naked eye all last week when I was out on the barrier islands. It was rather huge and seemed to have an orange/tan hue.
 
Jan has been going out and viewing Saturn with the telescope I got her for our anniversary. We could just make out the rings.

Jupiter is now showing on the horizon, so tonight she lined up on it. It was pretty amazing. We could see three of the moons very distinctly.

I'm not sure exactly what sort of specs this telescope has. It was something my dad had, and I traded him a pistol for it. The brand name is Celestron. It's orange, it's about 6" in diameter and 18" long. It came with two lenses, but no owners manual or any other info. Dad's had it for over ten years, so it's pretty old. Anyone know telescopes well enough to tell me what we have and where we could find out more about how to use it?
 
C8.JPG


This look familiar? I did an image search on google for "celestron" and found a bunch of images like this with links and specs. The first link I saw says it's a Celestron SC-8 classic. Might want to start there. :)
 
Jan's isn't quite as fancy as that. I did an image search on google, and I'm going through the results. Here's a picture of the one I got for Jan...
 
I think I found it. In the google links I found a site here that's a wealth of information on telescopes. Scroll down on this page and the one in the middle, the Comet Catcher, looks like Jan's. Thanks for the help, Greenie!! :)
 
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