I asked a friend at work today “Guess what I looked at last night” to which she replied using a blank stare. I said “Saturn,” and she perked up with interest and said “How many and which models?” Hehehe, I had to laugh, so I said “The one between Jupiter and. . .” I never finished my sentence as it dawned on her.
Last night was a very nice cloudless night near Spokane. I live out on the West plains. It was cold though and I had reservations about taking my new telescope out on the deck to get a look at the sky. I put on a stocking cap, a field jacket and took to the night air. The telescope went up and the notebook computer sat beside it. I don’t have a connection cable to allow the notebook computer to control the telescope, yet, so I used the provided controller already attached.
The first thing I need to do was align the scope. Since it was cold, and I as mostly dinking around anyway, I selected the “Easy” alignment method. Leveling the scope tube and pointing it North I started the procedure. The scope then automagically turned to point at Sirius. Unfortunately it was a bit off so I had to fine tune it by hand, this was part of the alignment procedure. After I got Sirius centered, I pressed [Enter] to continue and it proceeded to seek to another star. I can’t remember the name and I’m not sure I was even pointing to the right one, but I centered what looked good and continued.
Well, it wasn’t as close as I would have liked, but it made seeking to a new point much quicker. I selected the Moon as it was the largest object in the sky. I ended up looking at brightly lit empty space. Hmmm, it was off by a bit. But that’s the not the real story here. I got the Moon centered and my wife and I took a look at some craters very close up for a while. It was really getting cold out now and I wanted to find a planet.
Checking the notebook computer, it looked like either Mars or Saturn would be a good choice. Since I knew Mars might be behind the house at that time, I decided on Saturn. The controller luckily has 1400 bodies already input, the planets of our solar system being a subset. I selected Saturn in the controller then pressed the [Go to] button. The telescope whirred and buzzed and eventually was pointing near a bright star in the sky. Looking in the eye-piece, nothing.
I could tell it was very near to pointing at the bright object, I surmised it must be Saturn. I calculated which way to move the scope and started pressing the direction arrows on the controller to move it into view. Finally, after some time fiddling and re-checking and moving again, I got the bright spot centered in the eye-piece, but it was out of focus. I figured this must be it, so I started to focus.
What happened next is so far beyond my wildest expectations that it literally took my breath away. As focusing started to take the fuzziness away, the rings of Saturn virtually popped right out from the center of the bright spot. WOW! I had just found Saturn and even with the lowest power eye-piece I could see the rings circling Saturn like a plate with a hole in it, holding a marble inside. I was flabbergasted. I never thought I’d see it so clearly at so low a magnification. With just that one viewing, this birthday present became the best I ever had.
I put in the next higher power eye-piece and centered it even more. Saturn was quite a sight. Even after seeing the photos from Nasa, and even other from amateur astronomers, there was just not comparison to having a planet like that just pop into view so clearly and unmistakably. I was in awe. Here was another planet, not just some bright star; A planet lit from the same sun that made our days, the light traveling all the way to Saturn and returning so I could see it. The view was wonderful and the telescope tracked it marvelously for several minutes. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.
Eventually it became cold and I need to move indoors, so I packed up the notebook computer and the telescope and hauled everything inside. As I warmed my hands and face in the house, I talked with my wife about how happy I was with my present, how I had experienced something I never thought I would; seeing some of God’s great work in our solar system up close so easily. With a new excitement, I’m now interested in finding Jupiter and taking a closer look at Mars.
Asa Jay
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