I saw my first planet!

[Orbinaut Pete]

Hi all,

A friend lent me his spare telescope last week, which is my first ever "proper" telescope.

It looks kinda like this (made my Meade). I don't know the exact specs of it as he didn't give me a manual with it.

Due to last week's cloud, I didn't bother setting it up until tonight, when the Moon made a rare appearance.

So, once I had set it up, I turned it on the Moon and adjusted the focus. The results were amazing! I could see craters inside craters! :thumbup:

I noticed a point of light below the Moon, which I knew must be a planet due to its brightness. So I turned the scope on it. The results were incredible! I saw the point of light with three pin-head sized dots around it! I have since learned that it was Jupiter with 3 of its Moons, Io, Ganymede and Callisto!

I tired to take a photo through the camera port on the scope, but I just got an silhouette of the mirror, not the planet. It was the same story when I tried to photograph the Moon. Do I need a special type of camera?

You'll have to excuse me as I'm a complete noob when it comes to astronomy. But, for a first attempt at astronomy, I'm pretty pleased!

 

[Rtyh-12]

What? Is this such a big thing? I've seen planet Earth long ago.

 

[Dambuster]

I think any camera should be able to do it - I was able to get some fairly-good quality shots of the moon using a Sony digital camera and a small telescope a while ago.

 

[Ululuru]

sounds awesome

i've thought about buying a telescope, this sounds great ^^

 

[HAL9001]

:lol:well, I saw my first plaet wenn I was born, it's called "earth" and I saw it from very near...:lol:

but yes, that sounds realy awesome - why just don't I have got a telecope

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I'd like to paraphrase Steven Wright... I've got a map of the Earth, 1 foot equals 1 foot. You're standing on it.

But seriously, it's nice that you've got a telescope. My daughter and I are taking the astronomy course at the local college this fall, mainly so we can use the schools 14 inch telescope (pictures will follow).

Here's Jupiter from last fall, taken with my plain old Nikon DX40.