Saturn in Relation to Ursa Major

Last night I was looking through my telescope at the sky, trying to figure out which constellations are which with this crappy little sky map deal that I have.

I used the little dipper as a point of reference, to then go and look at the big dipper.

I went to go look at the two brightest stars in the big dipper (part of ursa major) and to my suprise, I was looking at Saturn.

I don't think that saturn is part of ursa major, so, can anyone show me, on a map (i already tried looking) where Saturn is in relation to the big dipper?

Thanks.

I use this online interactive skychart. You have to register but it's free. After that just plug in your coordinates plus the time of day and you're set to go.

I am totally confused with this map you have.
Look at where South is and then see where
North is. How could East be to the left? That is West.
East is to the right.

And I have never seen Saturn anywhere near the Dipper.

ZOOMER

Beach, thank you.

Zoomer, from what I had seen last night at around 12:30 am, california, it looked as if Saturn was part of the big dipper, even through it is not.

It was still nice to look at, the rings were vertical in relation to myself. There was another planet, too, I couldn't figure out what it was, so I was trying to figure out the constellations near the other planet (not saturn).

It's frustrating sometimes. If only I knew of an astronomer that lived near me. That'd be great.

Originally posted by ZOOMER
How could East be to the left? That is West.
East is to the right.

Because it's a map of the sky, not a map of the land

What do you mean about the rings? Were you looking at it
through a fairly large scope? I have a 5" Meade Reflector,
and I can barely see saturns rings at all. I just don't believe
that Saturn is in that part of the sky at all. But I am not an
expert astronomer at all, so I may be full of hot air.

ZOOMER

[edit on 5-3-2008 by ZOOMER]

If you are looking to the North, East is always
to the right of you and West is to the left.

And to Universal Mind: I overlooked where you
said you were looking through your telescope.
My apologies to ya'.

ZOOMER

Originally posted by ZOOMER
If you are looking to the North, East is always
to the right of you and West is to the left.

Unless you are looking up at the sky, in which case the directions of one of the axes will flip.

reply to post by ZOOMER


I have an Orion 130 EQ Reflector telescope, I don't know what the exact length of the main tube is, i'd guess around 3 feet or so, I don't know.

You can see a picture of it in google images.

I could see the rings pretty good, especially with my 3x barlow lense.
The rings were vertically around the planet, instead of horizantally.

Originally posted by Beachcoma

Originally posted by ZOOMER
If you are looking to the North, East is always
to the right of you and West is to the left.

Unless you are looking up at the sky, in which case the directions of one of the axes will flip.

And the flipping of the axis is what really gets my blood flowing at one in the morning. Frustrating, yet really fun. Just needs some getting use to.

Originally posted by The Universal Mind

The rings were vertically around the planet, instead of horizantally.

Hmmm. I don't know what you were looking at but unless it looked like this...



... it wasn't Saturn.

If you are really interested in amateur astronomy you should find a local astronomy club. They'll be great help.

I mistook the constellation of ursa major with leo. Heh.

Eh, it was still cool. I'm going back out there in a few.

reply to post by IAttackPeople


It was saturn, because I looked it up on the Sky & Telescopes interactive sky map, and I tell you, the rings were vertical. You see saturn in that picture you posted? Turn it on its side, thats what I had seen, just like in the picture of the supposed alien craft blowing plasma jets by saturn, you can see the very edge of the ring. Thats how I seen it last night, through my telescope.

As for the astronomy club, there isnt enough diazepam in the trunk of robert downey jrs car to get me to join a club of any sort. It's a nice thought, though.

reply to post by IAttackPeople


I would take a picture of it on its side, if I knew how to do that. I have a telescope and a 5.0 megapixel digital camera.

I bet you probably need some kind of adaptor or maybe something different all together.

Opinions?

Ooooooohhhhhh! Now I understand!

I thought you were saying that the rings were in a circle around the planet, not commenting on the orientation of the limbs of the rings.

Nevermind. Carry on. It's super-cool to see Saturn with your own eyes, isn't it?

Originally posted by The Universal Mind
reply to post by IAttackPeople

 

I would take a picture of it on its side, if I knew how to do that. I have a telescope and a 5.0 megapixel digital camera.

I bet you probably need some kind of adaptor or maybe something different all together.

Opinions?

Actually, it's worth trying without any extra equipment. Just stick the camera up to the eyepiece. Use the lowest power eyepiece you have.

This works better for things like the Moon where high magnification isn't necessary, though. Not sure how this will do on the outer planets. Never done it myself!

reply to post by IAttackPeople


You just confused the hell out of me.

The rings are circles around the planet...circles of ice and astroids, I think. They were vertical, I didn't know that Saturn flips. Maybe it justs the way the earth moves, making saturn look like it has flipped, i have no idea.

But yes, yes it is an odd, nice feeling to see saturn, or any other planet, with your own eyes.

I remember the first time I had seen it with my dad, he was amazed, I thought it looked like a spaghetti o. Hah.

Originally posted by IAttackPeople

Originally posted by The Universal Mind
reply to post by IAttackPeople

 

I would take a picture of it on its side, if I knew how to do that. I have a telescope and a 5.0 megapixel digital camera.

I bet you probably need some kind of adaptor or maybe something different all together.

Opinions?

Actually, it's worth trying without any extra equipment. Just stick the camera up to the eyepiece. Use the lowest power eyepiece you have.

This works better for things like the Moon where high magnification isn't necessary, though. Not sure how this will do on the outer planets. Never done it myself!

That's what I though, i'll give it a shot.

If you need help finding stars, constellations and planets in the sky download stellarium. It is a free planterium that works in real time. You just input your location and it shows you what the night sky looks like. Its a cool program. You can zoom in on the planets or even see what the sky looked like a thousand years ago. Just go to www.stellarium.org to get it.

Stellarium is a french multilingual free opensource beautiful GPL astronomy freeware also used in planetariums. Nothing less. Check it out dudes, and offer it to your nephew for his seventh birthday.