Saturn

From Scope F70076

May 3, 2008. The night was cloudless, but I still didn't see more than ten stars in the sky. This time I looked to the other side, to the west, and I saw there two bright stars close to each other. From the Stellarium map I later found out that these were Saturn and Regulus in the constellation Leo. Regulus is another bright star, which is though usually not very high in the sky.

I looked at these two objects through the finder scope and one, which appeared to be Saturn, had an elongated shape even through the finder scope, so that a small 1 inch finder scope appears to be as efficient as the Galileo telescope in spite that it has only 5x magnification. I looked at Saturn through the 20mm and 12.5mm eyepieces. Through the 20mm eyepiece I first saw that this object is clearly something bigger than a star. But after more focusing I clearly saw the disk and the ring of Saturn, and saw that the ring is separated from the planet, but couldn't see any belts. Through the 12.5mm eyepiece I saw the same, only somewhat bigger, it was quite small object there. I also looked at it through the 20mm eyepiece and through the 2x Barlow lens, it was bigger but I did not see any more details.

With great difficulties I was able to see it through the 4mm eyepiece. Centering it in the 20mm eyepiece and then changing the eyepieces, was at that not a successful method at all. I saw no more detail, it was only just a bit more hazy. The finder scope is not exact enough for using the 4mm eyepiece, and the telescope cannot be moved exactly enough to use the 4mm eyepiece without much trouble. I'm sorry but, in spite of all respect towards the PowerSeeker 76 AZ, in many ways such telescope is not good enough for the 4mm eyepiece, and the 12.5mm eypiece is good enough for almost anything. The function of the telescope is light gathering, and therefore the magnification doesn't matter that much.